Unit 5 Earth Systems

Earth's layers

Earth can be divided into three main layers: the core, the mantle and the crust. Each of these layers can be further divided into two parts: the inner and outer core, the upper and lower mantle and the continental and oceanic crust. Both the inner and outer core are made up of mostly iron and a little bit of nickel.

Snowpack

Snowpack forms from layers of snow that accumulate in geographic regions and high altitudes where the climate includes cold weather for extended periods during the year. Snowpacks are an important water resource that feed streams and rivers as they melt. ( fresh water)

Erosion

erosion is the action of surface processes that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transport it away to another location.

Fossil Fuels

A fossil fuel is a fuel formed by natural processes, such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis.

Nonrenewable Resources

A nonrenewable resource is a resource of economic value that cannot be readily replaced by natural means on a level equal to its consumption. Most fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas and coal are considered nonrenewable resources in that their use is not sustainable because their formation takes billions of years.

Renewable Resources

A renewable resource is a resource which can be used repeatedly and replaced naturally. Examples include oxygen, fresh water, solar energy and biomass.

Earth's spheres

Everything in Earth's system can be placed into one of four major subsystems: land, water, living things, or air. These four subsystems are called "spheres." Specifically, they are the "lithosphere" (land), "hydrosphere" (water), "biosphere" (living things), and "atmosphere" (air).

Population Growth

In biology or human geography, population growth is the increase in the number of individuals in a population. Global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.616 billion in 2018.

Latitude - Longitude

In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the Earth's surface. Latitude is an angle which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the poles. Longitude, is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter lambda

Photosynthesis and its effect on Earth's cycles

Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. If there was no photosynthesis, than there will be more carbon dioxide. During photosynthesis, organisms absorb water from the soil and remove carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere. In the carbon cycle, carbon compounds, primarily carbon dioxide, are incorporated into living organisms through photosynthesis and passed along food chains. Phosphorous in the form of phosphate (PO43-) is carried to the oceans by rivers. Organisms take up the phosphorous and incorporate it into their organic tissue. When an organism dies or excretes waste, its phosphorus is released back into the environment. The phosphorous from organisms cycles through Earth's systems more rapidly than the phosphorous released from rocks and minerals on land. Nitrogen can be found in solid, liquid, and gaseous forms on the planet's surface. The nitrogen cycle illustrates how nitrogen travels between different reservoirs on the planet, including the atmosphere, rocks, ocean, and biosphere. Not all of the nitrogen on Earth is available to organisms for life processes. The most common forms of nitrogen used by organisms include nitrate ions (NO3-), ammonium ion (NH4+), and urea (CO(NH2)2)

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light.

Earth's diameter

The diameter of a circle is twice the radius, giving us a diameter for Earth of 12,756 km. Note: The Earth is almost, but not quite, a perfect sphere. Its equatorial radius is 6378 km, but its polar radius is 6357 km - in other words, the Earth is slightly flattened.

Effect of Greenhouse Gases on Earth

The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth's surface. When the Sun's energy reaches the Earth's atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases.Carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases act like a blanket, absorbing IR radiation and preventing it from escaping into outer space. The net effect is the gradual heating of Earth's atmosphere and surface, a process known as global warming.

Compaction

The process by which the porosity of a given form of sediment is decreased as a result of its mineral grains being squeezed together by the weight of overlying sediment or by mechanical means.

GPS (Global Positioning System)

a network of orbiting satellites that send precise details of their position in space back to earth. The signals are obtained by GPS receivers, such as navigation devices and are used to calculate the exact position, speed and time at the vehicles location.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

also described as the Pacific trash vortex, is a gyre of marine debris particles in the central North Pacific Ocean discovered between 1985 and 1988. using data from vessel and aircraft surveys, found that 79,000 tons of plastic are floating in an area spanning 1.6 million square kilometers (about 618,000 square miles). Plastic is made from oil. Plastic takes thousands of years to degrade. It collects in the Garbage Patch.

Polar regions

also known as Earth's frigid zones, are the regions of Earth surrounding its geographical poles (the North and South Poles). These regions are dominated by Earth's polar ice caps, the northern resting on the Arctic Ocean and the southern on the continent of Antarctica.

Earth's magnetic field

also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from the Earth's interior out into space, where it meets the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. Its magnitude at the Earth's surface ranges from 25 to 65 microteslas (0.25 to 0.65 gauss).

Earth's magnetic field

convection currents of fluid metal in the Earth's outer core, driven by heat flow from the inner core, organized into rolls by the Coriolis force, create circulating electric currents, which generate the magnetic field.

Solar wind

solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma consists of mostly electrons, protons and alpha particles with thermal energy between 1.5 and 10 keV. Most of the charged particles from the sun are deflected by Earth's magnetic field; a small number are trapped in the magnetosphere.

Residence Time for an element

the residence time is the amount of material in the reservoir, divided by either the inflow or the outflow (they are equal when the reservoir is at equilibrium). If there are multiple inflows or outflows, then we use the sum of the outflows or inflows to determine the residence time. For our bathtub system here, the residence time is thus 10 liters divided by 1 liter per second, which is equal to 10 seconds. It is fairly easy to see that if we increase the flow rates, the water moves through the reservoir faster, so the residence time decreases. The residence time of an element in sea water is the average time that the element spends in the oceans before it is removed. The concept of residence time applies to a steady-state ocean (where input = output).

Remote Sensing Technology

the term "remote sensing" generally refers to the use of satellite- or aircraft-based sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth, including on the surface and in the atmosphere and oceans, based on propagated signals (e.g. electromagnetic radiation).Two satellites give two possible solutions for the location of a receiver.