NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION

M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

Modules in Physical Geography Period Covered: Semi-finals

I. Lesson Title: Air Masses, Fronts, Typhoons, & Thunderstorms

II. Lesson Description: Fronts are zones of transition between two different air masses. The zone
may be 20 miles across or it may be 100 miles across, but from one side of a front to the other,
one clearly would sense that the properties of an air mass had changed significantly (e.g.,
contrasts in temperature and dew point, wind direction, cloud cover, and on-going weather). The
frontal zone represents the leading edge of a wedge of cold/cool air. If the wedge is moving into
an area of warmer air, the front is called a cold front. If the wedge is retreating and warmer air
is moving into an area previously occupied by cool air, the front is termed a warm front.
https://okfirst.mesonet.org/train/meteorology/Fronts.html
The formation of airmass and fronts develop to typhoons. On the clouds of airmasses
and fronts sparks lightning and thunderstorms. This can occur anywhere because the formation
of airmasses is not exclusive in one part of the region. This can develop anywhere or even to the
residential places. It is important to understand its characteristic to avoid the negative impact of
it to people.
Air masses and fronts can help develop or destroy the formation of typhoons. These
two elements are requirements the intensification and path of typhoons. The location and
location and path of typhoons are hard to determine because of these two weather phenomena.

III. Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the formation, location, and development of airmasses, fronts, typhoons, and
thunderstorms.
2. Identify the formation, location, and development of airmasses, fronts, typhoons, and
thunderstorms.
3. Appreciate the positive effects of the mentioned weather disturbances around us.

IV. Learning Activities:

A. Reading Activity:
1. How does weather disturbances form?
2. Why does this happen?

Air Masses, Fronts, Typhoons, & Thunderstorms:

An air mass is a very large body of air having similar temperature and moisture content
throughout its reach. While lacking a fixed size, air masses typically cover thousands of square
kilometers or miles, sometimes even stretching over most of a country or region. Of the four major
types of air masses, one tends to influence the weather of the Pacific coast more than the others.
Meteorologists generally divide air masses into four major categories: continental tropical,
continental polar, maritime tropical, and maritime polar. Occasionally, they may use a fifth category,
continental arctic, to describe extreme bone-chilling cold. Air masses develop over large areas with
flat, uniform composition, such as oceans or vast plains, and take on the temperature and humidity
characteristics of those regions. Air masses forming over land are dry, while those developing over
oceans are more humid. Similarly, air masses developing near polar regions contain cold air, while
those near tropical regions contain warm air. Air masses do not remain hovering over the area in
which they developed; they migrate to other areas, propelled by the atmospheric forces. As they
move, they take on characteristics of their new environment—for instance, a polar air mass becomes
warmer the farther south it travels.
Maritime polar air masses, abbreviated mP on weather maps, tend to dominate the Pacific
coast region. These air masses form over a cold ocean current in the northern Pacific Ocean.
Although mP air masses originate at northerly latitudes, they do not feature as cold of air as
continental polar air masses. The prevailing westerly winds carry them eastward to the Pacific
coastline, where they deliver relatively moist, cool air. As maritime polar air masses move southward
and inland, they interact with the drier, warmer air already in place, modifying their impact. Maritime
polar air masses have the capability to produce cloudy, damp, or foggy conditions, with fog more
likely near the shoreline.
The southern portion of the Pacific coast—particularly southern California—can be influenced
by maritime tropical air masses, abbreviated mT. These warm, moist air masses originate in the
subtropical Pacific Ocean. They may bring fog or low clouds with them. Thanks to the prevailing
westerlies, continental air masses almost never influence the weather on the Pacific Coast. On rare

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

occasions, however, if the wind blows from the southeast, dry continental tropical air may make its
way from Mexico to southern California’s Pacific coast.
The mountains lining the Pacific coast cause the region to experience very different weather
than interior regions of the West. When maritime air masses travel inland, the air is forced upward
over coastal mountain ranges, where it produces precipitation, hence losing its moisture content and
taking on characteristics more typical of continental air masses. Sometimes, this change is apparent
in just a few short miles, depending on the proximity of the mountains to the sea. The coastal
ranges essentially comprise a geographic barrier, which explains why the weather of areas nestled
along the Pacific coast usually differs so greatly from the weather of areas east of the mountains.
https://sciencing.com/air-mass-influence-climate-23966.html

Fronts:
A weather front is a transition zone between two different air masses at the Earth's surface.
Each air mass has unique temperature and humidity characteristics. Often there is turbulence at a
front, which is the borderline where two different air masses come together. The turbulence can
cause clouds and storms.
Instead of causing clouds and storms, some fronts just cause a change in temperature.
However, some storm fronts start Earth's largest storms. Tropical waves are fronts that develop in
the tropical Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. These fronts can develop into tropical storms or
hurricanes if conditions allow.
Fronts move across the Earth's surface over multiple days. The direction of movement is
often guided by high winds, such as Jet Streams. Landforms like mountains can also change the
path of a front.

Cold fronts & Warm fronts:

A cold front form when a cold air mass pushes into a warmer air mass. Cold fronts can
produce dramatic changes in the weather. They move fast, up to twice as fast as a warm front. As a
cold front move into an area, the heavier (more dense) cool air pushes under the lighter (less
dense) warm air, causing it to rise into the troposphere. Lifted warm air ahead of the front produces
cumulus or cumulonimbus clouds and thunderstorms, like in the image on the below.
As the cold front passes, winds become gusty. There is a sudden drop in temperature, and
heavy rain, sometimes with hail, thunder, and lightning. Atmospheric pressure changes from falling
to rising at the front. After a cold front move through your area, you may notice that the
temperature is cooler, the rain has stopped, and the cumulus clouds are replaced by stratus and
stratocumulus clouds or clear skies.
On weather maps, a cold front is represented by a solid blue line with filled-in triangles along
it, like in the map below. The triangles are like arrowheads pointing in the direction that the front is
moving. Notice on the map that temperatures at the ground level change from warm too cold as you
cross the front line.

Credit: Lisa Gardiner

A warm front form when a warm air mass pushes into a cooler air mass, shown in the image
to the right (A). Warm fronts often bring stormy weather as the warm air mass at the surface rises
above the cool air mass, making clouds and storms. Warm fronts move more slowly than cold fronts

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

because it is more difficult for the warm air to push the cold, dense air across the Earth's surface.
Warm fronts often form on the east side of low-pressure systems where warmer air from the south
is pushed north.
You will often see high clouds like cirrus, cirrostratus, and middle clouds like altostratus
ahead of a warm front. These clouds form in the warm air that is high above the cool air. As the
front passes over an area, the clouds become lower, and rain is likely. There can be thunderstorms
around the warm front if the air is unstable.
On weather maps, the surface location of a warm front is represented by a solid red line with
red, filled-in semicircles along it, like in the map below. The semicircles indicate the direction that
the front is moving. They are on the side of the line where the front is moving. Notice on the map
that temperatures at ground level are cooler in front of the front than behind it.
https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-weather-works/weather-fronts

Credits: Liza Gardiner

Typhoons:
A typhoon is a type of large storm system having a circular or spiral system of violent winds,
typically hundreds of kilometers or miles in diameter. The winds spiral around a region of low
atmospheric pressure. "Typhoon" is the name of these storms that occur in the Western Pacific.
"Hurricane" is the name given to these storms in the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Pacific. In the
Indian Ocean, they are called "Tropical Cyclones". For stronger typhoons, a characteristic structure
called the "eye" forms when the maximum wind speeds exceed about 85 miles per hour, or 140
kilometers per hour. The eye is a region of clear air with no clouds and is a few tens of kilometers in
diameter. The energy that powers typhoons comes from the evaporation of warm ocean water. The
water vapor rises to the top of the typhoon along the sides of the eye, then condenses into clouds.
Warmer ocean water produces more powerful typhoons, which can grow into "super typhoons".
The physics of typhoons depends on a balance between the low pressure at the center of the
storm and the Coriolis force that comes from the rotation of the earth. Since the Coriolis force is
zero at the Earth's equator, typhoons can only form at latitudes that are more than about 10
degrees north or south of the Earth's equator. Due to the Coriolis force, the winds in a typhoon
spiral in the counterclockwise direction in the northern hemisphere when observed from above. The
winds spiral in the clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere.

How does a typhoon form?

For a typhoon to form, it must have a warm sea temperature of about 27 degrees
centigrade and above. The warm humid air rises full of water vapor and because of the Earth’s
rotation, the moving air is given a twist so that the entire system begins to resolve – this is called
the Coriolis effect. As the warm moist air rises, it cools and form into clouds and the water vapor in
it condenses to water droplets and falls as rain. The release of large amounts of heat helps the air to
rise even higher. This system continues to develop over warm sea while there is an abundant supply
of warm moist air at the surface. The wind around the center increases and when the wind speed
reaches 118kph or more blowing between 6-10 hrs. that extends about 20-50 km. from the center.
The are of the typhoon may reach up to 600km.

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

The atmosphere can usually organize into a typhoon in 2 to 4 days and is

characterized by increasing thunderstorms and rain squalls at sea. Meteorologist can monitor these
processes in weather satellites and radar as far as 400km away from the storm. The existence of
favorable condition for a typhoon development determines the cyclone season for each monitoring
center. As viewed by weather satellites and radar imagery, the main physical feature of a mature
typhoon is a spiral pattern of highly turbulent giant cumulus thunderclouds bands. These band spiral
inwards as high as 12km. above the surface and form a dense highly active central cloud core that
wraps around relatively calm and cloud free “eye”. – Lomerio-Ondiz, Redito (2009)

Thunderstorms:
Thunderstorm, a violent short-lived weather disturbance that is almost always
associated with lightning, thunder, dense clouds, heavy rain or hail, and strong gusty winds.
Thunderstorms arise when layers of warm, moist air rise in a large, swift updraft to cooler regions of
the atmosphere. There the moisture contained in the updraft condenses to form towering
cumulonimbus clouds and, eventually, precipitation. Columns of cooled air then sink earthward,
striking the ground with strong downdrafts and horizontal winds. At the same time, electrical
charges accumulate on cloud particles (water droplets and ice). Lightning discharges occur when the
accumulated electric charge becomes sufficiently large. Lightning heats the air it passes through so
intensely and quickly that shock waves are produced; these shock waves are heard as claps and
rolls of thunder. On occasion, severe thunderstorms are accompanied by swirling vortices of air that
become concentrated and powerful enough to form tornadoes.
Thunderstorms are known to occur in almost every region of the world, though they are rare
in polar regions and infrequent at latitudes higher than 50° N and 50° S. The temperate and tropical
regions of the world, therefore, are the most prone to thunderstorms. In the United States the areas
of maximum thunderstorm activity are the Florida peninsula (more than 80 thunderstorm days per
year, with some areas over 100), the Gulf Coast (60–90 days per year), and the mountains of New
Mexico (50–80 days per year). Central Europe and Asia average 20 to 60 thunderstorm days per
year. It has been estimated that at any one moment there are approximately 1,800 thunderstorms
in progress throughout the world.
Most brief but violent disturbances in Earth’s wind systems involve large areas of ascending
and descending air. Thunderstorms are no exception to this pattern. In technical terms, a
thunderstorm is said to develop when the atmosphere becomes “unstable to vertical motion.” Such
an instability can arise whenever relatively warm, light air is overlain by cooler, heavier air. Under
such conditions the cooler air tends to sink, displacing the warmer air upward. If a sufficiently large
volume of air rises, an updraft (a strong current of rising air) will be produced. If the updraft is
moist, the water will condense and form clouds; condensation in turn will release latent heat energy,
further fueling upward air motion and increasing the instability.
When the atmosphere becomes unstable enough to form large powerful updrafts and
downdrafts (as indicated by the red and blue arrows), a towering thundercloud is built up. At times,
the updrafts are strong enough to extend the top of the cloud into the tropopause, the boundary
between the troposphere (or lowest layer of the atmosphere) and the stratosphere. Click on the
icons along the left-hand side of the figure to view illustrations of other phenomena associated with
thunderstorms.
Once upward air motions are initiated in an unstable atmosphere, rising parcels of warm air
accelerate as they rise through their cooler surroundings because they have a lower density and are
more buoyant. This motion can set up a pattern of convection wherein heat, and moisture are
transported upward, and cooler and drier air is transported downward. Areas of the atmosphere
where vertical motion is relatively strong are called cells, and when they carry air to the upper
troposphere (the lowest layer of the atmosphere), they are called deep cells. Thunderstorms develop
when deep cells of moist convection become organized and merge, and then produce precipitation
and ultimately lightning and thunder.
Upward motions can be initiated in a variety of ways in the atmosphere. A common
mechanism is by the heating of a land surface and the adjacent layers of air by sunlight. If surface
heating is sufficient, the temperatures of the lowest layers of air will rise faster than those of layers
aloft, and the air will become unstable. The ability of the ground to heat up quickly is why most
thunderstorms form over land rather than oceans. Instability can also occur when layers of cool air
are warmed from below after they move over a warm ocean surface or over layers of warm air.
Mountains, too, can trigger upward atmospheric motion by acting as topographic barriers that force
winds to rise. Mountains also act as high-level sources of heat and instability when their surfaces are
heated by the Sun.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

Discuss the following in brief informative and concise sentences: (avoid long explanation
but
has no substance) – This is for recitation.
1. What is a Coriolis effect -
__________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. What are differences of the following:
a. Hurricane - __________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
b. Typhoon -
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
c. Cyclone - ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. Give at least 3 positive effects of a typhoon.
1. ___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________

For your project and quiz: Visit your barangay hall then ask an evacuation plan. If they do not
have it, draw an evacuation plan of your barangay. Draw it on the box provided.

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

Physical Geography
Semi-final Examination
Name: ______________________________ Score: ______________ Eq.: ______________
A. Circle the letter of the correct answer.
1. What a cloud made up?
A. Water B. wind C. rain D. thunderstorm
2. What is the required temperature to form a typhoon?
A. 27 degrees centigrade and up C. 27 degrees centigrade and below
B. 37 degrees centigrade and up D. 37 degrees centigrade and below
3. What is the required kph of wind speed that blows to declare a formed storm a typhoon?
A. 115 kph B. 116 kph C. 117 kph D. 118 kph
4. How long should a storm have a sustained to declare it by authorities as a typhoon?
A. Wind blows between 6-10 hrs C. wind blows between 10-16 hrs
B. Wind blows for about 24 hrs D. wind blows for about 36 hrs.
5. How many days will a typhoon form?
A. 5 to 10 days B. 6 to 10 days C. 6 to 11 days D. 5 to 11 days
6. The typhoon can be as big as 600km in diameter, how big it is?
A. As big as the Bicol Region C. As big as Samar-Leyte Region
B. As big as the entire Luzon D. As big as the Philippines
7. Which of the following provinces is the Eastern Bicol?
A. Camarines Sur B. Catanduanes C. Albay D. Sorsogon
8. Which of the following municipalities of Camarines Sur are in the East?
A. Caramoan, Minalabac, San Jose C. Caramoan, Lagonoy, Sangay
B. Lagonoy, San Fernando, Pasacao D. Siruma, Tiwi, Garchetorena
9. Most of the time the typhoons are formed in the _____________________?
A. Indian Ocean B. Atlantic C. Pacific D. Aegean
10. Most of the time storm that forms in Atlantic Ocean is called?
A. Cyclone B. Typhoon C. Hurricane D. All
11. Who are the experts who study the weather?
A. Oceanographer B. Climatologist C. Biologist D. Meteorologist
12. What do you call the transition zone between two different air masses?
A. Front B. weather C. wind zone D. Air mass
13. When there is a change of front it caused _______________?
A. sudden rain B. gustiness C. change in temperature D. thunderstorm
14. Which of the following will change the path of a front?
A. ocean and seas B. seas and river C. land mass D. mountain
15. What is a short-lived weather disturbance that is almost always associated with lightning?
A. typhoon B. thunderstorm C. gustiness of wind D. all
16. How does a thunderstorm develop?
A. When the atmosphere becomes unstable to vertical motion.
B. When a warm, light air is overlain by cooler, heavier air.
C. The cooler air sinks then displaced the warmer air upward.
D. All
17. What will happen when a cold air mass pushes a warmer air mass?
A. warm front is developed C. cold front is developed
B. rains are formed D. wind continuously blows
18. What makes a fog?
A. high cloud B. condensed clouds C. low clouds D. all
19. What is the temperature in highlands?
A. warm B. cold C. humid D. dry
20. What kind of wind that blows from the North-east of the Philippines?
A. Amihan B. Habagat C. Sub-tropical D. Tropical

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

Modules in Physical Geography Period Covered: Finals

I. Lesson Title: Hydrosphere, Biosphere and Earth’s Layer

II. Lesson Description: A hydrosphere is the total amount of water on a planet. The
hydrosphere includes water that is on the surface of the planet, underground, and in
the air. Water is the major and important element in hydrosphere. Part of the study
of is the water cycle. In this process we can notice that water is renewable. It is also
the source of life, that is why it is also important for us to understand biosphere.

III. Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the layers of the Earth.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the significance of the hydrosphere &
biosphere.
3. Appreciate the major sources of water as source of life on Earth?

IV. Learning Activities:

A. Reading Activity:
1. Other than oxygen, what is the most important element of life on
Earth?
2. What happen to water once it is consumed?
3. What are the layers of the Earth?

The Hydrosphere:
A hydrosphere is the total amount of water on a planet. The hydrosphere includes
water that is on the surface of the planet, underground, and in the air. A planet's
hydrosphere can be liquid, vapor, or ice.
On Earth, liquid water exists on the surface in the form of oceans, lakes, and rivers. It
also exists below ground—as groundwater, in wells and aquifers. Water vapor is most visible
as clouds and fog.
The frozen part of Earth's hydrosphere is made of ice: glaciers, ice caps and icebergs.
The frozen part of the hydrosphere has its own name, the cryosphere.
Water moves through the hydrosphere in a cycle. Water collects in clouds, then falls
to Earth in the form of rain or snow. This water collects in rivers, lakes, and oceans. Then it
evaporates into the atmosphere to start the cycle all over again. This is called the water
cycle.

The Cryosphere:
The cryosphere contains the frozen parts of the planet. It includes snow and ice on
land, ice caps, glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice. This sphere helps maintain Earth’s climate
by reflecting incoming solar radiation back into space. As the world warms due to increasing
greenhouse gases being added to the atmosphere by humans, the snow and ice are melting.
At sea, this exposes more of the dark ocean below the ice, and on land, the dark vegetation
below. These dark surfaces then absorb the solar radiation causing more melting. This
creates a positive feedback loop, which exacerbates the impacts of climate change.
-National Geographic

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

https://www.google.com/url

The Water Cycle:

Precipitation is a vital component of how water moves through Earth’s water cycle,
connecting the ocean, land, and atmosphere. Knowing where it rains, how much it rains and
the character of the falling rain, snow or hail allows scientists to better understand
precipitation’s impact on streams, rivers, surface runoff and groundwater. Frequent and
detailed measurements help scientists make models of and determine changes in Earth’s
water cycle.
The water cycle describes how water evaporates from the surface of the earth, rises
into the atmosphere, cools, and condenses into rain or snow in clouds, and falls again to the
surface as precipitation. The water falling on land collects in rivers and lakes, soil, and porous
layers of rock, and much of it flows back into the oceans, where it will once more evaporate.
The cycling of water in and out of the atmosphere is a significant aspect of the weather
patterns on Earth.

https://www.google.com/url

The Biosphere:
Biosphere, relatively thin life-supporting stratum of Earth’s surface, extending from a
few kilometres into the atmosphere to the deep-sea vents of the ocean. The biosphere is a global
ecosystem composed of living organisms (biota) and the abiotic (nonliving) factors from which they
derive energy and nutrients.
Before the coming of life, Earth was a bleak place, a rocky globe with shallow seas
and a thin band of gases—largely carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, molecular nitrogen, hydrogen
sulfide, and water vapour. It was a hostile and barren planet. This strictly inorganic state of Earth is
called the geosphere; it consists of the lithosphere (the rock and soil), the hydrosphere (the water),
and the atmosphere (the air). Energy from the Sun relentlessly bombarded the surface of the
primitive Earth, and in time—millions of years—chemical and physical actions produced the first
evidence of life: formless, jellylike blobs that could collect energy from the environment and produce
more of their own kind. This generation of life in the thin outer layer of the geosphere established
what is called the biosphere, the “zone of life,” an energy-diverting skin that uses the matter of
Earth to make living substance.

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

The biosphere is a system characterized by the continuous cycling of matter and an

accompanying flow of solar energy in which certain large molecules and cells are self-reproducing.
Water is a major predisposing factor, for all life depends on it. The elements carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, when combined as proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and
nucleic acids, provide the building blocks, the fuel, and the direction for the creation of life. Energy
flow is required to maintain the structure of organisms by the formation and splitting of phosphate
bonds. Organisms are cellular in nature and always contain some sort of enclosing membrane
structure, and all have nucleic acids that store and transmit genetic information.
All life on Earth depends ultimately upon green plants, as well as upon water. Plants utilize
sunlight in a process called photosynthesis to produce the food upon which animals feed and to
provide, as a by-product, oxygen, which most animals require for respiration. At first, the oceans
and the lands were teeming with large numbers of a few kinds of simple single-celled organisms, but
slowly plants and animals of increasing complexity evolved. Interrelationships developed so that
certain plants grew in association with certain other plants, and animals associated with the plants
and with one another to form communities of organisms, including those of forests, grasslands,
deserts, dunes, bogs, rivers, and lakes. Living communities and their nonliving environment are
inseparably interrelated and constantly interact upon each other. For convenience, any segment of
the landscape that includes the biotic and abiotic components is called an ecosystem. A lake is an
ecosystem when it is considered in totality as not just water but also nutrients, climate, and all the
life contained within it. A given forest, meadow, or river is likewise an ecosystem. One ecosystem
grade into another along zones termed ecotones, where a mixture of plant and animal species from
the two ecosystems occurs. A forest considered as an ecosystem is not simply a stand of trees but is
a complex of soil, air, and water, of climate and minerals, of bacteria, viruses, fungi, grasses, herbs,
and trees, of insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals.
Stated another way, the abiotic, or nonliving, portion of each ecosystem in the biosphere
includes the flow of energy, nutrients, water, and gases and the concentrations of organic and
inorganic substances in the environment. The biotic, or living, portion includes three general
categories of organisms based on their methods of acquiring energy: the primary producers, largely
green plants; the consumers, which include all the animals; and the decomposers, which include the
microorganisms that break down the remains of plants and animals into simpler components for
recycling in the biosphere. Aquatic ecosystems are those involving marine environments and
freshwater environments on the land. Terrestrial ecosystems are those based on major vegetational
types, such as forest, grassland, desert, and tundra. Kinds of animals are associated with each such
plant province.
Ecosystems may be further subdivided into smaller biotic units called communities. Examples
of communities include the organisms in a stand of pine trees, on a coral reef, and in a cave, a
valley, a lake, or a stream. The major consideration in the community is the living component, the
organisms; the abiotic factors of the environment are excluded.
A community is a collection of species populations. In a stand of pines, there may be many
species of insects, of birds, of mammals, each a separate breeding unit but each dependent on the
others for its continued existence. A species, furthermore, is composed of individuals, single
functioning units identifiable as organisms. Beyond this level, the units of the biosphere are those of
the organism: organ systems composed of organs, organs of tissues, tissues of cells, cells of
molecules, and molecules of atomic elements and energy. The progression, therefore, proceeding
upward from atoms and energy, is toward fewer units, larger and more complex in pattern, at each
successive level.
This article focuses on the makeup of the biosphere and examines the relationships between
its principal components, including man. The characteristics and dynamics of biological populations
and communities are dealt with, as are the interactions that constitute the primary stabilizing links
among the constituent organisms. Due attention is also given to the distribution patterns of these
biotic units and to the processes that produced such patterns. The major aquatic and terrestrial
ecosystems of Earth are treated in some detail. Other points include energy transformations and
transfers within the biosphere and the cyclic flow of materials needed for life. For the development,
methodology, and applications of the study of interrelations of organisms with their environment and
each other, see ecology. Further treatment of the various aquatic and terrestrial environments is
provided in ocean, lake, river, continental landform, Arctic, and Antarctica. For a discussion of the
origin of life on Earth and the varieties of and commonalities among organisms. The characteristics
and classifications of living organisms are covered in detail in algae, amphibian, angiosperm, animal,
annelid, arachnid, arthropod, as helminth, bacteria, bird, bryophyte, chordate, cnidarian, crustacean,
dinosaur, echinoderm, fern, fish, flatworm, fungus, gymnosperm, insect, lamp shell, mammal,
mollusk, moss animal, plant, protist, protozoa, reptile, sponge, and virus.

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 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

Encyclopedia Britannica

For your recitation:

Based on the picture below, what are the composition of the following:

1. Atmosphere - ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. Hydrosphere - __________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. Biosphere -
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
_
____________________________________________________________________
_
4. Lithosphere - ___________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
_
____________________________________________________________________
_

Earth’s Layer:

pg. 10
 NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
M.T. Villanueva Avenue, Naga City
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
First Semester S/Y 2020-2021

A cut-away of Earth’s layers reveals how thin the crust is when compared to the lower layers.
Mountain ranges tower to the sky. Oceans plummet to impossible depths. Earth’s
surface is an amazing place to behold. Yet even the deepest canyon is but a tiny scratch on
the planet. To really understand Earth, you need to travel 6,400 kilometers (3,977 miles)
beneath our feet.
Starting at the center, Earth is composed of four distinct layers. They are, from
deepest to shallowest, the inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust. Except for
the crust, no one has ever explored these layers in person. In fact, the deepest humans have
ever drilled is just over 12 kilometers (7.6 miles). And even that took 20 years!
Still, scientists know a great deal about Earth’s inner structure. They have plumbed it
by studying how earthquake waves travel through the planet. The speed and behavior of
these waves change as they encounter layers of different densities. Scientists — including
Isaac Newton, three centuries ago — have also learned about the core and mantle from
calculations of Earth’s total density, gravitational pull, and magnetic field.

The inner core

This solid metal ball has a radius of 1,220 kilometers (758 miles), or about three-
quarters that of the moon. It is located some 6,400 to 5,180 kilometers (4,000 to 3,220
miles) beneath Earth’s surface. Extremely dense, it has made mostly of iron and nickel. The
inner core spins a bit faster than the rest of the planet. It is also intensely hot: Temperatures
sizzle at 5,400° Celsius (9,800° Fahrenheit). That is almost as hot as the surface of the sun.
Pressures here are immense: well over 3 million times greater than on Earth’s surface. Some
research suggests there may also be an inner, inner core. It would likely consist almost
entirely of iron.

The outer core

This part of the core is also made from iron and nickel, just in liquid form. It sits some
5,180 to 2,880 kilometers (3,220 to 1,790 miles) below the surface. Heated largely by the
radioactive decay of the element’s uranium and thorium, this liquid churns in huge, turbulent
currents. That motion generates electrical currents. They, in turn, generate Earth’s magnetic
field. For reasons somehow related to the outer core, Earth’s magnetic field reverses about
every 200,000 to 300,000 years. Scientists are still working to understand how that happens.

The mantle
At close to 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles) thick, this is Earth’s thickest layer. It starts
a mere 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) beneath the surface. Made mostly of iron, magnesium, and
silicon, it is dense, hot, and semi-solid (think caramel candy). Like the layer below it, this one
also circulates. It just does so far more slowly.

How heat moves? Where are then tectonic plates?

Near its upper edges, somewhere between about 100 and 200 kilometers (62 to 124
miles) underground, the mantle’s temperature reaches the melting point of rock. Indeed, it
forms a layer of partially melted rock known as the asthenosphere (As-THEEN-oh-sfeer).

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Geologists believe this weak, hot, slippery part of the mantle is what Earth’s tectonic plates
ride upon and slide across.
Diamonds are tiny pieces of the mantle we can touch. Most form at depths above 200
kilometers (124 miles). But rare “super-deep” diamonds may have formed as far down as
700 kilometers (435 miles) below the surface. These crystals are then brought to the surface
in volcanic rock known as kimberlite.
The mantle’s outermost zone is relatively cool and rigid. It behaves more like the
crust above it. Together, this uppermost part of the mantle layer and the crust are known as
the lithosphere.

The crust
Earth’s crust is like the shell of a hard-boiled egg. It is extremely thin, cold, and brittle
compared to what lies below it. The crust is made of relatively light elements, especially
silica, aluminum, and oxygen. It is also highly variable in its thickness. Under the oceans (and
Hawaiian Islands), it may be as little as 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) thick. Beneath the
continents, the crust may be 30 to 70 kilometers (18.6 to 43.5 miles) thick.

The thickest part of Earth’s crust is about 70 kilometers (43 miles) thick and lies under the Himalayan Mountains, seen here.

Along with the upper zone of the mantle, the crust is broken into big pieces, like a
gigantic jigsaw puzzle. These are known as tectonic plates. These move slowly — at just 3 to
5 centimeters (1.2 to 2 inches) per year. What drives the motion of tectonic plates is still not
fully understood. It may be related to heat-driven convection currents in the mantle below.
Some scientists think it is caused by the tug from slabs of crust of different densities,
something called “slab pull.” In time, these plates will converge, pull apart or slide past each
other. Those actions cause most earthquakes and volcanoes. It is a slow ride, but it makes
for exciting times here on Earth’s surface. - Beth Geiger (2019)

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