Sarah Cates

Period 3
Origins: How Earth Began
1. What is a planet-tesimal? How do they form? A planet-tesimal is a rounded mass of rocks
and space dust a few miles across and they form when bits of rock and dust get attracted into a
larger objects gravitational pull, causing the mass of rock to gain a larger gravitational pull and
eventually attract larger and larger rocks.
2. How old is the earth? The Earth is 4 and a half billion years old.
3. What can meteors tell us? What is special about a carbonaceous contrite? Meteors can
tell us more about the materials that formed Earth. A carbonaceous contrite is special because it
is a carbon rich meteor formed from the same stardust that formed Earth they also have a high
water content.
4. How are meteorite dated? How old are they roughly? Meteorite are dated by the radioactive
materials found within the meteorite which break down at very precise rates. They are about 4.5
billion years old.
5. What is the iron catastrophe, and what was its effect? The iron catastrophe was when Earth
was very hot and had molten oceans that contained many elements which then dispersed based
off of weight. Heavy elements like iron sank while carbon based elements stayed at the top
causing what was referred to as an migration of elements. The effect was our planet having an
iron center that turned earth into what is basically a giant magnet, forming North and South
poles.
6. Is the magnetic North pole fixed? Why or why not? The magnetic North pole is not fixed
because it is constantly moving around and will likely eventually hit somewhere like Siberia.
7. How does the magnetic field help life on Earth survive? The magnetic field helps life on Earth
survive by protecting the Earth from electrically charged particles from space, usually in the
form of solar flares. Some think that if the flares were to hit Earth, it would destroy our
atmosphere.
8. Why is Mars the way it is, without an atmosphere? Mars doesnt have an atmosphere because
it lost its magnetic field when its molten iron core hardened and its atmosphere was then
destroyed by solar flares/wind.
9. What were the early gases on Earth? Describe the early earth conditions. The early gases
on Earth were Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen and steam. Early Earth conditions were harsh at best.
There was no protection from ultraviolet light and was very very hot.
10. Where did the moon come from? (i.e., How did it originate?) The moon came from a large
collision with a large object about the size of Mars and Earth and formed from the debris.
11. What was missing in the moon rocks? Iron was missing in the moon rocks.
12. How long was the day in the early Earth? Why was this? The days in early earth were about
6 hours because Earth was spinning much faster.

13. How do we confirm that the moon is moving away from the Earth? How fast is it moving
away? We confirm that the moon in moving away from the Earth because Earths rotation is
slowing. It is moving away at the rate of 1 inches per year.
14. What caused the Earth to tilt? What is the result of the tilt? The Earth is tilted because of
the collision that formed the moon. The result of the tilt is that seasons occur preventing major
climate swings.
15. What do the Zircons in Western Australia tell us? They tell us about the age of the crust of the
Earth because the Zircons are crystals that resulted from the formation of the crust.
16. When did water appear on the early earth? How do we know this? Water appeared on early
Earth 150 million years after its formation/ 4.3 billion years ago. We know this because the
Zircon crystals contained a high concentration of a type of Oxygen (Oxygen 18) that would only
be present if the crystals formed in water.
17. Where did all of the Earths water come from? All of Earths water came from the steam from
volcanoes condensing and forming clouds that then formed rain that gathered in low areas.
Another theory is that water came from large ice comets that hit Earth and then melted.
18. How does our moon help give evidence of comets delivering water to the early Earth? It
gives evidence because it is littered with craters from being struck with comets and due to the
fact that Earth had a larger gravitational pull, large ice comets would be pulled to Earth's surface.
19. What is the problem with the comet theory? And, what is HDO? The issue with comet
theory is that only a few have passed by Earth and very few have been able to be observed. The
issue is that the Oceans contain 2 types of water, H2O and HDO. HDO is heavy water that have
an extra neuron and comments contain much higher amounts of HDO as compared to our oceans.
20. Did the Hale-Bopp comet give evidence to support the theory of how water developed on
Earth? Why or why not? The comet did not support the theory of how water developed on
Earth because it had too much dust around the surface to reflect of the light for a spectroscopy to
read.
21. What is spectroscopy? Spectroscopy is the light given off by a molecular compound which is
unique for every compound, including water or HDO.
22. Homework: What conditions are necessary for the rise of life? What are the
characteristics of life? Conditions-Not in heavy heat or radiation, made of rock, have a molten
core, can potentially have a protective atmosphere. Characteristics-response to environment,
growth/change, reproduction, respiration, made of cells, keep homeostasis.