ELSCIE

CHAPTER 11: ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH

• GEOLOGY: is the study of the Earth, which aims to understand the processes occurring
within and on the planet.

• DIFFERENT THEORIES ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE EARTH

• BIG BANG THEORY: the universe was formed from a cataclysmic expansion, that
exploded after which lead to the creation of matter, space, energy and time.

• STEADY STATE THEORY: the universe is continuously expanding, and there is no

beginning nor ending of the universe.

• ETERNAL INFLATION THEORY: the creation of the universe did not stopped
after the big bang, which means there is still a creation of different universe -
multiverse.

• THE MODEL OF OSCILLATING UNIVERSE: there is a beginning and an ending

of the universe, where we came from one singularity and just simply expanded
and returns back to the singularity - big crunch.

• SOLAR NEBULA THEORY: hypothesize the birth of the star and consequently, the
planets, and other heavenly bodies that revolve around them.

• EARTH’S SYSTEM
• GEOSPHERE: The largest of the four spheres, it comprises, the solid portion of
the Earth.

• CRUST: The Earths thin and rocky center skin.

Oceanic Crust: is made up of Baltic rocks rich in magnesium and iron and is 7 km thick.

• Continental Crust: is 70 km thick and it is dominated by granitic rocks.

• MANTLE: Comprises more than 82% of the earth’s total volume.

• Upper Mantle: is about 660 kilometers, it is further into stiff lithosphere (at the upper
portion of the upper mantle and the whole crust) and plastic asthenosphere (layer beneath
the lithosphere).

• Lower Mantle: Deeper than the upper mantle and extends 2,900 kilometers to the top of
the core and it is the more.

• CORE: Considered to be the sink of dense elements and it represents the deepest portion
of the earth with a radius of approximately 3,400 kilometers.

• Outer Core: represents the liquid portion of the core where the movement of iron is
believed to be generating the Earth’s magnetic field.

• Inner Core: it is solid due to the immense pressure.

• HYDROSPHERE: It is 70% of the Earth’s surface area

• ATMOSPHERE: It is a layer of gaseous envelope that surrounds the planet on the surface
and extends thinly unto space.

• BIOSPHERE: It includes all forms of life on Earth including the ones found in the deepest
part of the ocean and highest parts of the atmosphere.
• ANCIENT ASTRONOMY: Focuses on the idea of geocentric - the earth is the center of
the universe - and also religious rooted notions about the universe.

ARISTARCHUS: The first Greek to speculate about Heliocentric - the sun is the center of
the solar system universe through his geometric of the size and distances of the moon and
sun.

• PTOLEMY: he made people believe that the earth is the center of the universe.

• MODERN ASTRONOMY: Focuses on the idea of heliocentric and tried to disprove

religious rooted notions about the universe.

• NICOLAUS COPERNICUS: He sticked to the spherical planets and perfect circular orbits.

• TYCHO BRAHE: He was the first astronomer to observe the heavenly bodies with his
observatory in Copenhagen.

• JOHANNES KEPLER: He derived three basic laws of planetary motion, or the elliptical
shape of the orbit.

• GALILEO GALILEI: The greatest scientist of the Renaissance, strongly supported the
Copernican Heliocentric theory.

• SIR ISAAC NEWTON: He was able to theorize the existence of a force that held the moon
in orbit around the Earth - Law of Universal Gravitation.

CHAPTER 12: EARTHS MATERIALS AND PROCESSES

• CHARACTERISTICS OF MINERALS
• Naturally-Occuring • Inorganic
• Homogenous Solid
• Definite Chemical Composition
• Ordered Internal / Crystalline Structure
• MINERAL PROPERTIES

• Color: Is the perceived wavelength of light that bounced off from the materials and is
detected by our eyes.

• Streak: Is the color of a mineral in powdered form.

• Luster: Is the behavior of light as it is reflected by the surface of the mineral.

• Metallic minerals reflect light similar to a polished metal.

• Non-Metallic can be described as pearly, waxy, vitreous and silky.

• Hardness: It is the resistance of a mineral to scratching.

• Cleavage: It is the tendency of the mineral to break along a particular directions.

• And Other Properties

• Magnetism
• Fluorescence
• Reaction to chemicals
• Taste
• Odor

• ROCKS: Are aggregates of one or more minerals, which may or may not contain glass,
organic matter and mineraloids.

• IGNEOUS ROCKS: Rocks formed by fire.

• Magma is defined as molten rocks with associated solid materials and gaseous phases.

• Lava is simply magma that has breached the surface.

• Plutonic rocks have mineral grains easily identified with the naked eye or with the help
of a hand lens.

• Volcanic rocks have minerals grains difficult to be identified with the naked eye.

• SEDIMENTARY ROCKS: Rocks from sediments.

• SEDIMENTARY ROCKS:

• Weathering: the process of breaking down rocks physically or chemically.

• Erosion: means to ‘eat away’, where the process of eating away rocks from the source.

• Transport: is the movement of the sediments from one place to another.

• Deposition: is the settling of the sediments in an area before they are finally lithified to
form sedimentary rocks.

• Diagenesis: group of processes responsible for the transformation of sediments into

sedimentary rocks.
• Processes include compaction, cementation, recrystallization and bioturbation.

• METAMORPHIC ROCKS: Transformed rocks.

• Metamorphism is the transformation of one rock to a metamorphic rock.

• Heat.
• Pressure.
• Chemically-active fluids.

• Foliated metamorphic rocks has a layered structure (slate).

• Non-Foliated metamorphic rocks has no evident layered structure (marble).
• EXOGENIC PROCESS: This are processes happening on the surface of the earth, such as,
weathering and erosion.

• MASS WASTING: it is the movement of land, driven by gravity, from higher elevation to
lower elevation.

• Rapid mass wasting processes occur at rates with changes instantaneously visible to a
viewer.

• Slow mass wasting processes would require a time span to have significant and
observable changes in the landform.

FACTORS OF MASS WASTING

• Water
• Angle of repose
• Soil Cover
• Geologic features
• Triggering Events.

TYPES OF MASS WASTING BASED ON MOVEMENT

• Falls / Rock Falls
• Rock Slides / Debris Slides
• Mudflows / Flows
• Slumps
• Creep

• ENDOGENIC PROCESSES
• Volcanism is the expulsion of lava and associated materials into the surface of the earth,
has been one of the most prominent endogenic processes observable in the present.

MEASURING THE DESTRUCTIVE CAPABILITY OF VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

• Hawaiian: effusive, quiet, emission of lava with very low volatile content.

• Strombolian: involving more viscous lava.

• Vulcanian: the explosions are more sustained and could occur in series of blasts on a
certain time interval.

• Plinian: they are responsible for widespread dispersal or materials from the volcano such
as ash and pumice which are carried farther by wind.

• Surtseyan / Phreatomagmatic: contact of magma with a body of water, ice, or

groundwater.

TYPES OF VOLCANOES

• Shield Volcano: are made from multiple sequences of low viscosity lava piled up on top
of each other.

• Cinder Cone: are mostly made up of pyroclastic fragments which sustains steep slopes
and does not spread out as much as lava.
• Stratovolcano: it is a mixture of lava and pyroclastic materials.

• DEFORMATION: The crust moves as a consequence of the convection happenings in the

earth’s mantle.

• Upwelling brings new material to the surface as oceanic crust in midoceanic ridges.
• Sinking destroys crust back into the convection as observed in subduction zones.
• Tectonic plates are made to move, slide and collide with each other.

• STRESS: the tectonic forces that act on them.

• Compression: when two units collide.

• Tension: similar to rope being pulled from both sides.

• Shear: Rocks slide past each other along the plane of contact.

• Strain: is the deformation exhibited by a body that is undergoing stress.

• Elastic deformation: Accommodate a certain amount stress and revert back to its
original form when stress is removed.

• Inelastic deformation: will undergo deformation that will have a permanent difference
from its original.

• Folds: are evidence of ductile deformation in rocks.

• Faults: are brittle deformation features in rocks that shows evidence of movement.

• CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

• Was observed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, when he wrote his book, “The
Origin of Continents and Oceans”, that continents were actually connected
together.

EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORTS THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

• Jigsaw puzzle fit.

• Terrestrial Fossil.
• Rock and structure.
• Ancient Climate.

• PLATE TECTONIC: The rigid lithosphere rides the plastic asthenosphere beneath it.

• Divergent boundaries: or constructive margins; defines areas where plate moves apart.

• Convergent boundaries: collides with each other in convergent boundaries.

• Transform boundaries: where two plates neither collide nor move away.
• Lord Kelvin in 1987 estimated the age of the earth from conduction and radiation studies
and found it to be around 24-40 million years.

• John Joly in 1901 studied the rate of delivery of salts into the oceans and estimated the
age of the earth to be around 90-100 million years.

• James Hutton The father of modern Geology and Published his Theory of the Earth.

• Uniformitarianism: that processes operating today had been operating since the
formation of earth albeit at different rates, and will continue to do so in the future.

• Relative Dating: Comparing of the age of one rock to another. Scientists determines the
sequence of the rock an by its age base on their order and the
fossil present.

• Fossils: This are preserved remains or traces of organisms.

• Paleontology is the study of fossils.

• Absolute Dating: Is determining the numerical age of materials using radioactive

isotopes.

• The Geologic Time Scale (GTS) is a hierarchical set of division describing the geologic
time.

CHAPTER 9: EVOLUTION

• EVOLUTION: Is defined as the process by which different organisms are though to have
developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

• CHARLES DARWIN
• Published the book entitled, On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection

• The book contains two main points about the concept of natural selection and also as the
foundation of the Theory of Evolution.

• (1) all species on Earth are products of descent with modification from a common
ancestors; and
• (2) natural selection is the mechanism for descent modification.

• Evolution five main key points:

• MICROEVOLUTION. Refers to changes in the gene frequency within an observable time

frame.

• SPECIATION. Species can diverge from other species.

• MACROEVOLUTION. Novels forms or life that are derived from earlier forms, which
causes an obvious change that happens over time.

• SHARED ANCESTRY. All species are genealogically related.

• The Earth and life is more than 6,000 years old to be able to accommodate all the
evolutionary changes that led to the existence of Earth and its species today.

NATURAL SELECTION

• Within a population, individuals exhibit differences from one another;

• Some of these differences are passed on from parents to offspring;

• Within the population, some individuals are more successful at surviving and reproducing
than others; and

• The success of this individuals is because of the variant traits they have inherited and will
pass to their offsprings.

• MICROEVOLUTION Is an evolution that happens within a single population.

• MUTATIONS. Changes the gene frequency that can either work or go against the
organism it was conceived in.

• MIGRATIONS. It is the movement of alleles into or out of a population by physical

relocation of the individual organisms.

• GENETIC DRIFT. Random event changes the gene frequency in a population.

• NATURAL SELECTION. Favors individuals in a population that have the fittest genotype,
enabling them to have a higher chance of survival than those that are susceptible to
selective pressure.

• EXAMPLE OF MICROEVOLUTION

• EVIDENCE FROM DOMESTICATED POPULATIONS. Breeding procedure that breeders

conduct, which allows only the individuals with the most desirable characteristics to
reproduce.

• EVIDENCE FROM NATURAL POPULATIONS. This occurs during the

sprouting of plants, which makes some plants available in different seasons or they are only
growing in different seasons or climates.

• EVIDENCE FROM VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES. It was ones needed for survival, but due to
time it simply ceased to exist.

• SPECIATION: The process wherein a new species is created.

• SPECIES. Codified by ERNST MAYR: species are populations, groups of populations,

within and among which individuals actually or potentially interbreed and outside of which
they do not interbreed.

• ALLOPATRY: There is already a lack of connectedness from the original species, because
it shows how their genome evolved to adapt to their new environment

• PARAPATRY: The species is spread out over a large are; however they are prevailing in
their respective niche to facilitate reproductive isolation.
• SYMPATRY: The splitting of lineage of a species even there is no natural barrier within
them.

• STAGES OF SPECIATION
• Single population of the same species possesses individual genetic diversity within the
gene pool;

• The population is subdivided into distinguishable groups or races, carrying characteristics

that separates them from other group;

• The distinct population slowly exhibiting disinterest in mating so interbreeding becomes a

rare event; and

• Internal barrier to interbreed is established, and the distinct populations become

reproductively isolated.

• CO-SPECIATION: When two species associates very closely as in symbiotic relationships,

changes in one species can influence changes in the other species.

• MACROEVOLUTION: Describes the pattern on the tree of life at a grand scale over a long
time, that is, it explains evolutionary patterns that go beyond the species level.

• STASIS. Species exhibits unchanged characteristics and genetic composition throughout

long periods of time are generally termed as living
fossils.

• CONVERGENT EVOLUTION. Species that are ones different, suddenly

shows similarities from one another, due to living in the same environment, in the same
niche and performing similar functions.

• DIVERGENT EVOLUTION. Separating of species, into two or more lineage that give more
species over time, due environmental changes and
relocation of some populations.

• COEVOLUTION. Species with interacting relationships with other species may influence
each other to evolve.

• GRADUAL CHANGES OR GRADUALISM. Takes place in a slow and continuous manner,

with a long series of selection and variation occurring
intermittently.

• RAPID CHANGES OR PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM. Long period of stasis or equilibrium

where there is very little change, followed by short spurts of speciation often through
mutations in the genes of some individuals.

• EXTINCTION. When all individuals of a species or groups of species die off, the event is
known as mass extinction.

• LAW OF FOSSIL SUCCESSION: that animals and plants found as fossils change through
time, and that successive rock layers contain different groups or assemblages of fossils.

• Homology. The study of likeness, attributes, similar characteristics found in different

species to relatedness.
• STRUCTURAL HOMOLOGY. Comparative anatomy describes similarities among
vertebrates.

• UNIVERSAL MOLECULAR HOMOLOGIES. All organisms use the same set of codons of
code for the amino acids that are to be made into proteins. Divergent of species from the
common ancestor resulted modifications in the genetic code.

• EVOLUTIONARY TREE. Or the phylogeny, shows the evolutionary changes that takes
place leading the universal ancestor to give rise to several lineage of descendants.

CHAPTER 13: NATURAL HAZARDS, ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION

• Hazards. Phenomena that have the potential to bring damage to humans and properties.

• Exposure. Is the potential of humans and properties to become exposed to hazards.

• Vulnerability. Encompasses the mitigation efforts to reduce the effects of hazards which
is dictated by a number factors.

• Risk. Simply the collective effects if hazards, exposure, and associated vulnerabilities.

• Disaster. The occurrence of widespread damage from hazards which may include
casualties and property damages.

• EARTHQUAKE: Is the intense ground shaking or movement by a sudden release of energy.

• Elastic Rebound Theory
• Original Position;
• Build-up of strain;
• Rupture or Slippage; and
• The release of energy.

• SEISMOLOGY: The study of seismic waves.

• Seismometer. Instrument used to record the seismic waves.

• Body waves. The focus and emanate in all directions through the interior of the Earth.
• P-waves (Primary). Solid and liquid medium
• S-waves (Secondary). Only solid medium
• Surface waves. Travel only on the surface similar to water waves.
• Magnitude. The estimation of the amount of energy released at the source of the
earthquake.
• Intensity. Refers to the degree of ground shaking at a given locality.
• Epicenter. Location where the source of the earthquake or energy is released.
• Focus. Location at the depth of an earthquake source.

• EARTHQUAKE EFFECTS
• Wave Amplitude;
• Duration of vibration;
• Nature of bedrock; and
• Design of Structure.

• VOLCANIC ERUPTION
• HAZARDS
• Lava;
• Pyroclastic Flow;
• Lahar;
• Gas; and
• Ash.

• MONITORING
• Ground movement;
• Gas Release;
• Anomalous thermal signatures; and
• Chemical changes in nearby bodies of water.

• Tropical Cyclones. Characterized by strong winds, heavy rain, and a distinct low pressure
center (called the eye).

• Tornadoes. Violently rotating columns of air in contact with the earth and a cloud.

• Flooding. Flow of water in areas that are normally dry.

• Storm Surge. Landward phenomenon of water rising above the normal sea or tidal levels
due to low pressure (cyclone) are forming in the sea.

• MONSOONS: Are often describes as synonymous to sea breeze (movement of cold sea air
towards warm land) only at a larger scale.

• Amihan or Northeastern Wind. Characterized by cool, relatively dry winds (not much
precipitation) prevailing from the east.

• Habagat or Southwest Wind. Characterized as hot and humid winds from the west.

• Waves. Are evidence of water transferring energy from one area to another.

• Winds. Driving force that allows the formation of winds.

• Tides. The change of sea level occurring on a daily cycle.

• Spring Tide. Creates higher and lower tides, due to the alignment of both the sun and
moon

• Neap Tide. Creates a lower tide because both the sun and moon are positioned in a right
angle , which counteract each other.

• Tsunamis. Series of large waves of water from the displacement of a large volume of
water offshore.

• Tidal Flooding. Occurs when the local tide is high enough to reach the coast and inland.

• HAZARD MAPS. Are used to identify high-risk areas in the event of a particular natural
hazards.