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
because it affects us all. The strudy of the earth and the living things
within 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
introduction 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
understand 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 2000F. 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 and iron. Since iron is heavier, it
sank towards the center. This became 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 xygen
• The eath is made up of a variety of minerals, melts, fluids, gases,
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 eath can be divided into an outer lithosphere and a plastic
asthenosphere.
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The Subsystems of the Earth
The earth has subsystems that consist of the geosphere,
hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. Each of these spheres
are important for the survival of animals and plants on earth.
The atmosphere is the layer of air that surrounds the eath. It
protects 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
extends 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 eath), this is where the
atmosphere merges with space.
Thermosphere: (90 km above the earth), this is where the
space shuttles orbit.
Mesosphere: (50-90 km above the eath), this is where
meteors burn.
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 eath), 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
various 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
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The mantle is a solid rock layer between the core and the
crust
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
happened. It is important to understand this formation in order to
understand 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:
1. There was a spinning disk in space.
2. As gas collected in the center of this spinning disk, a
“protosun” was created.
3. Molecules in the protosun collided with each other, which
caused heat to form.
4. This raised temperatures to 10,000,000C.
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:
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1. In the disk that surrounded the protosun, a process called
accretion formed the planets, comets, moons, and asteroids.
2. Small particles crashed together to form larger and larger
particles, 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.
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
conclusions 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,
between 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 the same back then. Adherents of the Big Bang
Theory believed that, from this small but extremely dense ball
of matter/energy, expansion came about after an explosion.
Seconds after the explosion, the fireball that emerged ejected
matter/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
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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 Edwin Hubble, who was then
conducting astronomical projects at the Mount Wilson
Observatory in California, announced that all of the galaxies
that he was studying are movig 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 of the Steady State Theory. The scientist
who proposed this hypothesis was Fred Hoyle, who believed
the universe was governed by two principles: the cosmological
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
expanding, 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
cannot 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
approximately 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 Theory
or the Steady State Theory are formulating other views of 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
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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.
Therefore, 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.
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.
Under 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.
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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 magenisum, and these
exist in greater quantities than in the crust. The mantle is also denser
and hotter compared to the crust because matter is heated by the
pressure and temperature inside the earth.
At the center of the earth is the core. The core is denser than the
mantle 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 creates 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.
Glossary
Accretion: the process wherein particles are accumulated into 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; became the sun.
Radioactive: the ability of the nucleus of an unstable atom to lose
energy by producing radiation
Silicates: a salt whose anion contains both oxygen and silicon.
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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
Videos and Resources
Creation of the Universe
Compositional and Mechanical Layers of the Earth
The Big Bang Theory
An Introduction to Modern Cosmology
Theory of the Earth
The Earth's Mantle
