The Geosphere

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The Geosphere 3.1
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Earth as a system consists of rock, air, water,
and living things interacting
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• 4 Parts of the System
• Geosphere (rock)
• the solid part of Earth
• (soil and sediment)

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2) Atmosphere (air) made up of a mixture of
gases 3)Hydrosphere (water) covers nearly 75 of
the globe
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4) Biosphere (living things) a thin
layer Page 59 Figure 1 1km about 0.6 miles
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Earths Interior The deepest well drilled into
Earths interior is only about 12 km deep (??
Miles)
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Seismic waves are used to study Earths interior
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• 3 General Layers of Earth
  (Page 61 Figure 3)
• Crust
• thinnest layer
• where we live

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2) Mantle under the crust thick made of dense
iron-rich minerals/rocks
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3) Core innermost layer hot sphere of nickel
and iron
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Plate Tectonics Lithosphere The rigid outermost
layer of Earth is divided into pieces called
Tectonic Plates
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Tectonic Plates separate, collide, and slide
past each other all at differing speeds
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major plates include the Pacific, North
American, South American, African, Eurasian, and
Antarctic
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Plate Boundaries (the areas between tectonic
plates) Where much geologic activity takes place
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4 Major Effects of Plate Boundaries Mountain
Building (ex. Himalaya Mt)
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When plates collide, slip by each other, or pull
apart, the forces cause the rocks to break
The crust becomes thicker
and eventually forms mountain ranges
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Earthquakes Fault A break in Earths crust
where blocks slide past each other
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Rocks that are stressed suddenly break along a
fault, a series of ground vibrations is set off
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Occur all the time, though many we cant
feel Richter Scale is used to determine the
amount of energy released by a quake
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Mostly occur at plate boundaries Cant be
predicted
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Volcanoes Mountains built from magma (melted
rock) that rises from Earths interior to the
surface
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Often located near plate boundaries (plates are
colliding or separating)
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Erosion The removal and transport of surface
material 2 Types of Erosion Wind Water