Lucien Walters

Science

Year 9

The Changing World

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Layers
Our earth is made up of a series of layers. In the centre of the planet theres the inner core. This takes up around 25% of the space between the centre and the crust of the earth, and about 60% combined with the outer core. These two layers are the hottest two of all and are the main source of heat on our planet, stopping the seas from freezing and keeping earth inhabitable. The very middle of the core is around 4,500C and cools to about 3,700C by the outer core. Both core layers are mostly iron, the inner core solid due to pressure and the outer core liquid. Both core layers combined equate to roughly 3,800 km of the earths radius. Above the core layers is the mantle. This is mostly made up of iron, aluminium, magnesium, oxygen and silicon. It forms a large amount of the earth and stretches from the top of the outer core up to the bottom of the earths crust. It ranges from around 3,700C at the core to around 1,000C under the crust. At the very top of solid and liquid layers lies the crust of the earth. This is rock that has solidified in the coolness of space and gives somewhere for life to be. It can range drastically in depth, from around 5km in its thinnest points to 70km in its thickest. There are rare occurrences when molten rock from the earths mantle can be seen in large pools and volcanoes also act as way for lava to escape.

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The inner layers of the earth are far too hot for people to explore or even scientific probes. Scientists use a few other techniques to discover the layers of the earth. Seismic waves can be used to scientists advantage. These are waves of energy sent through the earth as results of explosions, volcanoes and earthquakes. They are lowenergy acoustic waves and can be detected by a seismograph. They travel through the layers of the earth and bounce off of the divisions between layers. Each kind of wave has a different notation, with s, p, g, d, I, etc. For example a c wave is a wave is one reflecti ng off of the outer core. A PPP wave would have reflected 3 times off of the crust.

How Do We Know?

Tectonics
Tectonic plates are large plates of rock and earth making up the continents of the world. Technically it is still a theory but is widely accepted and there are a lot of signs on earth suggesting it. It states that there are about 15 major plates, with hundreds of smaller ones filling in gaps. Together they form the lithosphere and are constantly moving around the sea of lava they float on, the earths mantle. At the borders of these plates many incredible geological features can be found. There are also different kinds of plate collisions. A convergent plate boundary is one in which one tectonic plate is sliding underneath another plate. The lower plate eventually melts back into molten rock and the lava that they came from. During the forming of the earth millions of years ago the carbon in the plate sliding underneath would burn in the extreme heat under the crust. This would create an upward current of warmer lava often forming a thinner area in the crust and a volcano above, letting the carbon be released into the newly forming atmosphere. Convergent boundaries can often create oceanic trenches. A divergent plate boundary is the opposite. These may be created at the other side of a plate in comparison to a convergent boundary. They involve the two plates in question moving apart from each other and the molten rock below being exposed. When under oceans these often cool quickly and create temporary patches until the plates move again. Above ground they can create volcanoes which can in turn become mountain ranges. Transform boundaries are made when one plate grinds past another. Rarely lava becomes exposed, but if the plates jam together pressure slowly builds over time and when the plates suddenly give way and slide past each other large earthquakes can take place. All kinds of boundaries create fault lines which are the source of most earthquakes. Tectonic plates are also what create the movement of continents across the planet. Millions of years ago one hemisphere of the earth was almost entirely ocean, and the other hemisphere a single supercontinent made from multiple plates. These slowly

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Lucien Walters

Science

Year 9

split away. This is the reason South America is often said to fit -into the shape of the West African coastline and many other land masses to do the same.

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Alfred Wegener was a German researcher who was the first to put forward the theory of continental drift. This stated that the continents of the earth were slowly moving around the planet, something now widely accepted. He put forward the theory in 1912 but it wasnt properly taken seriously until the 1950s, 20 years after his death in 1930. He saw fossils of plants and animals in places such as Australia, South America, Africa, India and Antarctica. From the patterns the fossils created across land-masses he was able to piece together a map of what would have been close to the shape of the ancient supercontinent.

Alfred Wegeners Theory

Unfortunately, at the time of the theorys birth, many people didnt think it possible. They thought that there was no reason for the plates to move like Wegeners theory stated. People didnt know much if anything about the layer s of the earth and the warm currents of molten rock moving to the crust that move tectonic plates so they. Seismic data collected after World War II gave more evidence to back up this theory, however. Also new radical ideas and theories contradicting what is believed to be fact are always slow to be picked up. Wegeners theory would certainly qualify as this and therefore took a long time to be accepted by others. Sadly Alfred Wegener never lived to see this happen.

Early Atmosphere
Above the crust is the atmosphere of the earth. This stretches right up to around 10,000 km in many sub-layers. First is the Troposphere, where passenger planes fly and at about 6-20 km. Above that is the Stratosphere in which weather balloons fly and the ozone layer resides. It finishes at around 50 km and the black of space can be seen from such heights. Up another layer is the Mesosphere ending at 85 km, roughly where meteors are. Next is the Thermosphere containing the aurora at about 100km, the space station roughly in the centre and ending at 690 km. From then on is the Exosphere, out into space. The layers of the atmosphere were created a long time ago, around the time that the earths skin began to solidify more and more, creating the crust we know today. At this time there was no real atmosphere and the seas were non-existent. Carbon was trapped in the rock and molten lava below the surface and needed to somehow escape. It managed this through volcanic eruption (more in part 3.2). Thin spots in the crust often formed where the lava was hottest due to higher carbon levels. As these patches became thinner and thinner, they eventually burst spewing out molten rock and gasses trapped below the surface. The lava solidified to form mountains, or in this case volcanoes which would continue to release carbon as long as they were active. As well as carbon (dioxide) many other gasses were released including H2O (water) making clouds and raining the first rivers and oceans, H2 (dihydrogen), N2 (dinitrogen) and He (helium). These gasses then went on to form the atmosphere we know today, alongside the early photosynthetic plants turning carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Carbon Levels Over Time

Carbon levels in the atmosphere as it was created were high as the early plants that converted the carbon dioxide into oxygen hadnt evolved yet. These plants lowered such levels over time. The first animals eventually evolved and began to even out oxygen with carbon by respiring. This was perfect for the world as it let more animals evolve, the planet to become inhabited and plants to thrive. More and more species came and went, the carbon stored in their bodies falling to the seabed and through the carbon cycle, and the continents formed. Everything was well until humankind began to release too much carbon and not plant enough vegetation to compensate. Carbon stored in oil underground, especially under the seas, was released by the oils being burned in car and factories. The more deforestation that took place the less carbon dioxide to oxygen respiration there

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Lucien Walters

Science

Year 9

was. In order to save the planet we live on and to save ourselves, we must stop using carbon-packed fuels, replant the trees weve cut down, repair the damage we have left in our wake and look for alternatives.

To Conclude
The world around us is changing all the time and it always will be. We cant stop it no matter what we try so we should adapt to it and stop trying to make it adapt to us. Fossil fuels wont last long, even less forever, so we should find alternatives in wind, in hydroelectricity, in the sun, in hydrogen, wherever we can that doesnt somehow manage to harm the planet. Theres also a lot we dont know, like whats beyond the stars or what to expect next. All we can hope to do is let the planet live as it would without us, leave as little footprint behind us as possible and not feel the need to abandon whats our fault in search for another planet to contain us.

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