National Geographic

Naked Science: The Birth of the Solar System

Geology 11 – Principles of Geology

A. M. P. Tengonciang
Department of Physical Sciences
University of the Philippines, Baguio
 Guide questions
1. What is a nebula?
A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust in space, wherein stars
and planets form.
2. Summarize Kant’s theory about the formation of the solar
system in one sentence.
Kant proposed that nebulae could collapse in and condense
into planets and stars.
3. Why do infrared telescopes like the Spitzer Space Telescope
tell us more about the characteristics of distant nebulae
compared to traditional visible light telescopes?
Infrared light has a longer wavelength than visible light, thus
can penetrate thick clouds of gas and dust like nebulae.
 Guide questions
4. What kind of information do we get from observing other
nebulae/solar systems in the universe?
We can get ideas about how our own solar system formed by
directly examining the processes that take place during star
and planet formation, such as condensation and accretion.
5. What were the two sources of heat in the protostar created
from the collapse of the nebula?
At first, the heat generated in the protostar was due to
friction, but when the temperature reached 18,000,000 oF
(about 10,000,000 oC), nuclear fusion took place.
 Guide questions
6. Where did the elements in our solar system other than
hydrogen and helium come from?
The other elements were created from the nuclear fusion
within the sun of hydrogen and helium created from the Big
Bang.
7. What are the two oldest types of material in the solar
system?
Comets (mostly frozen gases) and asteroids (rocky/metallic)
are the two oldest materials in the solar system.
8. What is the significance of finding Iron-60 in meteorites?
Iron-60 is only produced by supernovae, thus its presence in
meteorites indicates that a supernova was active near our
evolving solar system.
 Guide questions
9. What was named as the force that caused our solar nebula
to start spinning?
The blast waves from the nearby supernova caused the
compression of the solar nebula.
10. What two forces were responsible for the attraction
between particles in the solar nebula?
Electrostatic (when the particles were very small) and
gravitational forces (when the particles grew to the size of
mountains – called planetisimals – and were able to exert a
significant gravitational influence on other particles or
planetisimals)
 Guide questions
11. What kind of information was discovered from rocks taken
from the Moon’s surface, and what did this say about the
Moon’s formation?
Lunar rocks are chemically different the Earth, but show
evidence that the Moon was once part of the Earth. This,
along with the younger age of the Moon and other evidence
indicates that it formed during the early stages of the proto-
Earth through a collision with Theia (a Mars-sized body).
12. Why couldn’t the gas compounds condense in the region
where the inner terrestrial planets formed?
It was too hot for gases to condense in the inner solar
system, but not too hot for the rocky components to accrete.
The gases condensed past the Frost Line.
 Guide questions
13. Why are Jupiter and Saturn called gas giants, but Uranus and
Neptune are called ice giants?
All four planets are composed dominantly of volatiles from
the solar nebula, but Jupiter and Saturn’s bulk is made out of
these volatiles in gaseous form. Because Uranus and
Neptune are farther from the Sun, the extremely low
temperature (-350 oF or -212 oC) caused most of the volatiles
to condense into ice.
14. What is the Kuiper Belt? What is the Oort Cloud?
Both the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud are remnants of the
condensation of the outer planets of the solar system (frozen
gases, vs. rocky/metallic objects of the asteroid belt).
 Guide questions
15. Why do most of the craters of the Moon have more or less
the same age (3.9 billion years)? What event caused this
phenomenon?
Most of the craters of the Moon were formed during the
Lunar Cataclysm or Late Heavy Bombardment, which
occurred because of the 2:1 orbital resonance between
Jupiter and Saturn 3.9 billion years ago. The interaction of
the gravities of the two planets caused the orbits of Uranus
and Neptune to cross. This changed the orbits of the
asteroids, some being thrown towards the inner solar
system, causing some to collide with the Moon and the rest
of the terrestrial planets.
The Planet Earth

Geology 11 – Principles of Geology

A. M. P. Tengonciang
Department of Physical Sciences
University of the Philippines, Baguio
 The Earth’s vital statistics
• What is the Earth’s shape?
• How big is the Earth?
• What are the large-scale features of the
Earth’s surface?
• How do the plates interact with one another?
• What is the interior of the Earth like?
 What is the Earth’s shape?
Ancient ideas
• Earth is flat, like an
infinite plane
• Ancient Babylon
• Egypt
• pre-Classical Greece
• pre-17th century China

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/T-O_Mappa_mundi_z.jpg
http://www.icis.com/blogs/asian-chemical-connections/FlatEarth.jpg
http://www.neosurrealismart.com/modern-art-prints/?images/final-frontier-voyager-fes-the-flat-earth-society.jpg
 What is the Earth’s shape?
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
• Concluded that the Earth is
a sphere from the
circumference calculations
of mathematicians and
from his own observations:
1. Matter is drawn to the
center of the Earth by
gravity (“All objects have a
natural tendency to fall”)
http://westernparadigm.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/aristotle.jpg
 What is the Earth’s shape?
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
2. From the north to south,
new constellations are
seen rising above the
southern horizon
3. During a lunar eclipse, the
Earth’s shadow on the
Moon is always round

http://westernparadigm.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/aristotle.jpg
 What is the Earth’s shape?
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
• Philosophiae naturalis
principia mathematica (1687)
• The Earth is flattened by its
poles (i.e., a rotating ellipsoid)
due to the force caused by
the rotation of the Earth
• Oblate spheroid
– Oblate – elongated
– Spheroid – almost a sphere
• The earth is only slightly
http://idology.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/isaac_newton_hd.jpg
oblate
 Mean polar diameter
Whatkmis the Earth’s
 12,714 shape?
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
• Philosophiae
Mean equatorial naturalis
diameter
principia mathematica (1687)
 12,756 km
• The Earth is flattened by its
poles (i.e., a rotating ellipsoid)
due to the force caused by
the rotation of the Earth
• Oblate spheroid
– Oblate – elongated
– Spheroid – almost a sphere
• The earth is only slightly
http://idology.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/isaac_newton_hd.jpg
oblate
 What is the Earth’s shape?
Other evidence that the Earth is a slightly oblate
spheroid:
• The position of the stars (and Sun) appear to change
as we move over great distances on the earth's
surface.
• The pull of gravity on an object changes as the
distance of the object from the center of the earth
changes. At the equator, where the Earth's diameter
is greatest, objects weigh a little less. At the Poles,
where the Earth's diameter is the least, objects
weight a little more.
 What is the Earth’s shape?
• The Earth's rotation creates a centrifugal force
perpendicular to the rotation axis
• If the Earth consisted of solid material, then there
would be no effect on the shape
• Our Earth has a molten interior and a broken but
solid crust that moves slowly, and so it is certainly
not solid. This accounts for the slight flattening at
the poles.
 How big is the Earth?
Eratosthenes (276-194 BC)
• Appointed Director to
the Great Library at
Alexandria by
Ptolemaeus III
Evergetes
• Measured the size of
the Earth circa 240 BC

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/people/images/eratosthenes_sm.jpg
 Eratosthenes’ assumptions
• The rays of the sun reach the Earth as parallel
beams
• The angle of the sun’s rays striking Syene &
Alexandria during the summer solstice was
different
• The Earth is a sphere
• Alexandria & Syene lie on the same meridian,
and were separated by 5,000 stadia or 925 km
(1 stadium  185 m)
 Tropic of Cancer

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_middle_east/egypt.jpg
http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/physics/astronomy/astr101/specials/eratosthenes2.gif
 Errors!
• 729 km between Alexandria & Syene
• The two cities are not on the same meridian
• Syene is 55 km farther north than the Tropic of
Cancer
• Angular difference between the two cities is 7°5’
• Earth’s circumference  46,250 km!
 How big is the Earth?
• Circumference at the equator: 40,066 km
• Circumference at the poles: 39,992 km
• Mean diameter = 12,742 km
• Surface area = 510 million km2 (29% land, 71%
water)
• Volume = 1,080,000,000,000 (1.08 trillion) km3
• Mass = 5.97 x 1024 kg
What are the large-scale features
of the surface of the Earth?
Continental landmasses

Ocean basins
 Crust
Continental crust (solid) Oceanic crust (solid)
• Outermost 30-70 km • Outermost 5-10 km below the
represents continental oceans
landmasses

• Average density = 2700 kg/m3 • Average density = 3000 kg/m3

• Average composition similar • Average composition similar

to granite (high silica and to basalt (high silica and
aluminum content; SIAL) magnesium content; SIMA)

• More silica than oceanic crust • More silica than mantle

 Upper layers of the Earth
Lithosphere
• The hard, rigid outer layer
of the Earth
• Includes the crust and the
uppermost part of the
upper mantle
• Oceanic lithosphere – 50-
100 km thick
• Continental lithosphere –
40-200 km thick
Asthenosphere
• The mechanically weak,
slow-flowing, plastically-
deforming region of the
upper mantle of the Earth
• Upper margin is 100-200 km
below the surface, and may
extend as deep as 400 km
Tectonic plates

Sea
Tectonic plates

Sea
PHILIPPINE
SEA PLATE
 Large areas of exposed crystalline igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks
Shields that form tectonically stable areas, with ages greater than 570 million years
(sometimes dating back 2 to 3.5 billion years).
 Plate boundaries
Mid-oceanic ridge Subduction zone
[Divergent] [Convergent]

Transform fault
 Subduction zones
Aleutian
Mediterranean- Kurile
Cascade Himalayas
Japan
Ryuku
Izu-Bonin-
Puerto Sea
Mariana
Central Rico Philippine
America

Java Bougainville
Kermadec- Peru-
Tonga Chile

South
Sandwich
Mountain ranges
 Mid-oceanic ridges
Mohns
Reykjanes

Sea

Mid-Atlantic

SW Indian

East Pacific
Rise Chile SE Indian
 Plate Boundaries
Mohns
Aleutian Reykjanes
Mediterranean- Kurile
Cascade Himalayas
Japan
Ryuku
Izu-Bonin-
Puerto Sea
Mariana
Central Rico Philippine
America Mid-Atlantic

Java Bougainville
Kermadec- Peru- SW Indian
Tonga Chile
East Pacific
Rise Chile South SE Indian
Sandwich
 Isostasy
The concept that the elevation of the Earth's surface
(over tens of millions of years) seeks a balance between
the weight of lithospheric rocks and the buoyancy of
asthenospheric "fluid" (nearly-molten rock)
atlas.geo.cornell.edu/education/student/isostasy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Earth_seafloor_crust_age_1996.gif
What is the interior of the Earth like?

Early Earth (circa 4.54 Bya)
Planetary differentiation
Iron Catastrophe (circa 4.49 Bya)
Plate Tectonics (circa 4.2-4.3 Bya)
Timeline review:
4.6 Bya – Solar nebula
collapsed
4.54 Bya – Sun, Earth and
other planets formed
4.53 Bya – Theia collides
with Earth (National
Geographic, 2007)
4.49 Bya – Iron Catastrophe
(PBS Nova, 2004)
4.42 Bya – Lunar magma
ocean crystallized (Nature,
2009)
4.2-4.3 Bya – Plate tectonics
initiated; Liquid water
present on the surface of
Earth (UCLA News, 2008)
 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7176/images/nature06583-f1.2.jpg

http://geoweb.princeton.edu/research/MineralPhy/earthinterior.gif
 The Earth’s Layers
• Crust
– oceanic (SIMA) and
continental (SIAL)
• Mantle
– silica, magnesium, iron,
calcium and sodium
• Core
– iron, nickel, sulfur

http://atropos.as.arizona.edu/aiz/teaching/a204/images/earth_inner_structure.gif
 Crust
Temperature range: 0-700oC
Continental crust (solid) Oceanic crust (solid)
• Outermost 30-70 km represents • Outermost 5-10 km below the
continental landmasses oceans

• Average density  2,700 kg/m3 • Average density  3,000 kg/m3

• Average composition similar to • Average composition similar to

granite (high silica and basalt (high silica and
aluminum content; SIAL) magnesium content; SIMA)

• More silica than oceanic crust • More silica than mantle

 Mohorovičid Discontinuity
Andrija Mohorovičić (1857–1936)
• Identified a boundary between the
crust and the mantle distinguished
by increased seismic wave velocity
(1909)
• ~7 km under the ocean floor
• ~30-50 km under continents
• ~75 km under the Tibetan Plateau

http://www.seismosoc.org/publications/SRL/SRL_78/images/A_Mohorovicic1.jpg
 Mantle
Solid, rocky, plastic, mobile (due to immense pressures)
Upper mantle Transition zone Lower mantle
• solid, except for a mushy • solid • solid
layer beneath the crust
(especially below the
oceans)

• Densityave  3,000 kg/m3 • Density  3,380-4,600 • Density  4,600-5,499

kg/m3 kg/m3

• Temp: 700-1,300oC • Temp: 1,300-1,800oC • Temp: 1,800-2,800oC

• Rich in olivine, spinel, • Similar to the rest of • Rich in olivine, pyroxene,

garnet the mantle plagioclase feldspar
 Gutenberg Discontinuity
• A boundary between the mantle
and the core distinguished by
increased seismic wave velocity
• ~2900 km under the surface

Beno Gutenberg (1889-1960)

• Recognized by his contributions to
the understanding of seismic waves

http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/student/mcpherson1/bgutenberg.gif
 Core
The center of the Earth
Outer core (molten, mobile) Inner core (solid)
• metallic liquid that moves by • makes up 1.7% of Earth’s
convection; produces Earth’s mass
magnetic field • Density  13,000 kg/m3
• Density  9,900-12,200 kg/m3 • Temperature  4,500oC
• Temperature  3,200oC • Iron-nickel alloy
• Iron-sulfure mixture
 Layers based on rock strength
Lithosphere Asthenosphere Mesosphere
• The hard, rigid outer • The mechanically • The region between
layer of the Earth weak, slow-flowing, the asthenosphere
• Includes the crust plastically-deforming and the outer core,
and the uppermost region of the upper more dense and rigid
part of the upper mantle of the Earth than the
mantle • Upper margin is 100- asthenosphere due
• Oceanic lithosphere 200 km below the to higher pressure
– 50-100 km thick surface, and may • Also called the lower
• Continental extend as deep as 400 mantle
lithosphere – 40-200 km (right below the
km thick lithosphere)