The Nature of Geology

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The Nature of Geology

• Chapter 1 pg. 2-17

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1.0 The Nature of Geology

• Geology has many expressions in the world.
• Reshape Earths interior and surface
• Determine distribution of metals and petroleum
• Control places susceptible to natural disasters
• Impact factors critical to ecosystems
• Ex. Climate, water availability

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The impact of Geology

• Glacier National Park (Montana)
• Formed by glaciers over the last 2 million years.
• Question What controls Earths climate?
• Question What evidence is there of past climatic
  change?

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The impact of Geology

• Mt. St. Helens
• Southwest Washington
• Erupted in 1980
• Volcanic ash
• Floods
• Mud flows
• Toppled trees
• Question How do geologic studies help us
  determine where it is safe to live?

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The impact of Geology

• The Florida Everglades
• One of the most environmentally threatened
  places on planet
• Due to water use
• Question How can geologists help study and
  protect this and other natural treasures?

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How does geology effect this place?
Observe this landscape and identify ways that the
features might influence where we live
Volcanic eruptions
landslides
Earthquakes along fault lines
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A View of North America What do you notice?
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What controls the distribution of resources?
Observe the locations of iron mines (blue) versus
copper mines (orange) cont. to next slide
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1.1 What controls the distribution of natural
resources?

• Pg. 5 in your book.
• Copper mines are orange
• Iron mines are blue
• Why are the different types of mines distributed
  in the areas that they are?
• Answer Magma formed copper-rich granite west of
  the mountains.
• The iron precipitated out of the seas when oxygen
  became more abundant.

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1.2 How does Geology Help Explain Our World?

• Why do continents have different regions?
• What are some distinct regions in the picture?
• What controls the topography of an area?

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How Has the Global Climate Changed Since the Ice
Age?

• Name some differences between the two pictures.
• What could have caused the change?
• What might happen in the future?

28,000 years ago
today
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What Processes Affect Our Planet?
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What Processes Affect Our Planet?

• Internal Forces p. 10
• Energy coming from within the earth.
• Heat trapped during formation of planet
• Heat produced by radioactive decay
• Gravitational attraction
• All things that have mass exert a gravitational
  attraction on other objects.
• If the mass is large and the objects are close,
  there is a stronger pull
• Question How will that impact Earths processes?
  

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What Processes Affect Our Planet?

• External forces
• Energy
• Most of our energy comes from the sun.
• Note the angle that sunlight hits the earth
  determines the amount of energy transferred.
• Impacts ocean and wind currents
• Gravitational pull
• Pull of gravity from sun and moon

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Density

• Density is the amount of mass per a given volume.
  
• Room example.
• Dm/v where m is in grams (g) and v is in
  milliliters (ml) or cm3

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Density and Phases of Matter

• As a substance changes matter from gas to solid
  the substance will become more dense in most
  cases.
• Particles gain and
• lose energy causing
• increased and
• decreased
• movement.

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Exception to the rule

• When water freezes it become less dense and will
  float in water.
• WHY????????

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Regular objects

• Have a regular shape. Example square, rectangle
  etc.
• Mass is determined using a balance. (g)
• Volume is determined using a ruler (the metric
  side) (cm3)
• Length x width x height.

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Irregular objects

• Cannot find the volume with a ruler. Example a
  marble
• Mass is determined using a balance.
• Volume is found by the water displacement method
  using a graduated cylinder.

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Density examples

• If I have a regular shaped object with a mass of
  20.4g and a volume of 5.3cm3, what is the
  density?

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Density example

• If I have a regular shaped object with a mass of
  7.24g and a density of 1.43 g/cm3, what is the
  volume of the object?

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Density example

• If I have an irregular shaped object that is
  placed into a graduated cylinder that had an
  initial volume of 14.35mL and after the object
  was added, rose to 16.42mL, what is the mass of
  the object if the density is 2.42g/cm3?

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Scientific Method

• 6 Steps
• Define Problem
• Research Problem
• Form Hypothesis
• Test Hypothesis
• Analyze Data
• Form Conclusion

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Hypothesis

• Educated guess
• Must be testable

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Experiment

• Must be controlled
• Can only test one variable at a time
• Must be repeatable

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Conclusion

• Must reflect the hypothesis
• The hypothesis was correct because
• The hypothesis was incorrect because.

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Variables

• Factors that affect experiment
• Independent variable- variable that experimenter
  controls, does not change based on other
  variables
• Dependent Variable- variable which changes based
  on other variables.

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Observation vs. Inference

• Observation- made using one of the senses. Not an
  opinion.
• Inference- Using observations to make a guess
  about an object or outcome. Can be a scientific
  opinion