The Earth and Its Systems

the scientific study of Earth

The study of Earth’s materials, changes of the surface and interior of the Earth, and the forces that cause those changes.

Eruptions of lava and ash can overwhelm populated areas and disrupt air traffic.

Any portion of the universe that can be isolated from the rest of the universe for the purpose of observing and measuring changes

A self-contained system (in which the boundary permits the exchange of energy, but not matter, with the surroundings).

Energy and matter flow in and out of the system

What kind of system is the earth?

The gas that envelops the Earth and is one of the reasons that it can support life

Relatively shallow compared to the Earth’s Geosphere

A dynamic mass of water that is continually on the move, evaporating from the oceans to the atmosphere, precipitating to the land, and running back to the ocean again.

Includes all of water in and on the Earth

The sphere that includes all life on earth and a key part of the Carbon Cycle

The Earth after its formation, differentiated into the Crust, Mantle, and Core.

The base is warmer than the uppermost portion because the base is heated by the Earth’s surface that absorbs heat.

Beyond the tropopause

This is where airplanes travel

The site of the ozone layer that absorbs the sun’s UV rays

The outer boundary of the troposphere

Extends upward from the stratopause

The coldest temperatures anywhere in the atmosphere occur at the mesopause.

One of the least explored regions of the atmosphere

Above the mesosphere but has no well-defined upper limit

Highest part of the atmosphere

Temperatures increase due to the absorption of very short-wave, high-energy solar radiation by nitrogen and oxygen atoms

The International Space Station orbits the Earth within the middle of the thermosphere, between 330 and 435 kilometres (205 and 270 mi)

known as the land hemisphere of the hydrosphere

Known as the water hemisphere of the hydrosphere

Largest and deepest ocean

the third largest ocean in the world

Second largest Ocean

The smallest and shallowest of the world’s oceans

The meeting of currents near Antarctica

The process that created the Earth’s layered structure

• The denser material sinks to the center (forming the core)

• The less dense materials floated to the top forming the crust

The geosphere classified by ________

• Lithosphere

• Asthenosphere

• Mesosphere

• Outer core

• Inner core

The geosphere classified by ___________

• Crust

• Mantle

• Core

Composed of basaltic rocks

The denser and thinner crust

Younger

It is composed of granitic rocks

Thicker and less dense crust

It is older than the other crust

The thickest layer of the geosphere (83% of the earth’s volume)

The boundary between the Crust and Mantle

The boundary between the crust and mantle IS NAMED AFTER this seismologist

Is mostly made of iron and nickel

16% of the earth’s volume

Hottest part of the geosphere (by chemical property)

• also the densest part of the earth

Above the mantle

The boundary between the mantle and the core

The boundary between the mantle and the core is NAMED AFTER this seismologist

Passes through solid and liquid

does not pass through liquid

contains the uppermost mantle and the crust

Is rigid and breaks due to stress and the site of most earthquakes

large fragments of the lithosphere

“Weak” (Asthenos)

The lithosphere “floats” on top of this layer

Convection is also thought to occur here

the lower portion of the mantle

Is considered a “liquid layer”

Shear waves do not travel through it

It circulates via convection, which generates the Earth’s magnetic field

The boundary between the inner and outer core.

Discovered by Inge Lehmann

Is the solid part of the core

Enhances or drives changes

• resists change

• stabilizes or maintains the system