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It is important to look at the Earth in its context as only one of the nine planets
which make up the solar system.
This is an introduction to the Solar System, its formation, and composition,
with special emphasis on the "terrestrial" or "inner" planets. I take a kind of
historical approach, noting the patterns and regularities observed, for
example, by Tycho Brahe, described by Johannes Kepler, and explained by
Sir Isaac Newton. Laplace and even the philosopher Immanuel Kant figure
into shaping our modern-day notions of the origin and composition of the solar
system.
"Early attempts to explain the origin of this system include the nebular
hypothesis of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant and the French
astronomer and mathematician Pierre Simon de Laplace, according to which
a cloud of gas broke into rings that condensed to form planets." - Encarta,
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557663/Solar_System.html
Taking the point of view of a first-time visitor, one of the first things you would
notice about the Solar System is that the spacing between the planets' orbits
consistently increases as you move away from the Sun (with one exception).
Furthermore, it's not a linear increase, so we need essentially two figures, at
different scales, to represent the solar system (pictures courtesy of "The Nine
Planets"):
Titius-Bode's law: Distance, r, of the nth planet from the Sun (in A.U.s) is given
by:
rn = 0.4 + 0.3 x 2n
rn
Actual
-infinity, -1
0.4, 0.55
0.39
Venus
0.7
0.72
Earth
1.0
1.0
Mars
1.6
1.52
Asteroids
2.8
Jupiter
5.2
5.2
Saturn
10.0
9.6
Uranus
19.6
19.2
Neptune
38.8
30.1
Pluto
77.2
39.4
Planet
Mercury
1. All of the planets have nearly circular orbits around the sun.
2. All of the planets orbit the sun in a counterclockwise direction when
viewed from the "North."
3. All but two of the planets spin on their own axes in a counterclockwise
direction.
4. The sun spins on its own axis in a counterclockwise direction.
Nebular theory for the origin of the solar system (Laplace, Kant)
An object bigger than Pluto has been found in the outer solar system by Mike
Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory), and David Rabinowitz
(Yale University). It is possible, perhaps likely, that it will eventually be
considered to be our solar system's tenth planet. For more info, see NASA's
press release and the discoverer's web site. Its temporary designation is
2003UB313; an official name will be given in due course (more). Brown et al
have now also spotted a moon orbiting this object.
homework neatness
High temperatures near the Sun allowed only the most refractory
elements could condense. (Refractory literally means capable of
enduring high temperature, i.e., elements with a high condensation and
melting point.)
Includes Fe and silicate minerals.
Farther from Sun, lighter elements could condense, e.g., water (ice),
ammonia ice, etc.
Larger outer planets had gravity to retain H, He (but also Fe, silicates)
Terrestrial planets:
Smaller
Denser
Primarily Fe (and Ni) and silicates
Jovian planets:
Larger
Less dense
Primarily H, He, with icy moons
A sidereal day
is 23 hours 56
minutes and
4.09 seconds
long.
sidereal
[sahy-deer-eeuhl]
adjective
1. determined
by or from the
stars: sidereal
time.
2. of or
pertaining to
the stars.
"Jupiter is so big that all the other planets in our Solar System could fit inside
Jupiter (if it were hollow). "
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
Danish
astronomer
Compiled data
on planetary
orbits
Used astrolabe
(no telescopes!)
[Galileo (1564 - 1642) introduced telescope to astronomy in 1609]
Keplers Laws (1571-1630)
LAW 1: The orbit of a planet/comet about the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun's
center of mass at one focus
LAW 2: A line joining a planet/comet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in
equal intervals of time
LAW 3: The squares of the periods of the planets are proportional to the
cubes of their semimajor axes:
Assuming our test mass is at the surface of the Earth, r is the radius of the
Earth. In 200 B.C., Eratosthenes used shadows of a vertical stick at two
different latitudes to determine that the radius of the Earth was 250,000
stadia. Unfortunately, we do not know which one of the various measurements
used in antiquity is represented by the stadia of Eratosthenes. According to
the researches of Lepsius, however, the stadium in question represented 180
meters, giving a radius of the Earth of 7,160 km. Today we know the mean
radius of the Earth is roughly 6,371 km. Measuring the acceleration of an
object just requires accurate measure of time (Galileo used water clocks).
[Galileo and the Leaning Tower of Pisa] So, we can find GM, but not M
independently!
The Cavendish Experiment - "Measuring the Mass of the Earth" - 1798
[How were the masses of the spheres determined?] It was not until Cavendish
determined that G had a value of 6.75 x 10-11 N m2/kg2 that the mass of the
Earth was known! Today, the currently accepted value of G is 6.67259 x 10-11
N m2/kg2. And this results, as you will show in homework, in:
Once the mass of the Earth was established, its bulk, or average, density
could be determined:
We know that the average density of continental crust is about 2670 kg/m3
and the average density of oceanic crust is about 3000 kg/m3 .
Furthermore, from meteorites, among other things, we know the density of
mantle material (peridotite) is about 3300 kg/m3. This would seem to
suggest that the deeper interior of the Earth must have a very great density if
the average is to be 5540 kg/m3. However, this density cannot be used to
compare with the previously mentioned densities because they are measured
at STP. The Earth's bulk density is "inflated" because of the tremendous
pressures in the interior of the Earth. Although we will discuss later how it is
done, the uncompressed bulk density of the Earth is about 4000 kg/m3.
Still, the argument holds that the interior of the Earth must have a density
significantly higher than mantle density.
Planet Densities
Jupiter has 4 major (Galilean) satellites; this multi-satellite system has been
referred to as a "mini solar system"
Galilean
Moon
103 km from
Jupiter
Moon
radius
Io
3570
421
1,815
Europa
2967
671
1,569
Ganymede 1940
1,070
2,631
Callisto
1,883
2,400
1865
Planet
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Moon
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Moment of Inertia
I, moment of
inertia
1.0 mr2
1.0 mR2
2/3 mR2
2/5 mR2
0.367 mR2
0.0 mR2
"Real" Planets
Body
I/mr2
Moon
0.391
Mars
0.365
Earth
0.3307
Neptune
0.29
Jupiter
0.26
Uranus
0.23
Saturn
0.20
Sun
0.06
Newton, assuming
homogeneous Earth:
flattening = (c-a)/a = 1:230
(~0.5%); actual 1:298 (~0.3%)
a = 6378.136 km
c = 6356.751 km
R = 6371.000 km
(a-c)/a = 1/298.257
a-R = 7.1 km
R-c = 14.2 km
Is Earth fluid?
Or was it fluid?
Gravity
For real body, must divide into infinitesimal mass elements, dm, find
gravity due to each, then find vector sum
Potential field is a scalar field from which the vector gravity field can be
found; other examples: elevation-slope, temperature-heat flow
change in potential between two points is work done to move from point
A to point B
Escape Velocity
Escape Velocity Escape velocity is the velocity required to launch an object to escape a planet's
gravitational force (not just in orbit around the planet). We have seen that gravitational potential
at a point is the work required to move a unit mass from that point to infinity. Potential has units
of energy/mass. We found that gravitational potential, U, is given by
where M is the mass of the point mass for which we are finding potential (in this case, mass of
the planet, insofar as a planet is spherically symmetric) and R is the distant from the point mass
(or from the center of the planet).
To escape a planet's gravitational field, it must have kinetic energy equal to the gravitational
potential energy. Kinetic energy of an object, with mass m, is given by
Finding g
from U in
spherical
coordinates
Note on signs: defined this way, g will be negative, because it points in the
opposite direction of the unit radial vector. For this reason, you sometimes see g
defined as the positive gradient of potential, so that g (and |g|) will be a positive
number, for convenience.
If M is outside the volume, total solid angle is 0 (2 ways to look at this: the
surface presents just as much of its front as its back, so they cancel, or notice
that the flux lines which go in one side of the volume bounded by the surface
come out the other side, so the net flux is zero), so
Note that Laplace's equation is just the special case of Poisson's equation (where
density is zero.)
Problems to contemplate:
find gravity {g(r)} outside (r>R) an infinite cylinder with mass per unit
length (or, if it makes is easier to visualize, radius R and density )
LaPlace's equation is
coordinates,
Multiply through by
Last term on LHS depends only on , yet first two do not depend on , so last term
must be constant (and first two must add up to negative of that constant).
Multiply through by
or
Finally,
, where m is an integer
are constants
The general solution always has undetermined constants (which is why they are general), similar to, if not
integration
To apply the general solution to a particular problem, you have to apply boundary conditions and (if time-d
conditions
(see Simple Harmonic Oscillator problem)
For the general solution to LaPlace's equation, there are a couple boundary conditions that just make phys
determined by measurements of gravity around the Earth.
where
(oblateness)
(pear-shapedness)
E,
The GeoidThe
Earth's Geoid
Earth's Geoid: The geoid is a representation of the surface of the earth that it would
assume if the sea covered the earth, also known as surface of equal gravitational
potential, and is essentially mean sea level. Remember, sea level isn't flat! The vertical
coordinate, Z (elevation), is referenced to the geoid.
Can be defined as:
the shape a fluid Earth would have if it had exactly the gravity field of the Earth
an equipotential surface
roughly the sea-level surface - dynamic effects such as waves, and tides, must be
excluded
geoid on continents lies below continents - corresponds to level of nearly massless fluid
if narrow channels were cut through continents
potential at a point is "work done to take a unit mass from that point to infinity."
Over a density high, this would require starting at a higher point
From scienceworld.wolfram.com:
The shape of an object's gravitational equipotential surface. For the Earth, the reference
geoid is
where is the colatitude. The most complete model for the earths gravitational field,
based on an expansion in a Laplace series, is given by the GEM-T2 model. It contains
600 coefficients above degree 36.
An equipotential map of the Earth is dominated by the variation in gravity (and hence
geoid height, or basically the shape of the Earth) caused by the Earth's rotation and
subsequent flattening. It would look something like this:
The wiggles you see on the contour lines are actually just gridding/contour artifacts.
Ellipsoid
In the past, different regions of the world had adopted "local" versions of the elllipsoid
The Clarke 1866 ellipsoid is a predecessor to the GRS80 ellipsoid that was used in
North America and is still the reference geoid on many maps
GRS80 is currently the most commonly used elliptical model used for the
globe,though a new ellipsoid has recently been developed by the National
Geodetic Survey and will likely replace GRS80 for future projects.
semimajor axis
a[m]
6 378 137.
6 378 135.
1 : 298.26
6 378 160.
1 : 298.25
Krassovski (1942)
6 378 245.
1 : 298.3
6 378 388.
1 : 297.0
Clark (1866)
6 378 206.
1 : 294.98
Bessel (1841)
6 377 397.
1 : 299.15
German DHDN
My dog isnt a piglet. Vladimir Putins dog Koni prepares to test Russias new
GPS system Photo: AP
Geoid Anomaly: A change in the height of a portion of the geoid compared to its height
for a flattened ellipsoid. On Earth, substantial geoid anomalies are found at subduction
zones and hotspots. In continental regions, they do not correlate with topography
because of isostatic compensation . On both Venus and Mars, however, geoid
anomalies are correlated with topography. Eric W. Weisstein
Before looking at the geoid, which is dominated by the J 2 term, that term is removed,
which amounts to removing an ellipsoid of flattening of (as currently determined)
1/298.25:
Below is
seamounts with the Marshall Islands, east of the Mariana Trench, can be seen in the
geoid signal in that area. Finally, the well-known geoid low near the tip of India, and the
geoid high over New Guinea stand out, with a great deal of finely detailed structures
mixed in with these broad features. Map and description from the National Geodetic
Survey.
Ocean Geoid
Fig. 1. (A) Free-air gravity anomaly from satellite altimetry for the Tonga-Kermadec
region. (B) Free-air gravity anomaly for 3D dynamic model including a low viscosity
region in the wedge. (C) Comparison of topography along east west profiles across the
subduction zone at 20, 25 and 30S (thick/blue) to observed topography (thin/black).
Model topography has an arbitrary reference height (here set to zero) therefore,
observed topography is adjusted to equal zero at the model boundary. (D) Comparison
of model geoid anomalies (thick/blue) with observed along east west profiles. An east
west linear ramp is removed from each of the observed and model geoid profiles so that
the geoid equals zero at the model boundaries.
GEOID99 is a refined model of the geoid in the United States, which supersedes
the previous models GEOID90, GEOID93, and GEOID96. For the conterminous
United States (CONUS), GEOID99 heights range from a low of -50.97 meters
(magenta) in the Atlantic Ocean to a high of 3.23 meters (red) in the Labrador
Strait. However, these geoid heights are only reliable within CONUS due to the
limited extents of the data used to compute it. GEOID99 models are also
available for Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico & the U.S. Virgin Islands.
"More than any other data set of the Earth the Geoid shows us the dynamic structure of
the Earth's deep interior. The most dramatic feature in the Geoid of North American is
the Yellowstone Hot Spot, believed to be a plume structure rising through the mantle
and the main contributor to the Geoid high over Montana. Details of the topographic
anomalies of the Western Rockies can be seen superimposed upon this anomaly,
although with much less magnitude. The Great San Joaquin Valley of California, formed
through the tectonics of the earlier subduction of the Pacific plate by North America is
outlined in detail in the Geoid.
Comparison with this feature can be made with those smaller yet similar Geoid lows to
the north in Oregon and Washington state. In the midcontinent an ancient rift or suture
zone can be seen in sharp outline running from the tip of Lake Superior through
Minnesota and continuing to Texas. The Eastern offshore shows some of the oldest
portions of the Atlantic Ocean formed some 120 million years ago with its now
characteristic Geoid low centered off the Carolinas. Seen also is a deep suture structure
running the length of the Hudson River Valley to the opening of the Gulf of Saint
Laurence. At the very top of the figure on the right can be seen the outline of the most
recently formed feature of Geoid of North America. This is the postglacial Geoid low
caused by the depression of the continent under the ice load from the last Ice Age some
20,000 years ago. Because of the viscous nature of the Earth's Mantle this feature will
slowly disappear until the end of the next Ice Age when the process will repeat itself
again."
By: Allen Joel Anderson
Department of Physics
University of California
The GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) mission will
measure high-accuracy gravity gradients and provide a global model of the Earth's
gravity field and of the geoid. The geoid (the surface of equal gravitational potential
of a hypothetical ocean at rest) serves as the classical reference for all
topographical features. The accuracy of its determination is important for surveying
and geodesy, and in studies of Earth interior processes, ocean circulation, ice
motion and sea-level change.
Credits: ESA
The geoid, and gravity, can be determined for other planets from satellite data.
Mars
Moon
Would gravity still be less due to the equatorial bulge (neglecting rotation effect) for a
homogeneous planet?
The bulge has 2 effects: it reduces g because one is farther from the center of the
planet (free-air effect) but increases g due to the mass of the bulge (Bouguer effect).
The "real" Earth has a significant central condensation, i.e., it gets denser toward the
center and the bulge alone produces a decrease in gravity approximately equal to the
decrease caused by rotation alone.
But what about a homogeneous planet? Assume that, to first order, the planet is
spherical. The gravity from the surface outward would be given by
where R is the planet radius and is density. The decrease of g(r) with r
(elevation), would be
All over the surface of the Earth are seismograph stations which can detect all of
the waves that arrive at that location. By recognizing what kinds of waves have
arrived, exactly when they arrived, and knowing where and when the earthquake
occurred (or sometimes the earthquake location and time itself is determined by
seismograph stations), we can learn about the deep interior of the Earth. This is
because these waves refract (bend) and reflect at boundaries in the Earth.
P Waves
The diagram on the left above illustrates a P wave. These are also called
compressional or longitudinal waves. Material is compressed and stretched in the
horizontal direction, from left to right, and the wave (disturbance) also travels in
the horizontal direction. P waves travel faster than any other type of wave. They
can travel through fluid or solid materials. Ordinary sound waves in air are P
waves.
P comes from primary wave, because they arrive first, but a mnemonic is pushpull wave
P wave velocity depends on a material's "plane wave modulus" and its density:
S Waves
The diagram on the right above illustrates an S wave. These are also called shear
waves. S comes from secondary wave. Material is sheared, so that an imaginary
square drawn on the side of the block becomes diamond shaped. The material
vibrates up and down (or side to side, in and out of the screen, if the hammer had
struck the side of the block instead of the top) but the wave (disturbance) travels
in the horizontal direction from left to right. S waves travel more slowly than P
waves. They can only travel through solid materials. Plucking a guitar string
generates a kind of shear wave; the string vibrates side to side, but the wave
travels along the string.
S-wave velocity depends on a material's shear modulus, , and density, :
Since fluids (liquids and gasses have zero shear modulus, S waves cannot travel
through fluids. However, seismic waves have a period no larger than minutes.
Some materials, like the mantle, are solids on that time scale, but not on the time
scale of millions of years.
Comparing the velocity expressions, you can see that VP > VS for any material.
For both types of body waves:
P and S waves travel faster in rigid, dense rocks. Rocks generally get
more rigid and denser with depth. Generally, though, elastic constants
increase more rapidly than density, so the velocity of P and S waves
generally increases with depth.
Surface Waves
Love Waves
Rayleigh Waves:
LR
VP>VS>VLq>VLr
Reflections
Reflections occur when there is an acoustic impedance contrast between two
layers:
Refractions
Refractions occur when velocities differ (if they don't, ray passes through
unbent!):
Snell's Law
Snell's law applies to reflections and refractions, even with mode conversion:
In large regions of the Earth, velocity increase gradually with depth, leading to
gradual bending of rays; where there are abrupt velocity changes, sharp bending,
and reflections, will occur.
The 4 major layers in the Earth, from outside in, are the crust, mantle,
outer core, and inner core.
The inner core is at the center of the Earth and has a 1200 km
radius; it's made of solid iron (90%) and nickel (10%).
He found that, out to about 150 km, the time it took for the earthquake
waves to reach each seismograph station was proportional to the
distance the station was from the earthquake. He used the familiar
time/distance/rate equation (distance = rate*time, or rate =
distance/time) to determine that the velocity of the upper crust must be
about 6 km/s. In the graph below, this corresponds to the straight line
segment on the left, which has a slope of corresponding to 6 km/s.
However, for stations greater than about 150 km from the earthquake,
waves did not take as much longer to arrive as if they were traveling at
only 6 km/s. In fact, the slope of the second line segment corresponds
to a velocity of 8 km/s.
The diagram below shows a cross-section of the crust and mantle, with
the earthquake on the left. The triangles on the surface are meant to be
seismograph stations at different distances from the earthquake. At
short distances, the "direct waves" that travel along the surface will
arrive first. However, at greater distances, the waves that travel down to
the mantle, and are bent and travel along the top of the mantle at the
higher velocity, can arrive before the waves traveling directly along the
surface. These refracted waves make up for the extra distance by
traveling faster for most of their path.
Gutenberg explained this Shadow Zone with a core which slowed and
bent P waves
depth of basement
depth of Moho
For our purposes, assume flat (not necessarily horizontal), homogeneous layers.
In order to get a head wave, V2>V1!
The critical angle is the incident angle where the head wave begins:
Alternatively, in terms of Ti2, the intercept time from the second travel-time
segment,
where the depth to the lower interface is the sum of z1 and z2, where z1 is
computed by the single-layer formula above.
never get a refracted head-wave from a slow layer underlying a fast layer
The travel time curve will look like this (another example of ambiguity):
reflections recorded as two-way (down and back up) travel times, not
depths
VP, km/s
, kg/m3
Vx
Granite
5.0
2700
13,500
Basalt
5.5
3000
16,500
Limestone
6.0
2300
13,800
Sandston
e
4.2
2500
10,500
Shale
2.5
2300
5,750
travel time:
2 problems:
what is V? [We measure t. If we knew V, we could find d convert time section to depth section.]
record traces from several geophones spaced away from source (shot)
Note that subsurface reflection points have half the spacing of geophones. To get
complete "single-fold "coverage of the subsurface, can shoot from either end of
geophone spread:
One can also use a "split-spread" arrangement, here with shot at point B, then
move half the geophones forward and shoot at C:
The next two figures show recording-truck signal check for 36-channel splitspread layout:
The travel time for the primary reflection (first layer) where geophone offset = x,
thickness d, velocity V
this is a hyperbola:
reflections from 1st and 2nd reflectors are not flat; reflections are
hyperbolas
can correct for this using NMO correction, so reflections are flat
given that :
the NMO is just t - t0, where t0 is simply 2d/V (zero-offset 2-way travel
time)
however,
intercept gives d
Multiple Layers
with multiple layers with different velocities, this clearly does not hold
(actual path compared with straight-line assumption):
Green Method
assuming straight-line paths, one can still just use a x 2-t2 plot to
estimate velocities and depths
it can be shown that Dix's equation can be solved for the individual
interval velocities
In addition, since rocks are not truly elastic (anelastic), some energy is
lost to heat with every cycle, leading to an exponential loss of energy.
Example:
signal increases by 36
geophone groups
"Geophones are rarely used singly. Normally several (as many as 20 or more) are
electrically connected to each other in a group in such a way that the outputs of
the individual phones are effectively summed. The information from each group
must be transmitted via cables to the recording truck. In modern land recording
with 48, 96, or more group recordings, the cables are long and heavy and often
add noise to the recording, especially in the presence of powerlines or water." Dobrin and Savit, Introduction to Geophysical Prospecting, 4th ed.
signal usually has small incident angle, reaches all geophones together
(coherent)
multiple shots
dynamite in hole
multi-fold coverage
Data Collection
Source
Geophones
Recording Digitally
Processing Steps
AGC looks at average amplitude in a sliding time window and boosts (or
attenuates) amplitude to a constant value over that window
Filtering
Statics Removal
up-hole shooting
vertical velocity distribution near the surface determined by shooting up the hole"
(Geophysical Services, Inc.):
automatic statics
Migration
Synthetic Seismograms
Seismic Attributes
Color display in which colors are keyed to interval velocity estimates (1000 ft/s
increments):
3-D sesimic time slices at time ranging from 1060 ms to 1260 ms:
wavelet processing