GEOS 1034 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Water Cycle, Subduction, Himalayas
18 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Where do hazards come from: function of natural processes and materials. Minimizing impacts requires understanding their origins: volcanoes: tectonic process, floods: surface process, hurricanes: atmospheric process, impacts: space process, interactions also produce hazards. The way the earth moves during the earthquake. A few large and many small orbiting bodies. Other initial observations: bodies generally orbit & rotate in the same direction and plane, gas & dust clouds in deep space. Nebular hypothesis: clouds of dust & gas (nebulae) form via gravitational/static attraction. Necessary consequences: this process should work throughout space. Exoplanets: planet pulls on star as star pulls on planet, star wiggles as planet pulls on it. Interact with stars in observable ways: some planetesimals still in the system. Astroids are made of dust: planets show evidence of accretion/ being hit by stuff. Planetary differentiation: accretion of planetesimals implies homogeneity, earth is anything but homogeneous - layered, impact accelerates differentiation once melting, things can seperate.
