1. Plate tectonics
1.1. Plate Bonderies
1.1.1. Convergent
1.1.1.1. Occurs when oceanic lithosphere is consumed at Subduction zones where it descends into the mantle trenches
1.1.2. Divergent
1.1.2.1. Occurs where hot, rising mantle rock causes plates to move apart
1.1.3. Transform
1.1.3.1. Found between sections of divergent bounderies
1.2. 20th Century Paradigm
1.2.1. Contraction of the Earth
1.2.1.1. The planet is slowly cooling and contracting as heat of formation is lost
1.2.1.2. Mountains represent Wrinkles
1.3. Weigner's Alternative Paradigm
1.3.1. Continental Drift
1.3.1.1. Continents have occupied different locations on the earth's Surface in the geologic past
1.3.1.2. 250 million years ago there was a supercontinent named Pangea
1.3.2. Observations (Matching Features)
1.3.2.1. Distribution of plant and animal fossils matched between continents
1.3.2.2. A continuous mountain range/belt can be formed when Pangea is reassembled
1.3.2.3. Unusual rock sequences match between Africa and South America
1.3.3. Paleoclimates
1.3.3.1. Evidence of a thick Ice sheet throughout the southern continents
1.3.3.2. Rocks formed in tropical conditions in North America near the Equator
1.4. Sea floor topography
1.4.1. Age of the Seafloor
1.4.1.1. Age of the seafloor rocks varies systematically
1.4.1.2. Rocks on the Seafloor are young compared to most rocks on the continents
1.4.1.3. 1. Younger rocks are located near the center of the ocean basins
1.4.1.4. 2. Older rocks along margins of the Ocean basins
1.4.1.5. 3. Age of the seafloor rocks increases systematically from near centers of oceans
1.4.2. Key features
1.4.2.1. Continental Shelf
1.4.2.1.1. Narrow, shallow ocean surrounding continents
1.4.2.2. Abyssal Plain
1.4.2.2.1. Relatively level seafloor often with volcanoes (Bermuda)
1.4.2.3. Oceanic Ridges
1.4.2.3.1. Submarine mountain range that is a source of volcanic activity
1.4.2.3.2. May reach surface
1.4.2.4. Oceanic Trench
1.4.2.4.1. Narrow, Deepest part of the ocean floor
1.4.2.4.2. found and adjacent to some continents or island chains and along the margins of the ocean
1.4.2.4.3. Most common around the Pacific Ocean
2. Volcanoes
2.1. Products of Volcanic Eruptions
2.1.1. Airborne
2.1.1.1. Tephra
2.1.1.1.1. Particles that are blasted into the air by a Volcanic Eruption
2.1.1.2. Volcanic Gases
2.1.2. Surface
2.1.2.1. Lahars
2.1.2.1.1. Mud flows formed when fine-grained Tephra mixes with water from snow-melt or steams
2.1.2.2. Lava
2.1.2.3. Pyroclastic Flows
2.1.2.3.1. Mixture of hot gases and ash cinders, and other volcanic debris that form a dense hot cloud that races down a volcanic slope
2.2. Volcanoes and Volcanic Landforms
2.2.1. 3 types of Volcanoes
2.2.1.1. Shield Volcanoes
2.2.1.1.1. Have broad gently sloping Sides built up from thousands of fluid low-viscosity lava flows
2.2.1.2. Stratovolcanoes
2.2.1.2.1. Cone Shaped
2.2.1.2.2. Has a violent style of Eruption that blasts debris several kilometers into the atmosphere
2.2.1.3. Cinder Cone Volcanoes
2.2.2. Volcanic Landforms
2.2.2.1. Caldera
2.2.2.1.1. Composed of coarse tephra produced when gas escape rapidly from molten lava
2.2.2.1.2. A crater that when a Stratovolcano or Shield volcano collapses into a shallow, empty magma chamber below the volcano
2.2.2.2. Lava Plateaus
2.2.2.2.1. Stacks of low viscosity lava flows
2.2.2.3. Geysers
2.2.2.4. Hot Springs
2.2.2.5. Fumeroles
2.2.2.6. Mud Volcanoes
2.3. Magma Viscosity
2.3.1. Viscosity of magma increases while temperature decreases and vise versa
2.3.2. Less SIlica=low viscosity
2.3.3. More Silica=High Viscosity
2.4. Magma and Lava
2.4.1. Magma
2.4.1.1. Sources and Magma Composition
2.4.1.1.1. Basaltic
2.4.1.1.2. Rhyolitic
2.4.1.1.3. Andesitic
2.4.2. Lava
2.4.2.1. the molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption.
2.4.2.2. The resulting rock after solidification and cooling is also called lava.
3. Rocks and Minerals
3.1. Minerals
3.1.1. Characteristics
3.1.1.1. Crystal form
3.1.1.1.1. The shape of the crystal a mineral forms when it's free to go unimeded
3.1.1.2. Cleavage
3.1.1.2.1. The propensity of a mineral to break along one or more planes
3.1.1.3. Hardness
3.1.1.3.1. The measurement of the resistance of a mineral to scratching
3.1.1.4. Color
3.1.1.5. Luster
3.1.1.5.1. How light is reflected by a mineral
3.1.1.6. Streak
3.1.1.6.1. The Mark formed when mineral is scratched across an unglazed piece of porcelain
3.1.2. Naturally occurring inorganic solids of one or more elements that have a definite chemical composition with an orderly internal arrangement of atoms
3.2. Rocks
3.2.1. Igneous
3.2.1.1. Formed when magma in Earth's interior rises to the surface through pipe or fractures in the crust
3.2.1.2. If they are cooled below the Earth's surface, they are called Plutonic Igneous rocks
3.2.2. Sedimentary
3.2.2.1. 3 kinds
3.2.2.1.1. Clastics
3.2.2.1.2. Chemical
3.2.2.1.3. Biochemical
3.2.2.2. Made through weathering
3.2.3. Metamorphic
3.2.3.1. 2 kinds
3.2.3.1.1. Contact
3.2.3.1.2. Reigonal
3.2.3.2. Made through heat and pressure
4. Geologic Time
4.1. Relative time
4.1.1. Uniformitarianism
4.1.1.1. The same slow-acting geological processes that operate today in the past, meaning it takes a long time to influence the Earth's surface significantly
4.1.2. Superposition
4.1.2.1. Rocks at the bae are older than the rock on top
4.1.3. Index fossils
4.1.3.1. Species that existed for a relatively short period of geological time and found over large geographic areas are the best for precise correlations
4.2. Numerical time
4.2.1. Radioactive decay
4.2.1.1. Half-life
4.2.1.1.1. Parent cells (unstable) split themselves into 2 daughter cells (stable) which tells us the age of a rock according to how many half-lives it went through
4.3. Geologic Time
4.3.1. Eras
4.3.1.1. Cenozoic
4.3.1.1.1. Started around 66 million years ago
4.3.1.2. Mesozoic
4.3.1.2.1. Started around 251 million years ago
4.3.1.3. Paleozoic
4.3.1.3.1. Started around 542 million years ago
4.3.1.4. Precambrian
4.3.2. Eons
4.3.2.1. Phanerozoic
4.3.2.1.1. Started around 543 million years ago
4.3.2.1.2. Contains the previously said eras
4.3.2.1.3. Fossils became common in rocks
4.3.2.1.4. "Life revealed"
4.3.2.2. Proterozoic
4.3.2.2.1. Started around 2.5 billion years ago
4.3.2.2.2. Had the oldest fossils of multi-celled organisms
4.3.2.2.3. Oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere
4.3.2.2.4. "Earlier life"
4.3.2.3. Archean
4.3.2.3.1. Started around 4.6 billion years ago
4.3.2.3.2. First bacteria
4.3.2.3.3. Oldest known rocks
4.3.2.3.4. When earth was formed
4.3.3. Extinction Periods
4.3.3.1. Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction
4.3.3.1.1. No dinosaurs survived
4.3.3.1.2. Mammals became the dominant group
4.3.3.1.3. About 75% of all species were destroyed
4.3.3.1.4. Asteroid
4.3.3.2. Permian-Triassic Extinction
4.3.3.2.1. Killed 96% of marine species and 70% of land species
4.3.3.2.2. Often called 'The great dying'
5. Earthquakes
5.1. Faults
5.1.1. Fractures where 2 blocks of rock move past each other
5.2. Earthquake
5.2.1. Focus
5.2.1.1. Source of the Earthquake
5.2.1.2. Plural is Foci
5.2.2. Epicenter
5.2.2.1. On the Earth's surface directly above the Focus
5.3. Fault Movement
5.3.1. Normal
5.3.1.1. The block above the fault moves downward
5.3.2. Reverse
5.3.2.1. Block above moves upward
5.3.3. Strike-slip
5.3.3.1. Vertical faults that only show horizontal movements
5.4. Seismic Waves and detection
5.4.1. Seismic Waves
5.4.1.1. Surface
5.4.1.1.1. Rayleigh Waves
5.4.1.1.2. Love Waves
5.4.1.2. Body Waves
5.4.1.2.1. P-Waves
5.4.1.2.2. S-Waves
5.5. Measurement of the Earthquake
5.5.1. The Earthquake Magnitude is measured on a logarithmic scale in which each division represents a 10-fold increase in the ground Montion
5.5.2. The Earthquake magnitude scale doesn't have a maximum value
5.6. Hazards
5.6.1. Ground Shaking
5.6.2. Aftershocks
5.6.3. Landslides
5.6.4. Elevation Changes
5.6.5. Liquefaction
5.6.6. Tsunami
6. Earth and Space
6.1. Theory/Hypothesis
6.1.1. Geocentric
6.1.1.1. Everything revolves around the earth
6.1.2. Heliocentric
6.1.2.1. Everything revolves around the Sun
6.1.3. Big Bang Theory
6.1.3.1. Universe began with an episode of rapid explosions
6.1.3.2. Within hours simple elements (hydrogen and helium) formed as subatomic particles combined
6.2. Origin of the Universe
6.2.1. Distance of the Universe
6.2.1.1. Luminosity
6.2.1.1.1. Brightness of pulstating stars was used to determine the distance from the earth
6.2.2. Size of the Universe
6.2.2.1. Doppler effect
6.2.2.1.1. The apparent change in the frequency of sound or light waves due to the motion of a source relative to the observer
6.3. Planets and stars
6.3.1. 3 major and 4 sub Elements
6.3.1.1. 90%
6.3.1.1.1. Hydrogen
6.3.1.1.2. Oxygen
6.3.1.1.3. Carbon
6.3.1.2. 9%
6.3.1.2.1. Nitrogen
6.3.1.2.2. Phosphorus
6.3.1.2.3. Potassium
6.3.1.2.4. Sulfur
6.3.2. Gravity pulled together irregular clouds of gas and dust generating from the big bang to form galaxies
6.3.3. Planets
6.3.3.1. Terestrial Planets
6.3.3.1.1. Mercury
6.3.3.1.2. Venus
6.3.3.1.3. Composed mostly of Rocks
6.3.3.1.4. Earth
6.3.3.1.5. Mars
6.3.3.2. Jovian Planets
6.3.3.2.1. Jupiter
6.3.3.2.2. Saturn
6.3.3.2.3. Large gas giants; Many moons and ring systems; thick atmosphere
6.3.3.2.4. Uranus
6.3.3.2.5. Neptune
6.3.3.3. Dwarf Planets
6.3.3.3.1. Pluto
6.3.3.4. Typical Planet is approximately 400km in radius
6.3.4. Sun
6.3.4.1. 99.8% of the total mass of the solar system
6.3.4.2. Rotations
6.3.4.2.1. Equatorial region rotates faster (25 days)
6.3.4.2.2. Polar regions rotate slower (36 days)
6.3.4.3. Sun Cycle
6.3.4.3.1. Variations in the number of sun spots over an 11 year cycle
6.3.4.3.2. few sun spots during a solar minimum
6.3.4.4. Solar Wind
6.3.4.4.1. A stream of charged particles emitted from the sun's magnetic field
6.3.4.4.2. The solar wind affects the volume of space known as the heliosphere
6.3.4.4.3. Earths Magnetic field deflects the solar winds
6.3.4.4.4. Interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar winds results in an Aurora
6.4. Earth, Sun, and the Seasons
6.4.1. 3 major parts in the Earth
6.4.1.1. Tropic of Cancer
6.4.1.1.1. Above the Equator
6.4.1.1.2. North of the Hawaiian Islands and Cuba
6.4.1.2. Equator
6.4.1.2.1. Imaginary line on the middle/widest circumference of the Earth
6.4.1.2.2. Passes through South Africa, Central Africa, and Indonesia
6.4.1.3. Tropic of Capricorn
6.4.1.3.1. Below the Equator
6.4.2. Insolation
6.4.2.1. The amount of Solar Radiation received by the Earth
6.4.2.2. Greatest when the Sun is directly overhead
6.4.2.3. Decreases when the Sun's rays make a lower angle in respect to Earth's surface
6.4.2.4. Half of the Solar Radiation makes it to the Earth;s surface, the rest is reflected
6.4.3. Earth comes closer to the Sun during January and slightly farther on the month of July
6.5. Earth
6.5.1. Core
6.5.1.1. Solid Inner Core
6.5.1.2. Partially melted Outer COre
6.5.1.3. Largely composed of Iron and Nickel
6.5.2. Mantle
6.5.2.1. Solid from the top of the Outer Core up to the base of the Crust
6.5.2.2. Asthenosphere
6.5.2.2.1. Below the mantle that is composed of weaker rocks
6.5.3. Crust
6.5.3.1. Mostly composed of lower density rocks
6.5.3.2. Lithosphere
6.5.3.2.1. Rigid outer layer composed of the crust and most of the mantle
6.5.3.3. Asthenosphere
6.5.3.3.1. the upper layer of the earth's mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur.
7. Weathering and Soil
7.1. Weathering
7.1.1. 3 Kinds of Weathering
7.1.1.1. Physical
7.1.1.1.1. Unloading
7.1.1.1.2. Wedging
7.1.1.1.3. Represents the disintegration of rocks and minerals to smaller pieces
7.1.1.2. Chemical
7.1.1.2.1. Dissolution
7.1.1.2.2. Hydrolysis
7.1.1.2.3. Oxidation
7.1.1.2.4. The decomposition of rock as a result of the chemical breakdown of rocks
7.1.1.3. Biological
7.1.1.3.1. Microscopic
7.1.1.3.2. Macroscopic
7.1.2. Weathering of rocks
7.1.2.1. Factors
7.1.2.1.1. Rock Compositoion
7.1.2.1.2. Rock Properties
7.1.2.1.3. Climate
7.2. Soils
7.2.1. Horizons
7.2.1.1. O horizon
7.2.1.1.1. Organic debris, dead leaves, and other plant and animal remains make up 30% of this player
7.2.1.2. A horizon
7.2.1.2.1. Consists of the top soil which is dark organic material mixed with mineral grains by organic activity
7.2.1.3. E horizon
7.2.1.3.1. Composed of subsurface layers that have lost most of their minerals
7.2.1.4. B horizon
7.2.1.4.1. Clays that are carried down by the A horizon are deposited here
7.2.1.4.2. Little organic material is present at this depth
7.2.1.5. C horizon
7.2.1.5.1. Consists of soil parent material either weathered bedrock or unconsolidated sediments
7.2.2. Soil Forming and Factors
7.2.2.1. Temperature and amount of rain in the reigon
7.2.2.2. Steeper slopes cause water to flow more rapidly, transporting material away from the site and resulting in slower soil formation
7.2.2.3. It takes time for weathering and the other factors to form soil