Origin and Structure of the Earth

Objective
In this lesson, you should be able to cite the contributions of personalities/people
to the understanding of the earth systems.
 Earth System Science (ESS) is the study of the Earth as a system. It considers
interactions between the Earth’s “spheres” – atmosphere, geosphere,
hydrosphere, and biosphere. It is a relatively new field whose foundations are
established long ago by scientists in other fields.

 Who are the scientists who contributed to the understanding of the Earth system?

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Earth System Science

 Earth System Science is an integration of chemistry, physics, biology, and
mathematics. It is the study of the Earth as an integrated system. It seeks to
understand the past, current, and future states of the Earth.
 Many scientists had built the foundations of understanding the Earth systems.
They include James Hutton, Alexander von Humboldt, Vladimir Vernadsky,
James Lovelock, and Lynn Margulis.

James Hutton
 James Hutton, the father of modern geology, was a Scottish farmer and naturalist.
It was in farming that he observed how land was shaped by destructive forces of
wind and weather systems.
 He described how the Earth was formed in a repeated cycle of erosion and
sedimentation, with heat from volcanic activity as the driving force.
 He also introduced the concept of uniformitarianism, implying that the geological
forces (such as those that trigger erosion and volcanic activities) in the past are
the same as those in the present, making it possible to determine the Earth's
history by studying rocks.

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Alexander von Humboldt

 Alexander von Humboldt, a 19th-century geographer, helped establish the

foundation for Earth System Science through his observations of nature.
 He, together with his colleagues, traveled to America; collected botanical,
zoological, and geological specimens; recorded the location of the specimens
where they were found; and performed atmospheric and geophysical
measurements.
 From his records, he recognized patterns that reveal underlying processes, such
as the transport of heat in ocean currents and the influence of temperature on
plants.

Vladimir Vernadsky

 Vladimir Vernadsky, one of the founders of geochemistry, popularized the term

noosphere. In his theory of Earth development, he stated that geosphere was the
first phase of the Earth that was developed.
 The second phase was the biosphere or biological life. The emergence of life on
Earth transformed the geosphere. Then the noosphere, the sphere of human
consciousness, is the third phase. The development of human cognition then
transformed the biosphere.
 Today, the study of human impact on the biosphere led to the concept of
sustainability, which is the capacity of the Earth to continue to support human
life.

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James Lovelock

 James Lovelock, a British environmentalist, proposed the Gaia hypothesis, which

postulates that the Earth works as a self-regulating system.
 He stated that the living organisms co-evolve with nonliving things in the
environment to form a synergistic, self-regulating system where life is
maintained and perpetuated. He cited as evidence the photosynthetic bacteria
during the Precambrian times.
 The bacteria modified the Earth’s atmosphere to become oxygen-enriched. The
change in the atmosphere then supported the evolution of more complex
organisms.

Lynn Margulis

 Lynn Margulis, an evolutionary theorist, further developed Lovelock’s Gaia

hypothesis.
 Margulis noticed that all kinds of bacteria give off gases and thought that
atmospheric gases were from biological sources.
 She collaborated with Lovelock and published a paper on how life regulates the
temperature and chemical composition of the soil and the atmosphere.
 Learn about it!
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA)

 The major landmark in the formal development of the Earth System Science was
the formation of the Earth System Science Committee in NASA in 1983. NASA
began to study components of the Earth system, their linkages, dependencies,
and fluxes.
 Scientists from NASA conduct the Earth Science Program with a purpose of
understanding the Earth system by using satellites for long-term observations. By
viewing the Earth from space, they have studied how the planet is changing in
response to human influences. For instance, they have shown how the climate is
changing due to the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and aerosols
from human activities. These substances trap the Sun’s heat causing an increase
in the global temperature.
 At present, NASA continues to answer the question “How is the Earth system
changing, and what are the consequences of these changes for life on Earth?”