EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE (ELS)

The origin of solar system

Encounter Hypothesis- is anchored sun had come across with a rouge star the hot
gases as removed from both bodies. Upon the encounter due to their
gravitational interaction

*HOT GASES – Accumulate

= Gas giant planet- J, S, U, N (outer
planet, Origin Rouge star “less
dense”)
*DUST-Accumulate
=Terrestrial planet- M, V, E, M
(inner planet, Origin Sun “more
dense”)
=composed of rocks and metals

Nebular Hypothesis- favored model for the formation of the solar system (also
known as nebula hypothesis)

*Pierre Simon Laplace *Immanuel Kant

 EARTHS SUBSYSTEM

1. HYDROSPHERE

 Liquid component of Earth which includes all bodies of water, groundwater and
Earth's frozen water (the cryosphere)
 Covers 75% of the surface of the Earth 98% Salt Water, 1% Drinkable Water
"HYDRO”
 Helps regulate the climate by absorbing -water large amount of solar energy
 Circulates heat towards the poles
Water Cycle
 Water Cycle This cycle explains the continuous movement of water from above or
below the ground.
 It involves the transfer of energy
 Evaporation of water to Condensation of water (rain)
 Sun is the driving agent of this cycle

1. Evaporation
-The sun will heat the surface waters and it will become water vapor.
-Transpiration is a water movement happening in plants where the sun
absorbs water from the leaves and plant surface and will evaporate and
become water vapor.
2. Condensation
-Water vapor cools down to its dew point then follow the formation of clouds.
3. Precipitation
-Water is released from the condensed clouds (rain)
-Provides the delivery of atmospheric water to the earth
*rain
*snow
*hail
4. Infiltration
Precipitation (such as rain) is absorbed by the soil and moves into the rocks which
replenishes the groundwater system

2. LITHOSPHERE

 Solid outer part of the Earth

 Includes structures, composition, minerals and processes of the earth
 It extends up to the inner core of the planet. Soil supports billions of plants,
animals, and microorganisms, it filterş water, and it facilitates the "
decomposition of wastes
 Holds air, water, heat, and nutrients and is the medium in which we grow food
and fiber.
 It is responsible for the formation of many landforms through its endogenic
activities.
 Tectonic Plates Rocky parts of the lithosphere that are divided into numerous
plates that moves or drifts apart. Every year these plates move 1-16 cm from each
other. This drifting is responsible for the formation of Landforms (Hills, Volcanoes,
etc.) and also earthquakes. 2

3. ATMOSPHERE
 Set of layer of gases that surrounds and protects the earth
 This distributes rain and traps some of the heat radiated by the eart to keep us
warm.
 It also protects us from harmful solar radiation through the ozone layer, and play
the role in driving ocean currents that redistribute earths heat

 TROPOSPHERE
= the first and lower/lowest layer of atmosphere of earth and contains 75% of
total mass of planetary atmosphere
= it is weather phenomena occur
 STRATOSPHERE
=is the second layer of the atmosphere of the earth
=the temperature here is higher as a result of the absorption of the sun ultraviolet
(UV) radiation by the ozone layer
 MESOSPHERE
= the third and the middle layer of the atmosphere
 = the mesosphere burn up most meteors and asteroids before they are able to
reach the earth’s surface and cause damage to its surface
 THERMOSPHERE
= is the fourth layer of atmosphere and has the hottest temperature reaching
2000 degrees Celsius
= low orbit satellites circle The earth in the thermosphere because the earth is so
thin. Its where telephone, television, and gps signals are broadcasted To earth.
= international space station
 EXOSPHERE
= the outermost layer of atmosphere
=layer which separate us from the outer space
= its function to act as transitional medium to a cone under the influence of
gravity. It also helps the atom to escape from the atmosphere to outer space.

4. BIOSPHERE

 Consist of all living things, plants and animals, from microbes to human
 This Is intimately connected with dependent on the other spheres.
 The biosphere continuously exchanges gases with the atmosphere therefore
modify earth climate
 Human activities such as mining causes changes in land (lithosphere) and water
(hydrosphere)

INTERCONECTION BETWEEN SUBSYESTEM

 Change in one leads to change to others

-because interconnecteaness, changes in one sphere bring about changes in other
 Meter transfer
 Energy transfer

ROCKS AND MINERALS

Minerals

 Refers to naturally occurring, inorganic substance with a crystalline structure.

 A mineral is a naturally occurring inorganic solid with a definite chemical
composition and a crystalline structure. Chemical composition and crystalline
structure are the two most important properties of a mineral: they distinguish
any mineral from all others. However, let’s briefly consider the difference
between a physical and a chemical property of a mineral before going further.
 These crystals are composed of a repeating structure unit composed of atom of
one or more elements.
 It is known to be building blocks of rocks

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MINERALS

 Luster  Fracture
 Hardness  Color
 Streak  Specific gravity
 Cleavage  Crystal form

LUSTER

 Refers to the way of light is reflected from a mineral surface.

 Some have metallic surface such as gold, silver, and copper.
 Other are describe as vitreous or glassy, pearly, silky, resineous and earthy or dull.

HARDNESS

 Refers to the minerals resistance to being scratched.

 The harder ones are difficult to scratch, the softer ones are less resistant to
scratches
 Frederich Moh, a German mineralogist prepared a scale of hardness with a
number 1-10 in the increasing hardness

MOH’S SCALE OF HARDNES

1. TALC 6. ORTHOCLSE
2. GYPSUM 7. QUARTZ
3. CALCITE 8. TOPAZ
4. FLOURITE 9. CORUNDUM
5. APATITE 10. DIAMOND
 COLOR AND STREAK
 Refers to the color of the powdered mineral
 The sample is rubbed across of a piece of unglazed porcelain

CLEAVAGE

 Tendency of minerals to break along planes of weak bonding

 Described by the number of planes exhibited and the angles at which they meet

FRACTURE

 Minerals that do not exhibited cleavage are said to facture when broken
 Some break like glass, some into splinters or fiber

COLOR

 Some are the same color like azurite is always deep blue, malachite is green,
cinnabar is red and sulfur is yellow.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY

 Is a number which present the ratio to the weight of an equal volume of water.
 Example, galena is 7.5 times heavier than a comparable volume of water

CRYSTAL FORM

 External feature of mineral reflects its orderly internal arrangement of atoms

MINERAL CLASSES AND THE ROCKS-FORMING MINERALS

 Geologists classify minerals according to their chemical elements. Although more
than 3,500 minerals are known in Earth’s crust, only a small number – between 50
and 100 – are common or valuable, and only nine rocksforming minerals make up
most of the crust. Seven of the rocks-forming minerals are silicate materials while
the other two, calcite and dolomite, are carbonates.
 Silicates are minerals whose chemical elements include silicon and oxygen and
whose crystal structures contain silicate tetrahedral. Silicates make up about 92
percent of the Earth’s crust.
 Carbonates are minerals whose chemical elements include carbon and oxygen as
a major part of their chemical composition. Carbonates are much less common
than silicates but they are important rocks-forming minerals because they form
sedimentary rocks that cover large regions of every continent.
 Sulfides are minerals whose chemical elements include sulfur bonded to a metal
ion. An example is pyrite, (FeS2) known as “fool’s gold”.
 Native elements are minerals that consist of only one element and thus the
element occurs in the native state (not chemically bonded other elements).

ROCKS AND ROCK CYCLE

 A rock is a consolidated aggregate of various types of minerals or a consolidated

aggregate of multiple individual grains of the same kind of mineral. Geologists
group rocks into three categories on the basis of how rocks form: igneous rocks,
sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks.
 When molten rock material cools and solidifies it becomes an igneous rock. The
molten rock matter below the Earth’s surface is called magma whereas the
molten rock material at the surface of the Earth is called lava. There are two
major categories of igneous rocks: extrusive (volcanic rock) and intrusive (plutonic
rock).
 Over geologic time, water and air attack rocks of all kinds at Earth’s surface
through the process called weathering, breaking them down into smaller
particles. These particles – including gravel, sand, clay and all other fragments
weathered and eroded from rock- accumulate in loose, unconsolidated layers
called sediment. Sand on a beach and mud on a lake bottom are examples of
sediment. As their name implies, sedimentary rocks are derived from sediment.
After fragments accumulate, often in horizontal 14 layers, pressure form from the
addition of more material above compact the sediment, expelling water and
reducing pore space. Cementation occurs when silica, calcium carbonate or iron
oxide bonds the fragments together. The processes of compaction and
cementation transform, or lithify, sediments into solid, coherent layers of rock.
There are four major categories of sedimentary rocks: clastic (broken fragments
of solid arc), organic (rocks that lithify from remains of organisms, both plants
and animals), chemical precipitate (forms from direct precipitation of minerals
from solution) and bioclastic (composed of broken shell fragments and similar
remains of living organisms)
 Metamorphic rock is formed when igneous, sedimentary or other metamorphic
rocks recrystallize in response to elevated temperature, increased pressure,
chemical change and or deformation. Metamorphism means “changing form” is
 the process by which rising temperature and pressure or changing chemical
conditions, transform rocks and minerals. It can change any type of parent rock:
sedimentary, igneous or even another metamorphic rock.
 There four types of metamorphism: contact metamorphism (occurs when hot
magma intrudes cooler rock of any type), burial metamorphism (results from
burial of rocks in a sedimentary basin), regional dynamothermal metamorphism
(occurs when major crustal movements build mountains and deform rocks), and
hydrothermal metamorphism (occurs when hot water and ions dissolved in the
hot water react with a rock to change its chemical composition and minerals).
 Rock cycle is a sequence of events in which rocks are formed, destroyed, altered,
and reformed by geological processes as shown in figure 5. It does not follow a
set order, and can take many different paths.

IGNEOUS ROCKS

 Rocks are formed from the solidification of molten rock material

 INTRUSIVE/PLUTONIC- are igneous rocks form from solidified magma underneath
the earth. They are coarse-grained due to the slow cooling of magma
 EXTRUSIVE/VOLCANIC ROCKS – are igneous rocks formed on the surface of the
earth. They are cooled lava, which are rocks ejected on the surface through
volcanic eruptions. They are fine-grained due to abrupt cooling on the surface.

SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

 Are rocks formed through the accumulation, compaction , and cementation of

sediments.
 They generally form at surface conditions
 Sedimentary process
a. weathering- the process of weathering or being worn by long exposure to the
atmosphere
 b. sediment transport- is the movement of solid particles(sediment), typically due
to gravity and/or the movement of the water.
c. cementation- a sedimentary rock forming process in which sediment grains are
held together by natural cements that are produce when water moves through
rock and soil.
d. compaction- the process that form sedimentary rocks with layers of sediments
are compacted by the weight of layers above.

 Features of sedimentary rocks

a. strata or layering
b. fossils

METAMORPHIC ROCKS

 Are rocks that forms from the transformation of pre-existing rocks (igneous,
sedimentary, or metamorphic rocks) through the process of metamorphism.
 Metamorphism can involve changes in the physical and chemical properties of
rocks in response to heat, pressure, and chemically active fluids.