GEO 1111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Cyanobacteria, Great Oxygenation Event, Banded Iron Formation

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Geology
• Course: GEO 1111
• Professor: Donald Cummings

Document Summary

Attempting to boil it down to an essence. A bottom up science > complex phenomena can be broken down. (cid:862) everythi(cid:374)g is (cid:373)ade of ato(cid:373)s that is the key hypothesis(cid:863) feynman. Triumphs (newtons laws, aspirin and enzymes, evolution and dna mutations) However the earth cannot be used using the bottomup approach, instead we must take a systems approach to see how all the systems interact. System: set of interacting parts that together forms a whole. Feedback: process between parts in a system that may amplify or supress a change. ex. Positive feedback: volcano increase co2 increase temp increase h20 vapour greenhouse affect increase temp. Thermodynamically open interacts with its surroundings (mass, energy) ex. Disequilibrium sustains a constant force of motion between the parts, interacting together. Hydrosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere (internal feedbacks of the earth) Natural systems are nested within larger scale systems. The modern is the key to the ancient. Opposite: forward problems: knowing the inputs, observing the output.