Earth Space Science

1. Earth Space Science By Abigail Teichert

2. ESS1 • ESS1 - The Earth and Earth materials, as we know them today, have developed over long periods of time, through constant change processes.

3. ATMOSPHERE, CLIMATE, & WEATHER • Identify and describe the processes involved in the water cycle and explain its effects on climatic patterns. • The water cycle is the Transition and movement of water involving evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration.

4. Water Cycle Things to look for • On the next sidle is a diagram of the water cycle, take a moment to absorb the diagram. Then move on for a great explanation of the elements that make the water cycle possible.

5. The Water Cycle

6. Evaporation: • Evaporation happens because warmth from the sun causes water from lakes, streams, ice, and soils to turn into water vapor in the air. Almost all of the precipitated water (80 percent) goes right back into the air because of evaporation. The rest runs off the land or soaks into the ground to become ground water.

7. Transpiration • Transpiration happens when plants give off water vapor through tiny pores in their leaves. This is the plant’s way of getting rid of waste, just like people and animals sweat when they’re hot! This water vapor evaporates into the air and is stored in the atmosphere until it becomes clouds or precipitation.

8. Condensation • Condensation is the changing of a gas to a liquid, or water vapor turning into a liquid.

9. Water vapor • Water vapor is water in a gas form that is held in the air until it changes back to water. You know, sometimes it’s sticky outside in the summer - that’s just water held in the air. The water can change into fine droplets by "condensing" in the air, and we get clouds. When the droplets get big enough, they are pulled to the earth by gravity as precipitation, better known as rain, sleet, snow, hail, dew, or frost.

10. Precipitation • Precipitation is made up of any type of water that falls to the earth like snow, hail, mist, or rain.

11. Ground Water • Ground Water is simply water under the ground where the soil is completely filled or saturated with water. This water is also called an "aquifer." Ground water moves underground from areas where the elevation is high, like a hilltop, to places that are lowland areas. Water movement is slow and might move anywhere from less than a millimeter up to a mile in a day. • Where the water table meets the land surface, a spring might bubble up or seep from the ground and flow into a lake, stream woodland, or the ocean. Ground water that meets the land surface also helps Rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands stay filled with water.

12. Infiltration • Infiltration happens when water soaks into the soil from the ground level. It moves underground and moves between the soil and rocks. Some of the water will be soaked up by roots to help plants grow. The plant’s leaves eventually release the water into the air through the plant’s pores. • Some of the water keeps moving down into the soil to a level that is filled with water, called ground water. The very top of this layer filled with ground water is called the water table.

13. Water Table • A Water Table is found underground where the rock and soil begin to be filled or "saturated" with water. It also marks the very top of the ground water layer.

14. ESS1 • Identify and describe the impact certain factors have on the Earth’s climate, including changes in the oceans’ temperature, changes in the composition of the atmosphere,

15. Something About the Ocean! • The ocean temperatures are rising, when they raise the ice caps melt. When the ice caps melt the ocean will get colder. When the ice caps melt it will maybe raise the temperature in the ocean so much causing an ice age, in some parts of the world.

16. Something About the Atmosphere! • The Earth is surrounded by a blanket of air called the atmosphere. The atmosphere is made up of various gases that act as a protective shield for the Earth and allow life to exist. Without it, we would be burned by the intense heat of the sun during the day or frozen by the very low temperatures at night. Because of the greenhouse cycle (which holds in carbon dioxide when used) the earth and the atmosphere are starting to get over heated rising temperature on Earth.

17. ESS1 • Describe the layers of the Earth, including the core, mantle, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere;

18. What is Earth? • The Earth is composed of four different layers. Many geologists believe that as the Earth cooled the heavier, denser materials sank to the center and the lighter materials rose to the top. Because of this, the crust is made of the lightest materials (rock- basalts and granites) and the core consists of heavy metals (nickel and iron).

19. Diagram of Earth’s Layers

20. Core • Core- the central portion of the earth, having a radius of about 2100 miles, and believed to be composed mainly of iron and nickel in a molten state.

21. Mantle • Mantle- the portion of the earth, about 1800 miles thick, between the crust and the core.

22. Lithosphere • Lithosphere- the outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle, approximately 100 km (62 mi.) thick.

23. Hydrosphere • Hydrosphere- the water on or surrounding the surface of the globe, including the water of the oceans and the water in the atmosphere.

24. Atmosphere • Atmosphere- The mixture of gases surrounding the Earth. The Earth's atmosphere consists of about 79.1 percent nitrogen (by volume), 20.9 percent oxygen, 0.036 percent carbon dioxide and trace amounts of other gases

25. ESS1 • Use geological evidence provided to support the idea that Earth’s crust/lithosphere is composed of plates that move. 

26. Diagram of Plates

27. What is Earth’s Crust? • The Earths crust is not a solid shell; it is broken up into huge, thick plates that drift atop the soft, underlying mantle. The plates are made of rock and drift all over the globe; they move both horizontally and vertically. Over long periods of time, the plates also change in size as their margins are added to, crushed together, or pushed back into the Earth's mantle. These plates are from 50 to 250 miles thick.

28. FossilsESS3    Explain how fossils found in sedimentary rock can be used to support the theories of Earth’s evolution over geologic time, and describe how the folding, breaking, and uplifting of the layers affect the evidence.

29. What Are Fossils? • Fossils are the evidence of plants or animals which lived on Earth long ago. To become a fossil, most organisms must have hard parts such as bones or shells since the soft parts decay before they are fossilized. The plant or animal must be buried quickly to prevent decay. It must also remain undisturbed for a long period of time. A fossil might be the thigh bone of a triceratops or the petrified trunk of a tree. Fossils found in sedimentary rocks are found because sedimentary rocks are the most common type of rocks found on Earth. Because sedimentary rocks are formed by smaller pieces of rocks fossils can be found in sedimentary rocks because they can be a piece that the rock became part of. The folding, breaking, and uplifting of the layers all change the speed that sedimentary rock is formed.

30. ESS1 • Describe how catastrophic changes that have taken place on the Earth’s surface can be revealed by satellite images.

31. Satellite Changes • Catastrophic changes that have taken place on the Earth’s surface have been revealed by satellite images because the changes now are so big that they can be seen from space. The changes include change in atmosphere, ocean, landforms, and lithosphere. Most of the changes are increasing temperature, which cause the ice caps to melt, and will possibly make more farm and less cold land on Earth.

32. PROCESSES AND RATES OF CHANGE OF THE EARTH’S SURFACEESS1 • Explain that the Earth's crust is divided into plates that move at extremely slow rates in response to movements in the mantle. • Is covered in a previous slide.

33. ESS1 • Explain how earth events, abruptly and over time, can bring about changes in Earth’s surface: landforms, ocean floor, rock features, or climate.

34. More About Plates! • Earths events over time change the Earth. They change Earth’s surface because the plates move and push the plates (together, apart ect.). They change the landforms because a big mountain hit by an earthquake might be so big anymore (might flatten out a little), a stream that has a mudslide come through it might become more of a river, and then from there maybe even turn into a small lake or pond. An earthquake can change the ocean floor because if the floor moves then the water gets misplaced or unbalanced. This then can cause a tsunami. When rocks such as plates hit each or move then that can cause an earthquake. Over time global warming will warm the climate, and will warm the earth’s surface (oceans also!). When the oceans get warmer they will cause the ice caps to melt (already are) which might cause the ocean in warmer parts of the world to get a lot colder, until eventually might cause other parts of the world to freeze, which could potentially cause an ice age.

35. ESS1 • Explain the role of differential heating or convection in ocean currents, winds, weather and weather patterns, atmosphere, or climate.

36. Convection Heating • Convection is heat transfer by mass motion of a fluid such as air or water when the heated fluid is caused to move away from the source of heat, carrying energy with it. Convection above a hot surface occurs because hot air expands, becomes less dense, and rises. Hot water is likewise less dense than cold water and rises, causing convection currents which transport energy. • Convection in ocean currents, the water acts as the liquid. • In winds and weather convection heating used the water vapor for the liquid.

37. Differential Heating • Differential heating refers to the difference in how land and water surfaces absorb heat. Water has a higher capacity for storing heat than does land surfaces. This means that the same amount of solar radiation will heat up the ground more than it will the ocean. In addition, heat absorbed by the oceans is distributed, through mixing, over a greater depth than is the heat absorbed by land surfaces. So in the summer, when the amount of solar radiation is highest, the difference between the land and ocean temperatures is highest. This causes the air over the land to heat up and expand causing it to become less dense and rise. This rising air is then replaced with neighboring moisture rich air from over the oceans surface resulting in a sea breeze • Differential heating in ocean currents happen during the winter because the pcean is much colder, and the differential heating has a better time of sticking of to the water to make heat.

38. ESS3 • The origin and evolution of galaxies and the universe demonstrate fundamental principles of physical science across vast distances and time.

39. Size and Scale. • Define an astronomical unit as the distance from the Earth to the Sun • A Light year is a measure of distance. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. A light year is the distance that light can travel in a year. A light year is 5,865,696,000,000 miles. • Our sun is 8 or so light minutes away. If the sun were to suddenly explode right now, we wouldn't know about it for eight minutes because that is how long it would take for the light of the explosion to get here.

40. Size and Scale • Explain that special units of measure, such as light years and astronomical units are used to calculate distances in space. • Special units of measure such as light years are used to calculate distances in space because miles such don’t cut it. The closest star to Earth in space in 24,000,000,000,000 miles away. There are other star that are billions of times farther away, when you start looking at distances that far away you have to start using big distances because a mile just isn’t practical, you don’t want to have to talk about numbers with 20 digits.

41. Stars and Galaxies • Describe objects such as asteroids, comets and meteors in terms of their characteristics and movement patterns. • The majority of the asteroids in the main asteroid belt fall under three categories:

42. C-type (carbonaceous) • These make up about 75 percent of all known asteroids. C-type asteroids are actually thought to be similar in composition to the sun, just without hydrogen, helium and other combustible material. They're very dark and absorb light easily, and you can locate them on the outer edges of the main belt.

43. S-type (silicaceous) • These make up about 17 percent of all known asteroids. Their composition is mainly metallic iron and iron-magnesium silicates, and they're found in the inner edge of the main belt.

44. M-type (metallic) • M-type (metallic) - The remaining 8 percent of the asteroids are made of metallic iron and are found in the middle region of the main belt

45. The Way Asteroids Travel • Asteroids travel in a some extent oblique orbit around the sun, in the same direction as the Earth. Asteroids rotate like the Earth except over a short period of time- anywhere between one hour and a day, depending on their size. Most asteroids larger than 200 meters spin very slowly, no faster than once every 2.2 hours. This has led astronomers to assume that bigger asteroids are very loosely held together because of constant bombardment from other asteroids. If thery where to spin any faster, they’d break apart and fly into space.

46. What Comets Are Though to be Made Of: • dust • ice (water, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide) • some carbon-containing (organic) materials (e.g., tar) • a rocky center (some comets)

47. How Comets Move • Comets are thought to orbit the sun in either the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt. When another star passes by the solar system, its gravity pushes the Oort cloud and/or Kuiper belt and causes comets to descend toward the sun in a highly elliptical orbit with the sun at one focus of the ellipse. Comets can have short period orbits (less than 200 years such as Halley's Comet) or long period orbits (greater than 200 years such as comet Hale-Bopp). • As the comet passes within six AUs of the sun, the ice begins to go directly from the solid to the gas state (sublimation) much like the way fog is formed. When the ice sublimes, the gas and dust particles flow away from the sun to form the comet's tail.

48. As a comet approaches the sun, it warms up. During this warming, you can observe several distinct parts: • nucleus • coma • hydrogen envelope • dust tail • ion tail

49. What Are Meteorites? • Meteorites are pieces of asteroids and other bodies like the moon and Mars that travel through space and fall to the earth. They are rocks that are similar in many ways to Earth rocks, but it is exciting to find a piece of another planet here on Earth. Meteorites fall to Earth all the time and are distributed over the entire planet, so you could even find one in your own backyard!

50. Characteristics of Meteorites • Fusion crust is a thin (1 to 2 mm) coating of glass that covers the outside of a freshly fallen meteorite. It is like the glaze on ceramic ware. Usually, fusion crust is black because of iron in the meteorite. But sometimes it is brown or greenish or even clear. It will usually have small cracks and a texture like leather. Iron meteorites and stone meteorites can have fusion crust, but a few--very few--freshly fallen meteorites have none at all.