SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY

Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Synopsis

On the Topics in Earth and

Space Science

Submitted by:
Buniel, Jhadly Philip A.
Masterand

Submitted to:
Mrs. Ma. Lourdes Sering
Assistant Professor
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Petroleum

Petroleum is a naturally occurring liquid found beneath the Earth’s surface

that can be refined into fuel. Petroleum is a fossil fuel, meaning that it has been

created by the decomposition of organic matter over millions of years. It is formed in

sedimentary rock under intense heat and pressure. Petroleum is used as fuel to

power vehicles, heating units and machines of all sorts, as well as being converted

into plastics and other materials. Because of worldwide reliance on petroleum, the

petroleum industry is extremely powerful and is a major influence on world politics

and the global economy. Petroleum has been used by humans for millennia,

originally for fires and warfare. In the Middle East, oil fields were exploited for

naptha, tar, and kerosene in the 8th to 12th centuries.

Petroleum is necessary for a great number of human needs. The importance of oil.

Currently, petroleum is among our mostimportant natural resources. We use

gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel to run cars, trucks, aircraft, ships, and other

vehicles. Home heat sources include oil, natural gas, and electricity, which in many

areas is generated by burning natural gas.

 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: The Sun

The Sun is by far the largest object in the solar system. It contains more than 99.8%

of the total mass of the Solar System (Jupiter contains most of the rest).

It is often said that the Sun is an "ordinary" star. That's true in the sense that there

are many others similar to it. But there are many more smaller stars than larger

ones; the Sun is in the top 10% by mass. The median size of stars in our galaxy is

probably less than half the mass of the Sun. The sun is a star made of hydrogen

and helium. The sun is located at the center of the solar system and is also the

largest object.

Nothing is more important to us on Earth than theSun. Without the Sun's heat and

light, the Earth would be a lifeless ball of ice-coated rock. The Sun warms our seas,

stirs our atmosphere, generates our weather patterns, and gives energy to the

growing green plants that provide the food and oxygen for life on Earth.
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Meteorite

Meteorites are basically rocks from outer space. Most of us probably have seen meteors

or shooting stars. A meteor is the flash of light that we see in the night sky when a small

chunk of interplanetary debris burns up as it passes through our atmosphere. "Meteor" refers

to the flash of light caused by the debris, not the debris itself.

The debris is called a meteoroid. A meteoroid is a piece of interplanetary matter that

is smaller than a kilometer and frequently only millimeters in size. Most meteoroids

that enter the Earth's atmosphere are so small that they vaporize completely and

never reach the planet's surface.

Primitive meteorites also provide clues to the proportions of the elements present in

the solar system as a whole. Meteorites from asteroids and even from other planets

help scientists understand all planets in our solar system, particularly the processes

taking place deep inside.

 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Coal

Coal is a fossil fuel and is the altered remains of prehistoric vegetation that originally

accumulated in swamps and peat bogs. The energy we get from coal today comes

from the energy that plants absorbed from the sun millions of years ago. A form of

rock rich in organic carbon, able to be burned as a source of energy

 Contains

◦ Organic carbon (rings and straight chains)

◦ Inorganic elements (Fe, Al, clay, CaCO3, trace metals)

 Form ash

◦ Water

 Elemental analysis

◦ Bituminous: C137H97O9NS

◦ Anthracite: C240H90O4NS
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Coastal Processes

This often involves destructive waves wearing away thecoast. There are five

main processes which causecoastal erosion. These are corrasion, abrasion, hydraulic

action, attrition and corrosion/solution. Corrasion is when waves pick up beach material (e.g.

pebbles) and hurl them at the base of a cliff. Coastal processes are the set of mechanisms

that operate along a coastline, bringing about various combinations of erosion and

deposition.

There are four types of erosion:

 Hydraulic action - this is the sheer power of the waves as they smash against the

cliff. Air becomes trapped in the cracks in the rock and causes the rock to break

apart.

 Abrasion - this is when pebbles grind along a rock platform, much like sandpaper.

Over time the rock becomes smooth.

 Attrition - this is when rocks that the sea is carrying knock against each other. They

break apart to become smaller and more rounded.

 Solution - this is when sea water dissolves certain types of rocks. In the UK, chalk

and limestone cliffs are prone to this type of erosion.

 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuel is a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic

materials, formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to

crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the

earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years. A fossil fuel is a fuel formed by

natural processes, such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms,

containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis. The age of the organisms

and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds

650 million years.

Fossil fuels are of great importance because they can be burned (oxidized to carbon

dioxide and water), producing significant amounts of energy per unit mass. The use

of coal as a fuel predates recorded history. Coal was used to run furnaces for the

melting of metal ore. Fossil fuels are found in 96% of the items we use each day.

One major use of these products is as fuel, gasoline for cars, jet fuel, heating oil and

natural gas
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Freshwater Ecosystem

Fresh water (or freshwater) is any naturally occurring water except seawater and

brackish water. Fresh water includes water in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers,

icebergs, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, and even underground water called

groundwater. A freshwater ecosystem is an aquatic system that contains drinkable

water or water of almost no salty content. It has habitats classified by different

factors, including temperature, light penetration, and vegetation. Its resources

include lakes, ponds, rivers , streams, reservoirs, wetlands as well as groundwater.

The Importance of Freshwater Ecosystems. Waterecosystems,

specifically freshwater ecosystems, are some of the most important resources in the

replenishment and purification of water sources used by humans. ... One of the main

functions of wetlands is to remove metals and sediments that make their way into

water. Freshwater Ecosystems and the Importance of Flow and Sediments. ...

Healthyfreshwater ecosystems – rivers, lakes, floodplains, wetlands and estuaries –

provide clean water, food, fibre, energy and many other benefits that support

economies and livelihoods around the world.

 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Geologic Time, Fossils, and Fossil Records

Fossils are physical evidence of preexisting organisms, either plant or animal. The

most common and obvious fossils are the preserved skeletal remains of animals.

Other fossils, which are also evidence of past organisms, include leaf impressions,

tracks and trails, burrows, droppings, and root casts. Microfossils are the

microscopic skeletons of previously existing plants or animals, and their examination

requires an optical or an electron microscope for close study. A very small fraction of

the organisms that have lived on the Earth is found in the fossil record: Many did not

possess skeletons or other hard parts that could be preserved; many did not survive

the process of fossilization, wherein skeletons and tissues are replaced by minerals;

and many were subsequently destroyed either by chemical or physical processes

such as recrystallization, metamorphism, or erosion.

Three concepts are important in the study and use of fossils: (1) Fossils represent

the remains of once-living organisms. (2) Most fossils are the remains of extinct

organisms; that is, they belong to species that are no longer living anywhere on

Earth. (3) The kinds of fossils found in rocks of different ages differ because life on

Earth has changed through time.

 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Origin of The Solar System

The earliest scientific attempts to explain the origin of the Solar System invoked

collisions or condensations from a gas cloud. The discovery of ‘island universes’,

which we know to be galaxies, was thought to confirm this latter theory. There have

been many attempts to develop theories for the origin of the Solar System. None of

them can be described as totally satisfactory. We do believe, however, that we

understand the overall mechanism.

The Sun and the planets formed from the contraction of part of a gas/dust cloud

under its own gravitational pull and that the small net rotation of the cloud created a

disk around the central condensation. The central condensation eventually formed

the Sun while small condensations in the disk formed the planets and their satellites.

The energy from the young Sun blew away the remaining gas and dust leaving the

Solar System as we see it today.

The most widely accepted theory of planetary formation, known as the nebular

hypothesis, maintains that 4.6 billion years ago, the Solar System formed from the

gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud which was light years across.

Several stars, including the Sun, formed within the collapsing cloud.
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory describing the large-scale motion of seven large

plates and the movements of a larger number of smaller plates of the Earth's

lithosphere, since tectonic processes began on Earth between 3 and 3.5 billion years

ago. Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into

several plates that glide over the mantle, the rocky inner layer above the core.

The plates act like a hard and rigid shell compared to Earth's mantle. Plate tectonics

is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over the

mantle, the rocky inner layer above the core. The plates act like a hard and rigid

shell compared to Earth's mantle.

This strong outer layer is called the lithosphere, which is 100 km (60 miles) thick,

according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The lithosphere includes the crust and outer

part of the mantle. Below the lithosphere is the asthenosphere, which is malleable or

partially malleable, allowing the lithosphere to move around.

Plate tectonics provides a mechanism for this global thermostat. Most volcanism on

the Earth occurs at plate boundaries in response toplate tectonics.

 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Age of the Universe

Age may only be a number, but when it comes to the age of the universe, it's a pretty

important one. According to research, the universe is approximately 13.8 billion

years old. How did scientists determine how many candles to put on the universe's

birthday cake? They can determine the age of the universe using two different

methods: by studying the oldest objects within the universe and measuring how fast

it is expanding. The universe cannot be younger than the objects contained inside of

it. By determining the ages of the oldest stars, scientists are able to put a limit on the

age.

The life cycle of a star is based on its mass. More massive stars burn faster than

their lower-mass siblings. A star 10 times as massive as the sun will burn through its

fuel supply in 20 million years, while a star with half the sun's mass will last more

than 20 billion years. The mass also affects the brightness, or luminosity, of a star;

more massive stars are brighter.

The earliest stages of the universe's existence are estimated as taking place 13.8

billion years ago, with an uncertainty of around 21 million years at the 68%

confidence level.
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Contamination

Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element

that soils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural

environment, workplace, etc.

Example of contamination is Water Pollution. Water pollution is the contamination of water

bodies, usually as a result of human activities. Water bodies include for example lakes,

rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants are

introduced into the natural environment.

Topic: Seismic Activity

Seismic activity is defined as the types, frequency and size of earthquakes that

happen over a period of time in a certain area. An example of seismic activity is how

often earthquakes occur in the San Francisco Bay Area. Seismic Activity is defined

as the types, frequency and types of earthquakes that happen over a period of time

in a certain area.
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Volcanoes and Magma

A volcano is a vent or 'chimney' that connects molten rock (magma) from within the Earth’s

crust to the Earth's surface.

The volcano includes the surrounding cone of erupted material.

Magma is extremely hot liquid and semi-liquid rock located under Earth's surface. ... Much of

the planet's mantle consists of magma. This magma can push through holes or cracks in the

crust, causing avolcanic eruption. When magma flows or erupts onto Earth's surface, it is

called lava.

Topic: Water Pollution

Water is essential to life. It need not be spelt out exactly how important it is. Yet water
pollution is one of the most serious ecological threats we face today.

Water pollution happens when toxic substances enter water bodies such as lakes, rivers,
oceans and so on, getting dissolved in them, lying suspended in the water or depositing on
the bed. This degrades the quality of water.

Not only does this spell disaster for aquatic ecosystems, the pollutants also seep through
and reach the groundwater, which might end up in our households as contaminated water
we use in our daily activities, including drinking.
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: The Structure of the Earth

The structure of the Earth is divided into layers. These layers are both physically and
chemically different. The Earth has an outer solid layer called the crust, a highly viscous
layer called the mantle, a liquid layer that is the outer part of the core, called the outer core,
and a solid center called the inner core. The shape of the earth is an oblate spheroid,
because it is slightly flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator.

The boundaries between these layers were discovered by seismographs which showed the
way vibrations bounced off the layers during earthquakes. Between the Earth's crust and the
mantle is a boundary called the moho. It was the first discovery of a major change in the
Earth's structure as one goes deeper. Earth’s layers are;

 The crust is the outermost layer of the Earth. It is made of solid rocks. It is mostly
made of the lighter elements, silicon, oxygen, aluminium.

 The mantle is the layer of the Earth right below the crust. It is made mostly of oxygen,
silicon and the heavier element magnesium. The mantle itself is divided into layers.
The uppermost part of the mantle is solid, and forms the base of the crust. It is made
of the heavy rock peridotite. The continental and oceanic plates include both the
crust proper and this uppermost solid layer of the mantle. Together this mass makes
up the lithosphere.

The Earth's core is made of solid iron and nickel, and is at about 5000–6000 °C. it is
divided in two layers the Outer core is a liquid layer below the mantle and the Inner
core, is the very center of the Earth.
 SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
Cantilan Campus
Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Rocks and Minerals

Rocks make up all of the material of the landmasses of Earth and are defined as an
aggregate of minerals and silicates and are predominantly found in the solid state of matter.
Rocks are split into separate categories such as sedimentary and igneous which define the
way they were created or formed. Rock allows for the building of structures through the use
of concrete, bricks, stucco, and a myriad of other uses. In addition, rocks also comprise the
crystals formed such as salts and precious gemstones like diamonds and sapphires. Some
rocks are formed from the decay of organic materials as in the case of coal and peat. Even
clocks use rocks in the form of quartz for their time keeping. Rocks will typically have more
generic names like boulder, stone, pebble and mountain and do not usually have proper
names such as copper or basalt.

Minerals are naturally occurring substance made from geological processes that possess a
characteristic chemical composition, a particular atomic structure and specific properties.
Minerals can be anything from salt to aluminum and encompass a wide range of materials.
Minerals allow for every industry to function and flourish in today's economy and are used in
industries like road construction, building, medical remedies and skin care as well as
defense and automobile production. A basic difference between rocks and minerals is that
rocks are made up of two or more minerals but minerals are not made up of rocks. All
minerals have proper names like aluminum and gallium and are formed by very specific
processes.

Some minerals and rocks exhibit unique and special properties that have been used by
humans for centuries and some are just plain fun. Fluorescence is a property of some
minerals that contain atoms that absorb ultraviolet light.
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Topic: Weathering and Erosion

Once the rock has been weakened and broken up byweathering it is ready

for erosion. Erosion happens when rocks and sediments are picked up and moved to

another place by ice, water, wind or gravity. Mechanical weathering physically breaks up

rock. One example is called frost action or frost shattering. Weathering is the process that

changes solid rock into sediments. With weathering, rock is disintegrated. It breaks into

pieces. Once these sediments are separated from the rocks, erosion is the process that

moves the sediments. While plate tectonics forces work to build huge mountains and other

landscapes, the forces of weathering gradually wear those rocks and landscapes away.

Together with erosion, tall mountains turn into hills and even plains.

Topic: Comets

Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the Sun. When
frozen, they are the size of a small town. When a comet's orbit brings it close to the Sun, it
heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets. A
comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and
begins to release gases, a process called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or
coma, and sometimes also a tail.
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Cantilan, Surigao del Sur

Topic: Continental Margin

The continental margin is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other

two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margin is the

shallow water area found in proximity to continent. Continental margin, the

submarine edge of the continental crust distinguished by relatively light and

isostatically high-floating material in comparison with the adjacent oceanic crust. It is

the name for the collective area that encompasses the continental shelf, continental

slope, and continental rise. The characteristics of the various continental margins are

shaped by a number of factors. Chief among these are tectonics, fluctuations of sea

level, the size of the rivers that empty onto a margin as determined by the amount of

sediment they carry, and the energy conditions or strength of the ocean waves and

currents along the margin.