RHONALI CLARISSE AMADOR

STEM 11- D

1. WHY THE EARTH’S INTERIOR HOT?

The interior of Earth is very hot (the temperature of the core reaches more than 5,000 degrees
Celsius) for two main reasons:

 The heat from when the planet formed,

 The heat from the decay of radioactive elements.

The Earth was formed by the process of accretion. After the creation of our solar system,
meteorites gravitationally attracted each other and formed bigger objects, which attracted
bigger masses, until our planets reach their current size. This process accumulated a lot of heat;
when two objects collide, heat is generated. That is why your hands will get hot when you clap
them for too long, or a nail gets very hot when you hammer it for a long time. This heat has not
dissipated totally and represents about 10% of the total heat inside the Earth.

The main source of heat is the decay of radioactive elements. Radioactive decay is a natural
process; unstable elements like 238U (Uranium) or 40K (Potassium) stabilize with time and
produce what we call daughter products: 206P (Lead) for Uranium and 40Ar (Argon) for
Potassium. This process produces heat, which represents about 90% of the total heat inside the
Earth.

1. HOW MAGMA IS FORMED

Magma is formed when hot rocks in the Earth partially melt which occurs when;

1.) The pressure decreases: The decrease in pressure affecting a hot mantle rock at a constant
temperature permits melting forming magma.

2.) When volatiles are added to hot rocks: When volatiles mix with hot, dry rock, the volatile
decreases the rock’s melting point and they help break the chemical bonds in the rock to allow
melting.

3.) When heat is transferred by a magma rising from the mantle into the crust.

2. WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE MAGMA WAS FORMED

Due to immense pressure under the Earth’s crust, magma may come back to the surface in the
form of volcanic eruptions over the region of subduction, it may also come out as non-
explosive in a mid-oceanic ridge, or an island-building strato volcano at a hot-spot, such as
Hawaii or Iceland.
3. CHANGES IN MINERAL COMPONENTS AND TEXTURE OF ROCKS DUE TO CHANGES IN
PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE.

Metamorphism occurs because rocks undergo changes in temperature and pressure and may
be subjected to differential stress and hydro thermal fluids. With high temperature, minerals
convert to new high temperature minerals, fluids are released (e.g. clay = mica + H2O), crystals
grow larger, rocks become weaker and easier to deform. However, with high pressure,
minerals may recrystallize into more
compact/stable forms and platy or elongate minerals may align in a preferred direction.

4. HOW ROCKS BEHAVE UNDER DIFFERENT TYPES OF STRESS SUCH AS COMPRESSION,

PULLING APART AND SHEARING.

Compression squeezes rocks together, causing rocks to fold or fracture. Rocks that are pulled
apart are under tension which mostly happens at divergent plate boundaries. Rocks under
tension lengthen or break apart. Shearing alters the rocks, causing them to change shape as
they slide against each other. Shear stress causes two planes of material to slide past each
other.

5. THE LAYERS OF THE EARTH

A. Crust
- thin, outermost layer of the Earth
- It is the hardened part of the Earth with a depth of about 5 to 70 kilometers (~ 3 to 44
miles) and makes about less than 1% of the entire Earth’s volume. It is of two
different types: continental crust and oceanic crust.
- The continental crust is approximately 60 kilometers thick while the oceanic crust is
about 5 kilometers below the ocean. The ocean crust is the largest and takes up to
71% of the earth’s crust while the continental crust take up the remaining 29%. The
continental crust consists of rocks such as the igneous rocks, and the oceanic crust is
consists of basalt and sedimentary rocks.
B. Mantle
- middle layer of the earth between the crust and the core; makes up about 83% of
Earth’s interior.
- It is by a considerable margin the densest layer of the earth, approximately 2900
kilometers deep (1800 miles).
- The mantle is split into two parts which are the lithosphere (the top part also known as
the lower mantle) and the asthenosphere (the bottom part also known as the upper
mantle).
- The lithosphere is predominantly solid consisting of dense rock made up of nickel and
iron in the form of silicate rocks. The asthenosphere is mostly plastic like fluid due to
 its nature of high viscosity and mechanical weakness. Temperatures in the
lithosphere are about 300 to 500 degrees Celsius while in the asthenosphere
temperatures are about 4500 degrees Celsius.
C. Core
- Innermost layer of the earth; outer core is in a liquid state whereas inner core is in
solid state but both mostly made up of nickel and iron.

The inner core: The inner core is solid and the second thinnest layer of all the
different layers of the earth. It is also the farthest from the earth’s surface. It is solid
due to the pressure from the layers around it that put weight on it. Similar to the
outer core, the inner core is mainly made up of iron and nickel and has an
approximate thickness of between 5159 and 6378 kilometers (3200 and 3960 miles).

The outer core: The outer core liquid and is conceived to be composed of about 80%
of iron together with nickel. The outer core is liquid because it is not under enough
pressure despite the fact that it has the same composition to that of the inner core.
It is the layer that follows immediately after the mantle and has very high
temperatures, up to about 4400 degrees Celsius.

6. DIFFERENTIATE THE LAYERS OF EARTH FROM EACH OTHER.

Core, mantle, and crust are divisions based on composition and physical properties. The
crust makes up less than 1 percent of Earth by mass, consisting of oceanic crust (consists of
basalt and sedimentary rocks) and continental crust (consist more of felsic rock and
igneous rocks). The mantle is hot and represents about 68 percent of Earth’s mass. It is
divided into two the lithosphere which is predominantly solid consisting of dense rock
made up of nickel and iron in the form of silicate rocks and the asthenosphere is mostly
plastic like fluid due to its nature of high viscosity and mechanical weakness. Finally, the
core is mostly iron metal and nickel. The core makes up about 31% of the Earth. The
mantle is much thicker, nearly 3,000 km thick, while the crust is on average about 40 km.
Both the inner and outer cores are made up of mostly iron and a little bit of nickel. The
inner core is solid, while the outer core is liquid.

7. THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

Continental drift is the theory that the continents move and continents fit together like
pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to form a single landmass called Pangaea. The continents broke
apart and drifted to their current positions. The continental drift hypothesis was first
articulated by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, in 1912.

8. EVIDENCES THAT SUPPORT THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY.

a. The fit of the continents

 - Opponents of Wegener’s idea disputed his continental fit evidence, arguing that the fit
of the continents’ margins was crude, and that shorelines were continuously being
modified by wave erosion and depositional processes.
- The oceanographic data later on revealed that a much better approach was to fit the
continents together along the continental slope, where erosion would be minimal. In
1965, Sir Edward Bullard, an English geophysicist, and two of his associates
demonstrated that the best fit between the continents occurs at a depth of
approximately 2000 m.
- Even with this method, a perfect fit could not be achieved. The process of stretching
and thinning of the continental margins and sedimentary processes (e.g. erosion,
delta
formation, etc.) could explain some of the overlaps.
b. Similarity in geological units and structure
- Wegener discovered that rocks on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean were identical in
terms of type and age. He also matched up mountain ranges with the same rock
types,
structures, and ages, that were now on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
- The Appalachians of the eastern United States and Canada, for example, were just like
mountain ranges in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway. Wegener
concluded that they formed a single mountain range that became separated as the
continents drifted.

c. Fossil match
- Similar fossils of extinct plants and animals in rocks of the same age were found on
different continents, which are now separated by large bodies of water. Wegener
recognized that organisms were adapted to a specific type of environment and their
dispersal could be limited by biogeographic boundaries (e.g. oceans, mountain
ranges,
etc.)
- Wegener argued that these organisms could not have physically crossed the
oceans; rather, the continents were in fact part of a large contiguous landmass
which
later on broke apart and drifted..
✦ Glossopteris flora – ‘seed fern’ that grew only in a subpolar regions, fossils of
which were widely distributed over Australia, Africa, India, and South America (later
on discovered in Antarctica). Seeds were too large to be blown away by wind to
different continents.
✦ Mesosaurus - a freshwater reptile whose fossils were found only in black shales
about 260 million years of age (Permian) in South Africa and Brazil. This land-based
reptile could not have crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
✦ Lystrosaurus and Cynognathus - land reptiles whose fossils were found across
South
America, Africa, India, and Antarctica. With their inability to swim and the
continents’
differing climates, the organisms must have lived side by side and that the lands
drifted apart after they became extinct and fossilized.
d. Glacial and paleoclimate evidence
- A glacier is a slowly moving mass or river of ice formed from the accumulation and
compaction of snow on high mountains or in polar areas. As it flows, it carries
 sediments of different shapes and sizes, which are then deposited and slowly
compacted into a soft sedimentary rock called till (glacial till). It also creates grooves
or scratches called striations in the underlying bedrock.
- Wegener analyzed glacial tills and striations of ancient times and found out that
glaciers of the same period (late Paleozoic age, around 300 million years ago) are
located in Australia, South America, Africa, India, and Antarctica. Except for
Antarctica, these countries did not have subpolar climate that allowed glaciation.
Putting the continents together in accordance to Wegener’s Pangaea shows that the
glaciation only occurred in a small region in Gondwana (around the South Pole)
which then moved outward to the aforementioned continents.
- Reconstructing the location of ancient glaciers led Wegener to discover that the
location of the current poles was not the same as the ancient ones. His studies
showed that South Africa was originally at the South Pole (300 million years ago),
which explains the flow direction of the ancient glaciers. Fitting the continents
together places the northern half of Pangaea closer to the tropics and was proven
correct by fossil and climatological evidences.

e. Paleomagnetism and polar wandering

- This group of evidence emerged relatively much later (1950s) with the development of
new technology and the boom in oceanographic studies.
- Paleomagnetism - As magma cools down it starts forming minerals. Some minerals are
strongly magnetic (e.g. magnetite). Below a certain threshold temperature, some of
these minerals attain magnetic properties. The magnetic minerals start to align with
the
surrounding magnetic field. The alignment of these minerals becomes fixed once the
lava or magma solidifies. Rocks therefore can potentially preserve or record
magnetic
polarity (normal vs. reverse), direction or location of magnetic poles, and the
strength of the magnetic field.

Magnetism of geologically recent rocks is generally consistent with the Earth’s current
magnetic field.When the location of the Earth’s magnetic poles are plotted based on the
paleomagnetism of rocks of different ages, their positions appear to be “wandering”through
time (Figure 5) if we assume a fixed position of the continents. In reality, the magnetic poles
have a relatively fixed position, and it is actually the continents which are moving.

9. HOW SEAFLOOR SPREADS.

In 1960, Harry Hess advanced the theory of seafloor spreading. Hess proposed
that seafloor separates at mid-ocean ridges where new crust forms by upwelling
magma. Newly formed oceanic crust moves laterally away from the ridge with
the motion like that of a conveyor belt. Old oceanic crusts are dragged down at
the trenches and re-incorporated back into the mantle. The process is driven by mantle
convection currents rising at the ridges and descending at the trenches. This idea is
basically the same as that proposed by Arthur Holmes in 1920.
10. STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF THE OCEAN BASINS

About 70% of the planet's surface is made up of ocean basins, which are the regions
that are below sea level. These areas hold the majority of the planet's water. The
seafloor is not flat. Seafloor topography is as varied and rugged as that on land; Middle
of the seafloor is not the deepest part. Active ocean basins undergo change mainly due
to plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the theory used to explain the dynamics of the
earth's surface resulting from the interaction of the overlying rigid plates with the
underlying mantle. So, an area of the world that is tectonically active, whether it be on
land or under the water, would be a mountainous area with earthquakes and volcanic
activity. This creates many of the ocean basins features.

11. HOW THE MOVEMENT OF PLATES LEADS TO THE FORMATION OF FOLDS, FAULTS,
TRENCHES, VOLCANOES, RIFT VALLEYS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES.

The tectonic movement of the Earth's plates has resulted in the folding and faulting of
the Earth's crust. This is caused by the Earth's plates converging, diverging or
transversing against one another. This causes the crust of the Earth to buckle and strain,
generating incredible amounts of pressure that buildup as time progresses and may
conclude in the release of this energy.

Trenches are formed by subduction, a geophysical process in which two or more of

Earth's tectonic plates converge and the older, denser plate is pushed beneath the
lighter plate and deep into the mantle, causing the seafloor and outermost crust (the
lithosphere) to bend and form a steep, V-shaped depression. This process makes
trenches dynamic geological features—they account for a significant part of Earth’s
seismic activity—and are frequently the site of large earthquakes, including some of the
largest earthquakes on record.

Volcanoes are most commonly formed at the convergence or divergence of tectonic

plates. An example in Mid-Ocean Ridges, where tectonic plates spread apart and
subduction zones, where one tectonic plate sinks into the earth´s mantle underneath
another tectonic plate. Others may form close to or in the middle of tectonic plates,
such as Island Arcs and Hotspots. Some others form on the continents, such as in the
Continental Rifts

A rift valley is a lowland region that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move apart, or
rift. Rift valleys are found both on land and at the bottom of the ocean, where they are
created by the process of seafloor spreading. Rift valleys differ from river valleys and
glacial valleys in that they are created by tectonic activity and not the process of
erosion.

Mountain ranges occur when two tectonic plates collide at a convergent plate
boundary, causing the crust to over thicken. This process forces the less dense crust to
float on top of the denser mantle rocks – with material being forced upwards to form
hills, plateaus or mountains – while a greater volume of material is forced downward
into the mantle.