Our Earth

Thales

Nicolaus Copernicus
Eratosthenes was the first person to use the word Geography. The system
called "longitudes and latitudes" was invented by him.
Thales considered to be the earliest geographer proposed that world was a flat
disc based on water and that all things grew out of it. Thales
His disciple Anaximander known to have attempted to create first scaled map of
the world.
About five centuries before Christ it was probably Pythagoras who proposed a
spherical world.
Among Indians Aryabhatta proposed that earth moves around its own axis.
Nicolaus Copernicus was the first person to develop first mathematical
predictive heliocentric model of earth.
Galileo Galilei was the first person to observe planets through telescope.

Galileo Galilei
Later J ohannnes Kepler and Sir Isaac Newton developed an understanding of
Physics and led to the gradual acceptance of the ideas that we are aware of Earth
today.
Location of Earth:- Earth is located in the Solar System, which is located in the
Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy which is a part of Virgo Super Cluster. Earth is third
planet from Sun and is the fifth largest planet.
Radius:- Equatorial radius of Earth is 6378.1 km while polar radius is of 6356.8
km making the mean radius of about 6371.0 km.
Some other data on Earth.

Structure of Earth:-


Structure of Earth
The Earth as a whole is divided into three broad zones:-
Crust (SIAL) : The outermost layer is called crust. It is not a continuous layer of
rock but consist of large masses called tectonic plates, which are free to drift slowly over
a layer called Asthenosphere. The major constituents of crust are aluminium and silica
hence called SiAl.
Mantle (SIMA) : The layer of rock below the crust is called mantle.It is about
2900km thick and contains most of the mass of Earth and where most of the heat of
Earth is located. It mainly consists Ferro-magnesium Silicates. The Upper Mantle is
about 650 km thick and has two layers. The top layer is solid. Combined with the crust it
forms the Lithosphere. Within the layers, there is Asthenosphere where molten rock
flows slowly. Lower Mantle is solid and is about 2700 km thick. Though temperatures
are higher here but tremendous pressure keep the rock material away from melting.
Core : It is the innermost part of the Earth and comprises of outer and inner
core. Outer Core is liquid and is about 1900 km thick. It comprises of molten iron and
nickel. This liquid outer core controls the Earth's magnetic field. Inner Core is about
1600 km thick and is made up of solid iron and nickel. The temperature of the inner core
is about 5500C and has pressure upto 4 million atm. This extreme pressure keeps the
core solid.
Continental Drift Theory:- This theory was proposed by a famous German
Geographer Alfred Wagner in 1924. According to this theory, before 200 million years
ago, there was a single land mass called Pangea surrounded by water
called Panthalassa Sea.
About 200 million years ago, Pangea got cracked into two parts Angaraland (or
Laurasia) and Gondwanaland. As a result, a narrow sea was created known
as Tethy's Sea.
During further course of time, Angaraland was cracked into: North American
Plate and Eurasian Plate. Whereas Gondwanaland was cracked into 5 plates: African
Plate, South American Plate, Indian Plate, Australian Plate and Antarctic Plate.
After that, about 40 million years ago, Indian plate started drifting towards North
East direction where it collided with Eurasian plate and as a result of collision, folding
occured over Tethy's Sea which resulted into the upliftment of Himalayas and the
process of upliftment is still going on.