11/9/2013 8:21:00 AM

Earth:
- Earth formed ~4.6 billion years ago from cosmic dust in the solar system
earth was originally a hot molten sphere - slowly cooled, the elements
within it separated into layers based on their mass
heavy elements (iron, etc) sank towards earths center, lighter elements
(silica, etc) floated towards earths surface
the elements and minerals that were present when the planet formed are
all we have now distributed unevenly around the globe
Vertical Zonation: (How the earth is layered)
- core: dense mass mainly comprised of nickel and iron inner is solid,
outer is liquid
- mantle: containing molten rock
- magma: slowly circulates in convection cells
- asthenosphere: in outer part of the mantle, composed of semi-molten
flexible rock
- lithosphere: brittle outermost layer of the planet 100km thick
- crust: the chemically distinct outermost layer of the lithosphere
These regions all overlap
need to minimize our use of mineral resources finite supply
- high temperature of core = from radioactive decay of isotopes of
potassium, uranium, thorium they release heat
- plumes of hot magma well upward from the mantle, produce hot
spots: places where molten material from the mantle reaches the
lithosphere

Geologic Cycle:
-------Plate Tectonics:
- Alfred Wegener hypothesis of Pangaea
His evidence = identical rock formations on both sides of the Atlantic
Ocean and fossils of the same species can be found on different continents
- Theory of Plate Tectonics: Earths lithosphere is divided into plates,
most of which are in constant motion
- Tectonic Cycle: the sum of the processes that build up and break down
the lithosphere
- Oceanic plates and continental plates continental plates are lighter and
rise above oceanic plates
- Convection cells in earths mantle drive the plates slow movement
- Seafloor spreading: rising magma forms new crust on the seafloor where
the plates drift apart
- subduction: the process of one plate passing under another
- Earths history is measured using the geologic time scale:
- fossil record tells how species adapted to the changes that took place
- this info can be used to predict how species will adapt to earths
climate changes today
- volcanoes formed from plates moving over a hot spot and the heat
rising and melting the crust a natural source of carbon dioxide,
particulates, and metals
- Plate Contact:
- divergent plate boundaries: move away from each other causes seafloor
spreading
- convergent plate boundaries: plates collide and one goes under the other
causes mountains
- transform fault boundary: plates move sideways past each other
-Fault zones/areas of seismic activity: large expanses of rock in the
lithosphere where movement has occurred plates grind against each other,
when one overcomes the resistance an earthquake occurs
- Epicenter: the point in an earthquake thats exactly above the rock rupture
Richter Scale: measures the largest ground movement that occurs in an
earthquake logarithmic - Value increases by a factor of 10 for each 1
- 85% of volcanoes rest on plate boundaries

------Rock Cycle: The constant formation and destruction of rock slowest

of all the earths cycles
- rock: composed of minerals
- Clastic = rock particles
- Non-Clastic = organic (has an O in it)
Igneous Rocks:
Basaltic, granitic, intrusive, extrusive
- formed directly from magma
basaltic: dark colored, contains minerals (iron, magnesium, calcium)
dominant in the crust of oceanic plates.
 Granitic: lighter colored, made up of feldspar, mica, and quartz
dominant in the crust of continental plates forms sand when it breaks
down more permeable
intrusive: form as magma rises up and cools in place underground
extrusive: form when magma cools above earths surface (volcanoes,
seafloor spreading)
Sedimentary Rocks:
- form when sediments are compressed by overlying sediments takes time
holds the fossil record
Metamorphic Rocks:
- form when any rocks are subjected to high temperatures and pressures
cause physical and chemical changes in the rock
Weathering:
- physical weathering: the mechanical breakdown of rocks and minerals
water, wind, variations in temperature, plant roots, etc
- chemical weathering: breakdown by chemical reactions, the dissolving of
chemical elements from rocks, or both releases nutrients from rocks,
making them available for use by plants, etc most important on newly
exposed minerals (primary minerals)
alters primary minerals to form secondary minerals
- acid rain
Erosion:
- The physical removal of rock fragments from a landscape or ecosystem
results from gravitys transportation of soil and animals that burrow under
the soil a natural process

-------Soil:
- a mix of geologic and organic components the result of physical and
chemical weathering of rocks and the gradual accumulation of detritus from
the biosphere
Horizons:
bottom to top: R, C, B, E, A, O
- O: organic matter leaves, branches, twigs, dead grass
- A: topsoil very good soil where most life exists organism activity
churns the organic layer into the topsoil
- E: always between A&B light colored because of leeching
- B: subsoil - accumulation of the clay tends to be hard
- C: broken down parent rock - mix of subsoil from B and rock from R
- R: bedrock

LOAM:
40% SAND, 40% SILT, 20% CLAY
compost natural representation of birth and death
11/9/2013 8:21:00 AM
11/9/2013 8:21:00 AM