Climate & Earth's Resources

• The Structure of the Earth

  • 3 parts: the core, mantle, and crust
  • Core has an inner core and an outer core
  • Mantle is the thickest layer
  • Crust is the top, thin layer
• Measuring the speed and behavior of seismic waves

  Reveals the inner and outer core
• Body waves

  Carry energy from a movement of the earth
• P waves

  • Fastest, can travel through solids, liquids, and gases
• S waves


  • Can only travel through solids
• Inner core


  Solid, made of iron-nickel alloy, does not become liquid because of the pressure of the other layers
• Outer core

  Liquid layer, cannot transmit s waves
• Heat keeps the liquid outer core flowing

  Produces electric currents, then a magnetic field (magnetosphere), which makes Earth into a giant magnet and also protects Earth from solar winds
• Mantle

  • Produces protection from the core's heat, rocks have flexibility and plasticity, can flow and change, heat differences in the mantle's magma cause convection currents
• Levels of the mantle


  • Lower mantle
  • Transition zone
  • Upper mantle
• Crust

  Cool near Earth, hot near the mantle, 2 categories: continental and oceanic
• Continental crust

  Continents rest, have complex rock structures, granite is a common rock
• Oceanic crust


  Basalt is a common rock
• Minerals

  Inorganic solids, have definite composition and crystal structure, solids have definite volume and shape, stable at room temperature
• Types of minerals


  • Silicate minerals
  • Non-silicate minerals
• Silicate minerals

  Made of SiO2, combined with 1 or more metals, largest group of minerals
• Silicate minerals

  • Feldspar
  • Quartz
  • Mica
  • Talc
• Sedimentary rocks

  • Form in horizontal layers, from the accumulation of sediment, organic matter, and chemical precipitates, mostly composed of quartz, feldspar, and clay
• Types of sedimentary rocks

  • Conglomerate
  • Breccia
  • Clastic
  • Chemical
  • Organic
• Igneous rocks

  • Form from the cooling of lava and magma, contain inter-grown crystals of different sizes, shapes, and compositions
• Types of igneous rocks

  • Extrusive
  • Intrusive
• Metamorphic rocks

  • Form because of the high pressure and temperature, near the center of the Earth, mineral and chemical composition can be changed, often found in mountainous regions, layered structures of crystals, denser and harder, may have distortions causing wavy and zig-zag patterns