Download Taking a Closer Look

Taking a Closer Look
The Big Blue Marble
Standards in Middle Grades
• Concept 1: Structure of the Earth
• Describe the composition and interactions between the
structure of the Earth and its atmosphere.
• Concept 2: Earth’s Processes and Systems
• Understand the processes acting on the Earth and their
interaction with the Earth systems.
• Concept 3: Earth in the Solar System
• Understand the relationships of the Earth and other
objects in the solar system.
Standards for High School
• Concept 1: Geochemical Cycles
• Analyze the interactions between the Earth’s structures,
atmosphere, and geochemical cycles.
• Concept 2: Energy in the Earth System (Both Internal
and External)
• Understand the relationships between the Earth’s land
masses, oceans, and atmosphere.
• Concept 3: Origin and Evolution of the Earth System
• Analyze the factors used to explain the history and
evolution of the Earth.
Vital Statistics
• Earth is OLD (4.5 billion years old)
• The Earth is continually changing
Alfred Wegner
• 1912 proposed the Theory of Continental
Drift (via Centripetal force).
• Evidence: fossils, rock age, continental
boundaries.
• Prevalent Theories at the time: Land
Bridges, “Contraction Theory”
Mini investigation
• So what did “Pangaea look like?”
• Using the continent maps with fossil
indicators, how might Wegner’s Pangaea
have looked?
Pangaea
Plate Motion
Plate discovery
Volcanoes
Plate discovery
Earthquakes
Delayed support
• 1929 Arthur Holmes discovers mantle
convection.
• 1960 mantle convention accepted as the
mechanism driving plate tectonics.
Earthquake Investigation
Earth’s Interior
S waves felt …
(travel through liquid
only)
Epicenter
P waves felt …
(travel through both solid/liquid)
A
A, B, C, D, E, F
A, B, D, E
B
A, B, C, D, E, F
A, B, C, E
C
A, B, C, D, E, F
B, C, F
D
A, B, C, D, E, F
A, D, E, F
E
A, B, C, D, E, F
A, B, D, E
F
A, B, C, D, E, F
C, D, F
Earth’s Interior
• Crust
(solid)
• Mantle
(“plastic”)
• Outer Core
(liquid)
• Inner Core
(solid)
Its actually a bit more
complicated….
4 ideas behind Plate Tectonics
• The Earth's surface is covered by a series of
crustal plates.
• The ocean floors are continually moving,
spreading from the center, sinking at the edges,
and being regenerated.
• Convection currents beneath the plates move
the crustal plates in different directions.
• The source of heat driving the convection
currents is radioactivity deep in the Earths
mantle.
Boundary Interactions
• Convergent
• Divergent
• Transform
Plate Boundaries
Landforms
• All of earth’s landforms are a function of
the interaction between the crust, the
mantle, and the atmosphere.
– Continent vs. Continent
– Continent vs. Ocean
– Ocean vs. Ocean
3 “Types” Rocks
• It is the process that determines the “type”
of rock, so rocks can be linked to areas
and give us information about past
geologic activity.
– Igneous
– Metamorphic
– Sedimentary