Formation of the Solar System

1
Formation of the Solar System

• Planet Earth and the Lithosphere

2
Cloud of dust and gas
Gravitational Contraction
Rotation and disk formation
Break up into protosun orbited by protoplanets
Solar fusion begins and drives H and He outward
Thompson, Turk,Earth Science and
Environment,Saunders,New York, 1995, 14
3
Buell/Girard, Chemistry, Prentice Hall, New
Jersey, 1994, p. 28
4
Buell/Girard, Chemistry, Prentice Hall, New
Jersey, 1994, p. 28
5
Sources of Heat Energy on Primitive Earth

• the accretion of colliding planetesimals
• the force of compressing rocks together
• radioactive decay of elements within the planet
  (more details on radioactive decay in second half
  of today's lecture)

http//www.oceansonline.com/solar.htm
6
Properties Related to Bond Type
7
Melting Points Related to Bond Types
Luder et al, General Chemistry, 3rd, Saunders,
PA, 1965, 140
8
After earth melted, its components
differentiated, i.e., formed layers based on
density
Moeller, Chemistry,Academic Press, New York,
1984, p. 929
9
Buell/Girard, Chemistry, Prentice Hall, New
Jersey, 1994, p. 31
10
Tectonic Plates
Buell/Girard, Chemistry, Prentice Hall, New
Jersey, 1994, p. 37
11
Motion of Tectonic Plates
http//www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/physgeog/contents/10i.ht
ml
12
Plate Boundaries
Thompson, Turk,Earth Science and
Environment,Saunders,New York, 1995, 19
http//www.extremescience.com/PlateTectonicsmap.ht
m
13
Major Tectonic Plates of the World
Thompson, Turk,Earth Science and
Environment,Saunders,New York, 1995, 18
14
Mt. Pinatubo Eruption 1991
http//pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/Pinatubo.ht
ml
15
Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991,
spewing hundreds of millions of tons of ash,
rocks, and molten lava. Plume reached as high as
40 km (25 miles). Some 20 million tons of sulfur
from the volcano created an acidic aerosol that
circled the stratosphere for two years and cooled
the global climate at least 1 degree C.
Cunningham/Saigo, Environmental Science, McGraw
Hill, New York, 2001, p. 369