EAS100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Thorium, Evaporation, Lithification

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Course: EAS100
• Professor: Solweig Balzer

Document Summary

Foundation of the earth: components of the integrated earth system. Scientific methods and the study of the earth. Earth science is primarily an observational science, though experiments are also used. It can be tested against observation or experiment. Testing of hypotheses and formation of a theory. An exception: overturned strata in mountain belts. Proposed by james hutton in 1795 theory of the earth. Ancient features of the earth are best interpreted in terms of processes that operate at the present day. The present is the key to the past". Hutton interpreted the contact between the lower rocks and the upper rocks as an ancient erosion surface, produced by processes similar to those operating at the present day. Hutton proposed a very strict principle of uniformitarianism. But there have been big changes in earth processes including: A more moderate version of hutton"s principle.