AST 2002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Greenhouse Gas, Subduction, Freeze-Drying
Document Summary
It floats on the warmer softer rock that lies beneath. Differentiation- gravity pulls high density material to center. Convection: transports heat as hot material rises and cool material falls >fluid mantle. Conduction transfers heat from hot material to cool material by contact > lithosphere. Review thermal energy is the collective kinetic energy. Loss of heat through radiation depends on surface are. Time to cool depends on surface area divided by volume: Tectonics: disruption of a planet"s surface by internal stresses. Erosion: surface changes made by wind, water, or ice. Most cratering happened soon after the solar system formed. Craters are about 100 times wider than the objects that mad tem. Happens when molten rock (magma) finds a path through the lithosphere to the surface. Volcanism also releases gases from earth"s interior into the atmosphere. Convection of the mantle creates stresses in the crust called tectonic forces. A valley can form where the crust is pulled apart.
