Interactions With The Physical Environment

• Inner Core:

  • Centre of the earth
  • Hottest part of the earth 
  • The inner core is solid 
  • Iron and nickel
  • Temperatures up to 5500 degrees
  • ENGINE ROOM OF THE EARTH
• Outer core: 

  • Surrounds the inner core 
  • It is a liquid layer 
  • Iron and nickel 
  • Temperature similar to the inner core
• Mantle: 

  • Widest section of the earth
  • Approximately 2900 km in diameter
  • Made of semi molten rock called magma
  • Upper part is hard
  • Lower part is softer
  • Where convection currents occur
• Asthenosphere:

  • Upper part of mantle
  • Semi solid
• Lithosphere: 

  • The outer layer of earth 
  • The thinnest layer (0-60km) 
  • Solid rock that we live on 
  • Is made up of 2 crusts 
  • Continental crust: Carries land 
  • Oceanic crust: Carries water 
• Convection Currents:

  Heat driven cycles that occur in the air, mantle, and ocean
• Precambrian (earliest life)

  • 4600 million- 600 years ago
  • Precambrian shields like the Canadian shield formed
  • Single celled organisms (amoeba)
  • Multi Celled organisms (Algae)
• Paleozoic

  • 600 - 225 million years ago
  • Appalachian mountains formed
  • Complex organisms such as fish, insects, and amphibians evolved
  • Pangaea formed
• Mesozoic (middle life)

  • 225 - 70 million years ago
  • When Pangaea broke up
  • Tremendous tectonic forces caused the Rocky Mountains to form
  • Dinosaurs and other reptiles roamed about
  • First known flowering plants, birds, and mammals evolved
• Cenozoic

  • 70 million years ago to present day
  • Completion of Rocky Mountains
  • Continents take on their present shape
  • Ice age due to glacier developing as a result of a slight cooling of the earth's climate
  • Humans and mammals evolve
• • In the early 1900s (1915) Alfred Wegener, a German Meteorologist, developed a theory around the face that all continents seemed to fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle
  • He thought that the continents were once joined in a stage landmass-PANGAEA and they are now drifting away from each other  
  • Evidence
  • Rocks in Newfoundland are the same kind and age as those found in Scotland
  • Fossils of similar plants and animals have been found in Africa and South America
  • Continents fit together
  • Ancient climate
• • During the 1960’s scientist, Tuzo Wilson developed the theory of Plate Tectonics to explain Continental drift
  • The theory says that the entire surface of the earth is broken up into giant plates of rock about 70 km thick and thousands of kilometers wide 
  • Plate tectonics are always moving and sliding above and under each other (diverge, converge, transforming
• • Diverging
  • When they move away from each other, they leave a gap where magma oozes out creating volcanoes.
  • Iceland is splitting along the center between the North American and Eurasian plates 
• • Transforming
  • When two plates scrape together and one gets caught on the other pressure builds up until it is released and felt as earthquakes  
  • San Andreas Fault Line
• • Converging (Subduction)
  • Plates can also push up against each other folding land upwards into mountains 
  • The Himalayan Mountains in India started to develop 25 million years ago when the Indian and Eurasian plate converged
  • They move slowly, 2.5-5 cm every year
• Metamorphic Rocks:

  Rocks that went through immense heat and pressure by getting pulled under the Earth's surface.
• Igneous:

  Rocks that were formed by the cooling and solidification of molten material.
• Sedimentary:

  Rocks that are formed when sediments erode from other rocks, dead animals/plants, and are compacted together.
• Rocks that form when magma or lava cools are called igneous rocks
• When sedimentary rock is put under heat and pressure, what type of rock is formed? Metamorphic rocks
• Physical weathering = The breakdown of rocks and soil through direct contact with conditions such as heat, water and ice.
• Chemical weathering = Chemical reactions that alter the internal structure of the minerals through processes like oxidation and hydration.
• Erosion = The displacement of soil, mud, or rocks through things like wind, water, and ice.
• Humus: Nutrient rich soil that comes from dead animals and plants.
• Air: Comes from above the surface and when organisms dig into the soil, allowing it to get absorbed by the roots
• Minerals: Created when rocks are broken down.
• Moisture: Comes from rain or ground water
• Leaching = The downward movement of water in soil.
• Calcification = The upwards movement of water, bringing minerals up from below.
• Convectional precipitation: Occurs on hot sunny afternoons and evenings. The moisture absorbs so much heat and rapidly cools resulting in thunderstorms.
• Orographic precipitation: Occurs when wet air masses over a land barrier like mountains.
• Continental Climate = Hot summers and cold winters, large temperature range (+25 degrees), little to moderate precipitation, and located in Winnipeg and Calgary.
• Major greenhouse gasses:

  • Methane, and carbon dioxide.
• Geologic Natural Disaster:

  Caused by Earth's processes commonly involving plate tectonics (Earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions)
• Atmospheric Natural Disaster:

  Caused by weather and climate (Hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes)
• Hydrologic Natural Disaster:

  Caused by a water process. (Flooding, erosion, and drought)
• Ecozone:

  How Canada is divided based on soil, vegetation, animals, climate, and human activity.
• How many ecozones are there in Canada?

  There are 15 ecozones in Canada
• Which ecozone do we live in?

  Mixedwood Plains
• Which is the largest ecozone?

  Boreal Plains