Earth

Earth, Energy, and Environment Fall 2012

The Planet Earth

Third planet from the Sun Densest The fifth largest of eight planets of the Solar System

Earth formed 4.54 billion years ago Life appeared on its surface within one billion years The planet is home to millions of species, including humans.
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Earth Formation
The earliest dated solar system material was formed 4.567 billion years ago.
About 4.54 billion years ago the earth was formed from the solar nebula- a disk shaped mass of dust and gas left over from the formation of Sun Molten cooled and formed the out layer of solid Earth as water begun accumulating in the atmosphere The moon formed about 4.53 billion years ago

Earth Formation
Release of gases and volcanic activities produced initial atmosphere of the Earth.
A combination of greenhouse gases and higher solar activity raised the Earths temperature. About 3.5 billion years ago Earths magnetic field was formed Earths magnetic field prevented the atmosphere being stripped away from the solar winds

Earth Formation
Earth is a terrestrial planet (rocky body) The largest of four solar terrestrial planets in size and mass Earth has the highest density, the highest surface gravity, the strongest magnetic field, the fastest rotation, and active plate tectonics.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

Shape of the Earth

Oblate spheroid: a sphere flattened along the axis from pole to pole
Diameter at the equator is about 43 km larger than the pole-to-pole diameter Average diameter is about 12,742 km

Compare: Mount Everest (8848 m) and Mariana Trench (10911 m)

Chemical composition
Mass: 5.98 1024 kg Composed of : Iron: 32.1 % Oxygen: 30.1% Silicon: 15.1% Magnesium : 13.9% Sulfur: 2.9% Nickel: 1.8 % Calcium: 1.5% Aluminum: 1.4%
The core region is composed of 89 % iron.
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Chemical Composition
About 47% of the Earths crust is made Composition of oxygen. Compound Formula Continental
silica alumina lime magnesia iron(II) oxide sodium oxide potassium oxide iron(III) oxide water carbon dioxide titanium dioxide phosphorus pentoxide Total SiO2 Al2O3 CaO MgO FeO Na2O K2O Fe2O3 H2O CO2 TiO2 P2O5 60.2% 15.2% 5.5% 3.1% 3.8% 3.0% 2.8% 2.5% 1.4% 1.2% 0.7% Oceanic 48.6% 16.5% 12.3% 6.8% 6.2% 2.6% 0.4% 2.3% 1.1% 1.4% 1.4%

0.2% 99.6%

0.3% 99.9%

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Internal Structure
Depth km
060 035 3560 352890 100700

Component Layer
Lithosphere Crust Upper mantle Mantle Asthenosphere

Density g/cm3
2.22.9 3.44.4 3.45.6

28905100
51006378

Outer core
Inner core

9.912.2
12.813.1

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Heat
Earths heat comes from two sources:
Residual heat from planetary accretion (20%) Radioactive decay (80%) The major heat-producing isotopes in the Earth are: Potesium-40, Uranium-238,235, and Thorium-232 At the center of the Earth, temperature may be up to 7,000 K and the pressure could reach 360 GPa.

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Tectonic Plates
Plate name Pacific Plate African Plate North American Plate Area 106 km2 103.3 78.0 75.9

Eurasian Plate Antarctic Plate Indo-Australian Plate South American Plate

67.8 60.9 47.2 43.6

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Tectonic Plates
Convergent boundaries Divergent boundaries Transform Boundaries
Earthquakes, volcanic activities, mountain building, and oceanic trench formation can occur along these boundaries.

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Surface
Earths surface consists of: Land and Ocean About 70.8 % of the surface is covered with water. The submerged surface has mountains, volcanoes, trenches. The other 29.2 % also has mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, and other geomorphologic features.

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Surface
The shape of the Earths surface changes due to tectonics and erosion. The surface features builds up or deforms due to plate tectonics are subjected to weathering from precipitation and thermal and chemical cycles The continental crust consists of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.

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Pedosphere
The outermost layer of the Earth that is composed of soil and subjected to the soil formation process. Pedosphere exists at the interface of lithosphere and hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.
S- Soil Cl- Climate O- Potential Biota r- Relief/topography p- parent material t- time

s = f (cl, o, r, p, t, ...)

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Hydrosphere
The abundance of water on the earth surface is a unique feature due to which Earth is also known as the Blue Planet. The hydrosphere includes oceans, lakes, ponds, rivers, inland seas, and underground water up to 2000 m depth.

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Hydrosphere
About 97.5% water is saline, remaining 2.5 % is fresh water and most (68 %) of the fresh water is in solid form. The average salinity of the sea water is about 35 gm/kg. Most of the salt was released from volcanic activities or extracted from the cool, igneous rocks. Sea water supports aquatic life, acts as a heat reservoir, and controls weather and climate.
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Atmosphere

Source: MODIS

Earths atmosphere contains about 78 and 21% nitrogen and oxygen, respectively. Rest are trace gases including water vapor, Carbon dioxide, and other gases.
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Atmosphere
The height of the troposphere varies between 8 to 17 km with lowest height at poles while the highest at the equator. Some variations in troposphere's height occur due to changes in weather and seasons.

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Biosphere

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Future

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