EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION TO EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE

The study of the earth and living and non-living organisms encompass

this module. Earth and life science is an interesting topic, not least be-

cause it affects us all. The study of the earth and the living things with-

in it is important if you want to understand how the environment

works, as well as plants and animals.

Welcome to the Earth and Life Science module. This is your introduc-

tion to the module where I hope you can get to appreciate why you

need to study this and what knowing these concepts can do for you.

Origin and Structure of the Earth

The Earth and the Solar System need to be defined in order to under-

stand the basis of the topic. The creation of the earth is thought to be

directly linked with the creation of the sun. When the sun was created,

the cloud of dust and gases that were left over formed the inside of the

earth, which stayed cool at 2000°F. As time passed, the elements in the

solid center of the earth started to decay. In the beginning the center of

the earth was composed of iron and silicates, along with materials that

were radioactive. These radioactive materials, as they decayed, emitted

heat. Principally, these radioactive materials are composed of uranium,

potassium, and thorium. The heat that was released melted the silicates

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and iron. Since iron is heavier, it sank towards the center. This be-

came the core. Then, a layer of rock formed around the core. There

were depressions on the surface, and these are where water from the

inside of the earth accumulated.

Key Characteristics of the Earth’s Structure

• There are two magnetic fields in the earth which repels solar wind

and protects the earth from solar radiation

• The atmosphere of the earth is stratified, which means that it is

made up of mainly nitrogen and oxygen

• The earth is made up of a variety of minerals, melts, fluids, glass-

es, and volatiles, which were all left behind after the solar system

was created.

• The earth has layers: a crust, a mantle, and a metallic core

• The earth can be divided into an outer lithosphere and a plastic as-

thenosphere.

The Subsystems of the Earth

The earth has subsystems that consist of the geosphere, hydro-

sphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. Each of these spheres are im-

portant for the survival of animals and plants on earth.

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The atmosphere is the layer of air that surrounds the earth. It pro-

tects the earth from solar rays. It also circulates the air and gases

that plants and animals need to survive.

The biosphere is made up of living organisms, such as plants and

animals. It is important to note that all the biospheres interact with

each other. For instance, plants and animals (biosphere) interact

with the atmosphere.

The geosphere or also called the lithosphere, is made up of the

physical earth, such as rocks, magma, and soil. The geosphere ex-

tends from the center of the earth to the dust in the atmosphere,

and evens includes the sand in the ocean.

The hydrosphere, on the other hand, is made up of all the water

held on earth. It includes the water molecules in the air, icebergs

and glaciers, lakes, rivers, groundwater, and oceans.

The Atmosphere

• Divided into 6 layers according to altitude

• Exosphere: (500 km above the earth), this is where the at-

mosphere merges with space.

• Thermosphere: (90 km above the earth), this is where the

space shuttles orbit.

• Mesosphere: (50-90 km above the earth), this is where me-

teors burn.

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• Stratosphere: (12-50 km above the earth), this is where the

air is stable and is good for planes and jets to fly in.

• Tropopause: (11-12 km above the earth).

• Troposphere (0-11 km above the earth), the is the “mixing

layer,” all the weather is limited to this layer.

The Geosphere

• The crust is the outermost “skin” of the earth and has vari-

ous thicknesses. The thickest is under the mountain ranges,

and the thinnest is under the mid-ocean ridges.

• The Mohorivicic discontinuity or “Moho” is the lower

boundary. It separates the crust from the upper mantle.

• It was discovered in 1909 by Andrija Mohorovicic.

• It is also marked by a change in velocity of seismic waves.

• There are two types of crust: the continental crust and the

oceanic crust.

• The crust is composed of just 8 elements

• Oxygen is the most abundant element in the crust

• The mantle is a solid rock layer between the core and the

crust

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• It is composed of a rock called peridotite

• It also convects: the cool mantle sinks and the hot mantle

rises.

• Three subdivisions of the mantle: upper, transitional, and

lower

• The core is an iron-rich sphere with a radius of 3,471 km.

• The outer core is made of liquid iron, nickel, and sulfur

and it s 2,255 km thick.

• The flow in the outer core creates the earth’s magnetic

field.

• The inner core is made of solid nickel, iron alloy

• It has a radius of 1,220 km.

Formation of the Universe and Solar System

The universe and the solar system were formed about 4.6 billion years

ago. However, scientists are not completely sure about how this hap-

pened. It is important to understand this formation in order to under-

stand how the universe functions and what we need to know about it.

Formation of the Sun and the Solar System

How the sun was formed:

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1. There was a spinning disk in space.

2. As gas collected in the center of this spinning disk, a “proto-

sun” was created.

3. Molecules in the protosun collided with each other, which

caused heat to form.

4. This raised temperatures to 10,000,000°C.

5. The heat and violent clashes between molecules allowed the

creation of nuclear reactions, which turned the protosun into a

star.

How the planets were formed:

1. In the disk that surrounded the protosun, a process called accre-

tion formed the planets, comets, moons, and asteroids.

2. Small particles crashed together to form larger and larger parti-

cles, eventually reaching the size of planetesimals, which are

several kilometers big.

3. Since these planetesimals were big enough to have their own

gravity, they caused even more collisions around them.

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4. In the planetesimals near the sun, the water evaporated and

gasses were swept to the outside and only the heavier materials

could become solids. Young planets were formed from these

materials.

5. Farther away from the sun, the temperature was cooler. The

amount of ice here allowed for larger bodies to form, which

created the core of the planets, such as Saturn and Jupiter.

Formation of the Universe

The formation of the universe is a question that has sparked

debate and controversy. Today, there are no concrete conclu-

sions as to how the universe came to be. However, there are

several theories about how the universe was born, and we shall

discuss these here.

The Big Bang Theory

Since the early part of the 1900s, one explanation about the

birth of the universe has prevailed, and this is the Big Bang

Theory. Proponents of this theory have maintained that, be-

tween 13 billion and 15 billion years ago, all the matter found

in the universe today was found in a small space, a tiny contact

point. Indeed, according to this theory, matter and energy were

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the same back then. Adherents of the Big Bang Theory be-

lieved that, from this small but extremely dense ball of mat-

ter/energy, expansion came about after an explosion. Seconds

after the explosion, the fireball that emerged ejected mat-

ter/energy at high velocities, which approached the speed of

light. At some time later, matter and energy separated from

each other. All the elements of the universe today developed

from that original explosion. Moreover, proponents of the Big

Bang Theory believe that the explosive energy that was present

back then is still retained today by the stars and galaxies. The

explosion back then still causes the expansion of the universe

today, with stars and galaxies moving farther and farther away

from each other. The supposition of this movement came in

1929 when the astronomer Edward Hubble, who was then con-

ducting astronomical projects at the Mount Wilson Observato-

ry in California, announced that all of the galaxies that he was

studying are moving further and further away from us, at

speeds that amount of several thousand miles per second.

The Steady State Theory

Although the Big Bang Theory is the most popular theory to

date, it is not the only theory. A competing hypothesis arose in

the 1940s, in the form the of the Steady State Theory. The sci-

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entist who proposed this hypothesis was Fred Hoyle, who be-

lieved the universe was governed by two principles: the cosmo-

logical principle and the perfect cosmological principle. The

former is the idea that the universe is uniform in space, while

the latter is the idea that the universe is unchanging in time.

Under this theory, stars and galaxies change, but the universe

remains the same as a whole.

The Steady State Theory also predicts that the universe is ex-

panding, but it also predicts that new matter is being created

enough to fill the empty spaces left behind by the universe’s

expansion. According to the Steady State Theory, matter can-

not be created nor destroyed, but only transformed into new

forms- such as energy or as a different form of matter. Under

this theory, the amount of new matter formed is very small-

one atom every billion years. This theory, however, fails in one

significant way: the average age of stars should be approxi-

mately the same if matter is continuously created everywhere.

This has been found to be false by astronomers.

The Plasma Universe

Individuals who do not subscribe to either the Big Bang Theo-

ry or the Steady State Theory are formulating other views of

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the creation of the universe. Hannes Alfven, a nobel laureate,

created a new model, since he is a plasma physicist. The theory

first states that it has been observed that 99% of the observable

universe is made of plasma, which is where the term Plasma

Universe is derived from. Sometimes called the fourth state of

matter, plasma is an ionized gas that conducts electricity. The

theory also discounts the Big Bang Theory and states that the

universe is crisscrossed by electromagnetic fields and electric

currents. Under this vew, the influence of an electromagnetic

force has caused the universes to have existed forever. There-

fore, the universe has not beginning and no end. In the Plasma

Universe, the galaxies take as long as 100 billion years to come

together. The evidence from the Plasma Universe does not

come from direct observations of the sky; rather they come

from laboratory experiments.

The Earth’s Internal Structure

The size of the earth is about 12,750 kilometers in diameter, and this

was known by the Ancient Greeks. However, it was not until the end

of the 20th century that scientists were able to be sure that the planet is

made up of three layers: the crust, the mantle, and the core.

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The crust, or the outer layer, is thinner than the mantle and the core.

Underneath the oceans, the crust varies in thickness, with a thickness

of only just 5 km. The thickness of the crust that exists underneath the

continents is greater, which averages around 30 kilometers deep. Un-

der the larger mountain ranges, such as those under the Sierra Nevada

or the Alps, the thickness can extend up to 100 kilometers deep. The

crust of the earth is brittle and is liable to breaking.

Below the crust, the mantle is found. It is a hot, dense layer of semi-

solid rock. The mantle is approximately 2,900 kilometers deep. This

layer of the earth contains iron, calcium, and magnesium, and these

exist in greater quantities than in the crust. The mantle is also denser

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and hotter compared to the crust because matter is heated by the pres-

sure and temperature inside the earth.

At the center of the earth is the core. The core is denser than the man-

tle because it is composed of an iron-nickel alloy, which is metallic

rather than being stony. The core is made up of two distinct layers: the

liquid outer core and a solid inner core. The liquid outer core is 2,200

kilometers thick, while the solid inner core is 1,250 kilometers thick.

As the earth rotates on its axis, the liquid outer core spins, which cre-

ates the earth’s magnetic field.

The inner structure of the earth influences plate tectonics. The deep

mantle is hotter compared to the upper part of the mantle. These two

layers of the mantle together form the lithosphere. Scientists believe

that, beneath this layer, exists the asthenosphere. The asthenosphere is

composed of semi-solid, hot material, which flows and softens after

being subjected to high pressure and temperature. The lithosphere is

thought to be located above the asthenosphere, and the movement of

the lithosphere influences plate tectonics.

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Glossary

Accretion: the process wherein particles are accumulated

in to a larger object.

Nuclear reactions: the collision between two nuclei

Planetesimal: an object that was created from rock, dust, and

other materials.

Plate tectonics: the theory that the outer shell of the earth is

divided into several plates that move over the

mantle.

Protosun: the ball of energy that preceded the sun; be

came the sun.

Radioactive: the ability of the nucleus of an unstable atom

to lose energy by producing radiation

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Silicates: a salt whose anion contains both oxygen and

silicon.

References

Bryson, B. (2004). A Short History of Nearly Everything. Broadway

Books.

Fishman, D. (n.d.). The origin of the universe. Retrieved from

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/origin-universe

USGS. (n.d.). Inside the earth. Retrieved from

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/inside.html

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