Earth Systems

• • Regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole - In a universe
  • Part being analyzed/studied
  • Rest of the universe outside the system is called surroundings

  System
• Three types of Systems

  Isolated System, Closed System, Open System
• • Compromises the solid Earth
  • Includes both Earth’s surface and various layers of the Earth’s interior

  Geosphere
• • Gaseous envelope that surrounds the Earth
  • Constitutes the transition between the gaseous envelope and Earth, and the vacuum of space

  Atmosphere
• Includes all water on earth

  Hydrosphere
• • Life zones of the Earth
  • Includes all living organisms and all organic matter that has not yet decomposed

  Biosphere
• • Important process in shaping the surface of the Earth.
  • These plates are like a jigsaw puzzle on the surface of the Earth.
  • Some plates move over other plates, some of them under, and some of them slide past each other.
  • The primary driving mechanism is the Earth’s internal heat, such as that in mantle convection

  Plate tectonics