Muhammad Babar
Khawar
University of the Punjab, Lahore
Earth
• Roughly 4.6 billion years
old
• Third planet orbiting
around the sun
• Only planet in our solar
system to have surface
liquid water
• Home to the only known
life in the universe
EARTH SYSTEM
• Dynamic, evolving and complex planet (4.6 billion years).
• Change continuously (the size, shape and geographic
distribution of the continents and ocean basins have
changed through time).
• 4 components (spheres): the atmosphere, the
hydrosphere, the biosphere and the geosphere).
• All four of the Earth systems interact with each other to
produce soil, such as we find in farms, gardens, and
forests.
Geosphere
or
Solid Earth System
Crust Mantle Core
Internal Structure of Earth
Biosphere
• Regions in which life
can exist
• Made up of 3 parts
• Atmosphere (air)
• Hydrosphere (water)
• Lithosphere (rock
and sediments)
Atmosphere
• The gases that envelope
and surround the Earth
make up our atmosphere
• Protects us from UV rays
• Balances the global
temperature on the Earth
• Made up of various gases
(Nitrogen, oxygen, water
vapour, Carbon dioxide,
Ozone, etc...)
Atmosphere (O2, CO2, H2O, O3)
• Interaction among various air masses.
• Gases envelope.
• Earliest atmosphere: hydrogen and helium.
• Magnetosphere.
• Atmosphere began accumulating by volcanism: emit
carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur,
hydrogen, chlorine, and nitrogen [Archaen].
• Photochemical dissociation and photosynthesis.
• Arrangement of continents affects solar heating and
cooling, and thus winds and weather systems. Rapid
plate spreading and hot-spot activity may release
volcanic carbon dioxide and affect global climate.
Layers of the atmosphere
Troposphere : contains 80% of all air
Stratosphere: absorbs UV rays
Mesosphere: Protects Earth from
meteorites
Thermosphere: Most meteorites
burn up here.
Ozone
Protects us from UV rays
Destroyed by CFCs
(chloroflurocarbons)
and aerosol products.
Hydrosphere
Hydrosphere
• Water on or near Earth’s surface (oceans (97%), rivers,
lakes, and glaciers of the world.
• Source: water vapor condensed and surface waters
began to accumulate. Another source of water vapor,
and eventually liquid water, was meteorites and
especially icy comets (ended 3.8 bya). However,
volcanoes continue to erupt and expel water vapor.
• Continental arrangement affects ocean currents: volume
of mid-oceanic ridges, sea level and ice ages.
Fresh Water
Fresh Water
• Lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams are freshwater
habitats. So are swamps, bogs, and marshes.
• It amounts to precious little water, less than half a
percent of the world's water supply.
• Yet it is essential to a wide variety of life on earth.
• The distribution of fresh water is uneven globally.
Salt water
• The water of the
seas and oceans is
salty because of the
vast quantity of
mineral salts
dissolved in it.
Lithosphere
• Comprises the Earth’s
crust and part of the
upper mantle
Rocks and minerals
• A rock is a
heterogeneous blend
of various grains (each
grain is a mineral)
• A mineral is a pure,
natural and inorganic
substance
Formation of rocks
