CHAPTER 1

THE ORIGIN AND

STRUCTURE OF
EARTH
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES:
o Describe the historical development of the
theories that explain the origin of the universe.
o Compare the different hypotheses explaining the
origin of the Solar System.
o Describe the unique characteristics of Earth
necessary to support life.
o Explain that Earth consists of four subsystems
across whose boundaries matter and energy flow.

2
 LESSON 1.1
THEORIES ON THE
ORIGIN OF THE
UNIVERSE
 “COSMOS” – another word for
UNIVERSE

COSMOLOGY – is the study of the

origin, evolution, and fate of the
universe.
 CREATION THEORY

“
LIGHT AND DARKNESS LAND MOON AND STARS

HUMANS AND OTHER

SKY WATER LIVING THINGS

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 OSCILLATING UNIVERSE

- This is what the Hindu text “Rigveda” describes

the universe in which a “Cosmic Egg” or
Brahmanda explains that the universe is
composed of sun, moon, planets, and space.

- Expands out of a single concentrated point called

“Bindu”, and will eventually collapse again.

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 PRIMORDIAL UNIVERSE

- Anaxagoras believed in this theory and

explained that the original state of cosmos was a
primordial mixture of all its ingredients which
existed in infinitesimally small fragments of
themselves.

- This mixture was set in motion by the action of

the “nous” or mind.
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 ATOMIC UNIVERSE

- Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus

- They help that the universe was composed of

very small, indivisible, and indestructible atoms.

- Universe is like a giant living body, with the sun

and the stars as the most important parts to
which everything else was interconnected.
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 GEOCENTRIC UNIVERSE
- Greek philosophers Aristotle and Ptolemy
- Earth is the center of the universe

HELIOCENTRIC UNIVERSE

- Philosopher and Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus

- Sun is the center of the universe

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STATIC, STEADY-STATE, INFINITE UNIVERSE
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Matter on the large scale is uniformly
distributed, and the universe is gravitationally
balanced but essentially unstable.
STATIC, DYNAMICALLY-STABLE UNIVERSE
- Albert Einstein
- The universe in neither expanding nor
contracting 10
 CARTESIAN VORTEX
UNIVERSE
- French philosopher Rene Descartes

- The vacuum of space was not empty at all but

was filled with matter that swirled around in
large and small vortices.

- Involved a system of huge swirling whirlpools of

fine matter, producing Gravitational Effects.
MODERN THEORIES
ON THE ORIGIN OF
THE UNIVERSE
 BIG BANG THEORY

The current accepted model on

the formation of the universe.
 OSCILLATING UNIVERSE
- Albert Einstein’s favored model after rejecting his
own original model.
- Followed the general theory of relativity
equations of the universe with positive curvature.
 STEADY STATE THEORY
- Astronomers Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, and
Hermann Bondi
- Predicted a universe that expanded but did not
change its density.
 INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE

- American Physicist Alan Guth proposed a model

of the universe based on the big bang theory and
became known as the inflationary model.

- Another variation of this model was the cyclic

model developed by Paul Steinhardt and Neil
Turok based on the superstring theory.
 MULTIVERSE

-Russian-American Physicist Andrei Linde

- This theory sees the universe as just one of many

“bubbles” that grew as a part of a multiverse.

- American Physicist Hugh Everett III and Bryce

Dewitt had initially developed and popularized the
concept of “many worlds”
MULTIVERSE
 LESSON 1.2
THE ORIGIN OF THE
SOLAR SYSTEM
ENCOUNTER HYPOTHESIS
NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS
PROTOPLANET HYPOTHESIS

- The present working

model for the formation of
the Solar System
- Larger asteroid-sized
aggregates is called
planetisimals.
 LESSON 1.3
LIFE ON EARTH
 LIQUID
WATER
Two possible resources:
✔ Water released through Volcanism
✔ Came from the icy meteors of the outer regions of
the Solar System.

Habitable zone is the distance from a star where

liquid water can exist in its liquid form.
 HEAT
SOURCE
Two possible resources:
✔ Internal heating of the Earth – radiogenic heat from
radioactive decay of materials in the core and mantle.
✔ External heating from the sun- form of radiation which
enters Earth.
 ATMOSP
HERE
✔ Responsible for the
occurrence of
greenhouse
phenomenon, a
natural process which
maintains heat.
✔ A vital part of
photosynthesis.
 LESSON 1.4
EARTH’S SUBSYSTEMS
 EARTH AS A
CLOSED SYTEM
The amount of water within a closed system is fixed.

Although the earth is considered as a closed system,

its four subsystems are open, and matter and energy
can freely transfer between them. Thus, a
disturbance in one system affects the others.
 EARTH’S
SUBSYTEMS
GEOSPH
ERE
✔ Refers to the solid Earth

✔ Composed of rocks and regolith – a loose particles

of rocks that blanket the surface of the Earth.

✔ Includes geologic landforms such as mountains and

hills.
hydrosph
ere

✔ The totality of Earth’s water, including the

permanently frozen parts called cryosphere.

✓Surface Water ✓ Ground Water

✓Atmosphere ✓ Frozen Water
ATMOSP
HERE
✔ Mixture of gases that surround the planet.

✔ Composed of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 0.9%

Argon, and the remaining 0.10% is made up of
different trace gasses.
BIOSPHE
RE
✔ Includes all life forms and even organic matter that
has not yet decomposed.

✔ In this zone, the interaction between the different

subsystems is most dynamic.
CARBON
CYCLE