ESS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Geographical Pole, Epicenter, Geothermal Gradient
24 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Silicate tetrahedron: oxygen forming a pyramid with a silicate in the middle. Heat moves through solids by conduction: as long as the earth is solid it transfers heat via conduction from atom to atom. Compositional zoning understand sequence of evolutionary events for the midterm exam: accretion of planetesimals - condensing of material, initial heating due to kinetic energy of colliding planetesimals and compressional heating. Densest iron-nickel in core, least dense materials comprise the atmosphere: convective overturn in asthenosphere (part of the still convecting upper mantle), mantle, and outer core still occur today. Earth begins to heat up because heat gain was greater than heat loss to outer space. Eventually the earth increased temperature enough to melt iron-nickel, thus the earth was essentially liquid, allowing the densest material to sink to the center of earth, and the least dense material to return to the outside. This is due to higher heat transfer to outer space.
