Review Notes in Earth Science

Rosalie R. Rafael

ASTRONOMY

1. The true shape of the Earth is an oblate spheroid.

2. The best model of the Earth is spherical.
3. Latitude lines are drawn east-west and measure angular distance north and south.
4. Longitude lines are drawn north-south and measure angular and south distance east and west.
Longitude is based on observation of the sun.
5. The Earth rotates from west to east (24 hours).
6. The Earth revolves counterclockwise (365.25 days) when viewed from above the North pole.
7. The sun appears to rise in the east and sets in the west. Sun is directly overhead at noon to an
observer.
8. Path of the sun is from east moving southward to west.
9. The altitude of Polaris equals your latitude. At the Equator, 0o ; at the North Pole, 90o.
10. The moon has phases because the angle between the Earth and moon changes because the
moon revolves around the Earth. Only one side of the moon facing the Earth is seen.
11. Planets appear to go backwards (retrograde) as the Earth passes them in space. If observe from
one night to the next, a planet appears to move from west to east against the background stars
most of the time. Occasionally however, the planet’s motion will appear to reverse direction.
The planet for a short time, move from east to west against the background constellations. This
reversal is known as retrograde motion.
12. Summer solstice: June 21; Winter solstice: December 21 and Equinoxes: March 21 and
September 23.
13. Blue shift: object (ex. Star) is getting closer to Earth. Red shift: object is getting further away
(provides evidence universe is still expanding).
14. Equator has always 12 hours day-light.
15. The lower the altitude of the sun, the longer the shadow it casts.
16. Coriolis effect results from the Earth’s rotation. The Foucault pendulum illustrates the Coriolis
effect, and so proves the Earth’s rotation.
17. Planets move around the sun in elliptical orbits. Earth is closest to the sun in the winter and
farthest during summer.CHECK
18. The closer the planet is to the sun, the higher is its velocity and vice versa.
19. The sun is one foci on an ellipse. There is nothing at the other foci. CHECK
20. Inner planets in order from the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth , Mars. Outer Planets: Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Biyo, a minor planet (asteroid) named after Dr. Josette Biyo, from
PSHS, West Visayas.
21. Asteroid belts separate inner from outer planets.
22. The positions of the moon and the sun relative to Earth greatly affect Earth. One such effect is
the “eclipse”. Solar eclipse occurs when the moon is between the sun and Earth. Shadow casts
by moon falls on Earth. The darker shadow is called umbra and the , lighter, penumbra. Lunar
eclipse occurs when the Earth is between the moon and the sun. Another effect is the tides. This
is the rising and falling of water at the seashore.
23. North star, Polaris is located in Ursa Minor, Little Dipper.

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 24. Be familiar with this chart:

Approximate Latitude of sun’s Direction of Altitude of noon Length of

Date direct rays Sunrise and sun Daylight
sunset
Sept. 23 Equator Rises due east 48o 12 hours
autumnal 0o Sets due west
equinox
December 21 Tropic of Rises in south 24.5o(lowest 8 hours
Winter solstice Capricorn east (shortest day)
23.5o S Sets in
southwest
March 21 Equator Rises due east 48o 12 hours
Vernal equinox 0o Sets due west
June 21 Tropic of Rises in 71.5o 16 hours
Solstice Cancer northeast (highest) (longest day)
23.5o N Sets in northwest

METEOROLOGY

1. Generally, with the passage of a cold front, the temperature and humidity decrease, the
pressure rises.
2. Generally , with the passage of a warm front, the temperature and humidity increase, the
pressure decreases.
3. Occluded front is formed when a cold front overtakes a warm front. Cold fronts move the
fastest.
4. As air rises, it expands and cools.
5. Adiabatic (without gain nor loss of heat) cooling occurs as rising air expands. The air expands
because the pressure on it is decreasing.
6. When calculating % deviation, the accepted value is the correct answer while the measured
value is subject to error.

% deviation= difference from accepted value/accepted value x 100

7. Dynamic equilibrium means balance.

8. Earth absorbs short waves (visible light) and radiates long waves (infrared).
9. Black objects absorb energy and white objects reflect. Good absorber of radiation are good
radiators.
10. Hottest part of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is in July.
11. Hottest part of the day is after 1:00 P.M. (around mid afternoon) during a typical summer.
12. The Philippines is located near the equator. The warmest month is May (mid April to mid May)
and coolest in January. Temperature varies with elevation. Highest T recorded was 42.2oC on
April 29,1912 and May 11, 1969. The coolest was 3 oC in January, 1903 in Baguio.
13. From June to October, rains are more abundant in the western part of the Philippines. This side
is more exposed to the prevailing westerly and southwesterly winds. During cooler months,
rains are more abundant portion due to northeasterly winds.
14. As temperature increases, air pressure decreases. Air pressure decreases with altitude.
15. Cooler and drier air generally exerts higher pressure. Warm moist air generally exerts lower
pressure.
16. Wind is the result of pressure differences. The larger the difference in pressure, the stronger the
wind.
17. Wind is named for the direction that it is coming from.

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 18. Winds blow from high to low pressure area. Energy moves from source to sink: high to low.

996 mb ―――――→ 940 mb

High pressure low pressure
Source sink

19. Winds curve to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere
due to the Earth’s rotation. This is called the Coriolis effect.
20. Air moves clockwise and outward around a high.
21. The closer the air temperature is to the dew point, the greater the chance for precipitation.
22. Weather moves from west to east.
23. Mechanisms of heat transfer: conduction, convection and radiation.
24. Areas of convergence: 0o to 5o N and S latitudes (regions of large cloud formation).
25. Trade winds or easterlies: winds moving to the equator. and came from an easterly direction.
26. Occurrence of monsoons is due to the difference in the heating and cooling rates of land and
water. Two monsoons: northeast monsoon or hanging amihan (Dec-Feb) and southwest
monsoon or hanging habagat (June-Nov).
27. Inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ): meeting of southeast trades and northeast trades near
the equator.
28. Climate: long term weather condition in a given location. The global and local climate of a
certain area is directly related to global air circulation.
29. Regions of rising air tend to enjoy abundant rainfall. Forests are located in these latitudes.
Sinking air is dry with no cloud formation. Deserts are located in these areas. Polar areas are
considered deserts (Tundra).
30. El Nino and La Nina: phenomena affecting global climate. El Nino- disruption of the ocean-
atmosphere in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Causes drought in the Philippines.La nina: increased
rainfall and more occurrences of tropical cyclones in the western pacific.
31. Effects of air pollution: skin irritation and respiratory diseases, other diseases, acid rain,
enhanced greenhouse effect, photochemical smog, ozone hole,
32. R.A. 8749 (The Philippine Clean Air Act): a law whose focus is on air pollution prevention than
control.

HYDROLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY

1. Almost ¾ of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. Water is the most important compound
in the world. It exists as a liquid, solid or gas. The Earth is estimated to have a total volume of
1.41 x 109 km3 of water. About 96.5 % of this volume is found in the oceans and seas, 2.53%
constitute the fresh water, 0.93% as saline groundwater and 0.07% in saline lakes. Out of the
2.5% freshwater, 30.1% are groundwater, 68.6% in glaciers and caps while 1.3% is in the surface
and other freshwater. Only 1% of these total water is usable by humans.
2. Water has unique properties of being lighter as a solid than as a liquid. Water expands when it
freezes. It becomes less dense and causes it to float. This property of water is responsible for
maintaining life in the ocean during winter and in higher latitude areas. Water’s ability to store
great amounts of heat helps living things survive during wide changes in temperature. Bodies of
water moderate temperature. This is due to the high specific heat of water.
3. Water is most dense at 4oC, when it is a liquid.
4. Many changes are cyclic (an event which repeats itself). Example: tidal fluctuations, water cycle,
etc.
5. The water supply is continuously renewed by water cycle. The sun, air, water and force of
gravity work together to keep the water cycle going. However, there is a growing concern on
water scarcity in the near future. There is a looming unequal distribution of water that can be
attributed to extremely complex ocean currents and temperature, latitudes and their

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 relationship to the sun’s distance, atmospheric “jet streams,” and variations in the earth’s
atmospheric temperature. These physical conditions have, indeed, been altered by man through
his abuse of the earth.
6. Ep (potential evapotranspiration) depends on temperature. Highest Ep takes place in July, which
is the hottest month of the year.
7. Most surface water run off occurs if the soil is bare, precipitation rate exceeds permeability rate,
soil is saturated, and slope of land is too great.
8. Chemical weathering dominates in warm, humid climates. Physical weathering is more
prevalent in cold, humid climates.
9. Gravity is the force that drives erosion.
10. Streams are powerful agent of erosion.
11. Deposition of sediments occurs on point bar. Erosion occurs on point bar.
12. Stream velocity depend on slope (gradient) and discharge.
13. Velocity is greatest on the outside of meander.
14. Heavy, round and dense particles settle out first.
15. Water sorts sediments by size vertically, with the biggest sediments on the bottom on the
bottom only when sediments settle in water.
16. Porosity does not depend on particle size.
17. As particle size increases, permeability increases.
18. Capillarity increases when particle size decreases.
19. The four principal types of drainage system are related to the underlying regional geology. They
are dendritic (random, in mountains), rectangular (plateaus with fractures), radial (volcano) and
trellis (ridge valley).
20. Stream is a body of water that flows downhill. It is a powerful agent of erosion. The path of a
stream is called its channel. The land on either side is the bank while the bottom is the bed.
The source is the end of a stream located at a higher elevation. The part which connects the
stream to a larger body of water is the mouth. The materials carried by a stream is the load. The
types of loads are dissolved, suspended and bed load.
21. When streams perform their task, they pass through different stages: youth, maturity and old
age. The age of a stream is based on the shape of the stream and the manner by which they
erode the land. When the speed of a stream slows down, the sediments it carries are deposited
and create many landforms. These are oxbow lakes, levees, floodplains, deltas, and alluvial fans.
22. Pollutants affect the bodies of water. Lead to destruction of the spawning ground of fish and
other water organisms, renders the water unfit for drinking and recreation.
23. Types of water pollutants: point source( harmful substances are thrown directly into a body of
water) and non-point sources (indirect delivery of pollutants through environmental changes). It
can be inorganic, organic, and biological.
24. Ways of removing pollutants: stop throwing garbage into bodies of water, recycle, wastewater
treatment, aeration, sedimentation, etc.

GEOLOGY

1. The layers of the Earth in terms of composition are: crust, mantle, outer core and inner core.
The crust is composed of O, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, Na and K. Oceanic crust is 10 km thick while
continental areas range from 35 to 70 km. The zone of transition between the crust and the
mantle is called the MOHO.
2. The mantle has three different layers based on physical properties: lithosphere (crust and upper
mantle), asthenosphere (allows the movement of the overlying lithosphere), mesosphere (lower
mantle). Temperature increases with depth. Thus, convection currents form. These currents
cause the continents and oceans to change locations slightly each year.

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 3. The outer and inner cores are made up mostly of Ni and Fe. These hot and dense metals in the
cores may be responsible for the earth’s magnetic field. The outer core is liquid while the inner
core is solid.
4. The crust is made up of rocks. The rocks on the other hand are mixtures of minerals. Minerals
are characterized as being inorganic, pure substances occurring naturally in the Earth’s crust
where the atoms or molecules are arranged in a definite pattern. They are formed by natural
processes in or on the Earth by cooling of magma or lava, hot water and gases, precipitation of
solutions and evaporation of water from a mineral containing solution. Examples are silicate
minerals like mica, quartz, kaolin; carbonates such as calcite and dolomite, oxides like hematite,
sulfate like gypsum, halides like rock salt and native elements like graphite, diamond, gold,
sulfur and copper. Mineral pattern depends on internal atomic arrangement.
5. Silicon and oxygen tetrahedron is the building block of silicate minerals, the most abundant in
the earth’s crust.
6. Rocks are categorized based on how they are formed. They are classified as igneous,
sedimentary or metamorphic. Igneous rocks form from magma (intrusive) or lava (extrusive).
When rocks are broken, they form sediments. If sediments harden through compaction or
cementation, they form sedimentary rocks. Sedimentary rocks can be: clastic (sandstone,
siltstone, shale); organic (coquina) and chemical (rock salt and rock gypsum). When igneous,
sedimentary or even metamorphic rock undergo change in appearance or composition due to
extreme heat and pressure, they are transformed to metamorphic rock.
7. Rocks exposed on the Earth’s surface are broken down into smaller fragments. It forms
sediments then eventually soil.
8. Rocks undergo physical or mechanical weathering. This involved frost wedging, biological
activity, extreme temperature, exfoliation, water, abrasion and salt cracking.
9. Chemical weathering alters the composition of rocks through the action of oxygen, carbon
dioxide, and other acids which cause the rocks to easily crumble to pieces.
10. Weathering of rocks depends on the size and chemical composition of the rock, length of
exposure of the rocks to the agents of weathering, and climate.
11. When a rock is broken into smaller pieces, surface area and weathering rate increase.
12. Ocean crust is thin, dense and basaltic. Continental crust is thick, less dense and granitic.
13. Sedimentary rocks are commonly layered. Fossils form in these rocks.
14. Igneous: fast cooling, small crystals; slow cooling, large crystals.
15. Metamorphic : banded-distorted structure.
16. Arid landscape is characterized by steep slopes with sharp angles while humid landscape is
characterized by smooth and rounded slopes.
17. Mid-ocean ridges: new Earth being created-sea floor spreading.
18. Subduction zone: earth is being destroyed- along trenches.
19. P waves are faster than S waves. L wave the most destructive.
20. P waves pass through solid, liquid and gases (that’s why we hear earthquakes). “S”waves travel
through “s”olid only.
21. Three(3) seismometer stations are required to triangulate the epicenter of an earthquake.
22. Convection current in the mantle move plates.
23. The orientation of the Earth’s magnetic field has reversed with time.
24. Plate tectonics states that the Earth’s crust is broken into plates which can move.
25. Three main types of boundaries: convergent, divergent and transform.
26. Mountain form by uplift.
27. The half-life of a radioactive element can’t be changed.
28. Index fossils are good time markers (widely spread, short lived ).
29. Undisturbed strata- bottom is the oldest layer.
30. Intrusion and faults are younger than the rock they are in.
31. Uranium 238 (U 238) dates old rocks. Half-life is 4.5 x 10 9 years.

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 32. Carbon 14 dates recent living objects. Half-life is 5730 years.
33. Isostasy- earth’s crust in equilibrium.
34. Unconformity is a buried erosion surface that represents a gap in the rock record.
35. If pressure and temperature are constant, density of any substance, regardless of size is the
same.
36. As temperature of matter increases, its density decreases (in an open system). As pressure
increases on a solid or gas, density increases.
37. Wind wear away land by deflation and abrasion. Only fine sediments are lifted by the wind. The
larger ones are left behind, forming desert pavement. When there is an uneven degree of
looseness of soil and regolith , deflation is also uneven. Shallow basins or blowouts form. When
the sediments carried by wind are deposited, sand dune or loess is formed.
38. the Earth. Scientists believe that there is pressure enough to bend rocks and heat hot enough to
melt rocks beneath the crust. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are evidences of crustal
movements. The crust is subjected to different forces which causes it to move forming folds,
joints and faults. Forces working on the crust are compression, shear and tension.
39. According to the plate tectonic theory, the earth’s crust is made up of lithospheric plates that
moves in different directions relative to each other. This explains why there are strings of
volcanoes in some parts of the world, how tsunamis are formed when an earthquake occurs in
the ocean, mountain ranges, trenches, and faults.
40. Earthquakes are sudden movement of plates (tectonic earthquake) and volcanic eruption. The
three earthquake zones of the earth are: Pacific Ring of Fire , Mediterranean Belt and the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge. There are two types of earthquakes based on origin: Volcanic and tectonic. When
rocks break and move beneath the Earth’s surface, faults are formed and generate waves of
vibrations called seismic waves. The point where the rocks break is the focus. The surface above
the focus is the epicenter. Earthquakes are measured by magnitude and intensity. The total
amount of energy released by an earthquake is its magnitude. The scale used is the Richter and
recorded by a seismograph. Intensity refers to the damage or effects of a quake. In the
Philippines, the Rossi-Forel scale is used to describe an earthquake’s intensity.
41. The major types of faults: dip-slip : reverse or normal fault (rocks along one side of a fault line
move vertically) and strike-slip fault (horizontal movement of fault along a fault line).
42. The movement of magma in or on the Earth is termed volcanism. Volcanoes are formed by the
accumulation of materials ejected from one or more openings forming a mound, plateau, hill, or
mountain. Fragmented rock materials as a result of volcanic activity are called pyroclastics. They
are classified as: volcanic ash, cinders and bombs based on their sizes. Eruption can be quiet or
explosive depending upon the types of magma. Thin, watery basaltic magma results to quiet
eruption. Thick, pasty granitic magma causes explosive eruption.

43. Volcanoes are also classified based on the type of eruption and materials ejected. These are:
shield, cinder cone, dome and composite volcanoes. They can also be classified as active,
dormant or extinct. Volcanoes show signs of unrest before they erupt. These include: glowing of
crater, fissuring, rock falls and rockslides, change in the level of temperature and chemistry of
soil, water, gases and hot springs near the volcano, unusual animal behavior, and earthquakes.
44. Gravity is the major controlling force in mass wasting. Other that help and trigger the process
are: water, over-steepening of slopes, vegetation and earthquakes.
45. Mass wasting can be rapid or slow. It is categorized based on the type of materials they bring
down and how the materials are transported. These are flow, slide and fall. The slowest of all
mass wasting process is called creep while the most rapid is rock fall.
46. Rocks, soil and land formations are build over thousands or millions of years.
47. Erosion and deposition are processes that work together in constantly reshaping the Earth’s
surface.

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 48. Erosion involves the pick up and removal of the products of weathering, the sediments.
Deposition causes these sediments to build up in other location.
49. Moving water, wind and glaciers are the agents of erosion an deposition. Stream, a body of
water, is an example of moving . Wind is moving air while glacier, are chunks of moving ice.
50. Gravity is not an agent of erosion and deposition but helps the agents do their jobs.
51. Rate of erosion depends on the size of the sediments, speed of the medium and the medium of
the agent.
52. Deposition is affected by the density and shape of the sediments and speed of the medium.

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