KNOW YOUR

PLANET EARTH
(A comprehensive narration of
Earth System Science on the occasion of centennial celebrations
of the Department of Geology, BHU, Varanasi)

Ram S. Sharma
FNA, FASc.
Former Professor of Geology
at
BHU, Varanasi
 Contents

Preface
Introduction: Why should we know the planet Earth?
Chapter 1: Planet Earth and its Cosmic Cousins
1.0 The solar system
1.1 Early observers
1.2 Origin of planet Earth
1.3 Big Bang theory
1.4 Galaxies
1.5 Formation of Earth and other planets
1.6 Characteristics of each planet
1.7 Sun—the Star of the solar system
1.7.1 Chemical composition of the solar system
1.8 How were all elements of Periodic table formed?
1.9 Asteroid belt
1.9.1 Asteroids
1.9.2 Comets
1.9.3 Meteorites: our cosmic visitors
1.9.4 Meteorite impact
1.10 Moon
Chapter 2: Geosphere, our Deep Earth
2.0 The Earth beneath our feet
2.1 Earthquake reveals Earth's interior
2.1.1 The Earth's interior was probed
2.2 Earth's layers
2.2.1 Crust
2.2.2 Mantle
2.2.3 Core
2.3 Earth's magnetism
2.4 Sun emits electromagnetic radiations
2.4.1 Solar wind
2.5 Reading Earth's past in rocks
2.6 Records of Earth's early history
2.7 Geologic Time
2.8 Sun-Earth-Moon interactions
2.8.1 Earth tides
Chapter 3: Hydrosphere, our Blue Earth
3.1 The Oceans
3.1.1 Composition of ocean water
3.1.2 Ocean water layering
3.1.3 Ocean currents
3.1.4 Ocean features
3.2 Plate boundaries
3.2.1 Plate tectonics theory
3.3 Hydrological cycle
Chapter 4: Atmosphere, our Airy Earth
4.1 Introduction—Atmosphere an envelope of gases
4.1.1 Atmospheric pressure
4.1.2 Atmospheric layers
4.2 Weather machine
4.3 Monsoon
4.4 Interaction of atmosphere and ocean
Chapter 5: Biosphere and Earth's Environment
5.1 The Biosphere
5.2 Earth's Environment
5.3 Greenhouse gases
5.4 Humans and Environment
5.5 Global warming
5.6 Renewable Energy
5.7 CO2 sequestration and storage
Postscript
References
Every human is born ignorant but without the
knowledge of
Earth's History
there cannot be any sense of a planet or of
Geologic Time
 PREFACE

Inspiration to write this compendium for popularizing Earth Sciences

aroused subsequent to my keynote lecture delivered at the beginning
of the centennial year 2019 of the department of Geology, Banaras
Hindu University. It is my alma mater and it was here that I had my
M.Sc. in Geology in 1960 and thereafter took up the teaching
assignment with a short break (1964-1968) for research work leading to
Ph. D. at the University of Basel, Switzerland. On my return, I
continued teaching along with research and serve my alma mater about
35 years until my retirement in 1997. I had a great fascination for the
subject of geology and had a concern for not including the subject as
part of school education where the students are already engaged with
physics, chemistry, math and biology. The subject is also not included
in the syllabi of all newer universities in India. Earth science is the only
science discipline which is introduced to students late, generally at the
graduate level. I seriously felt to inculcate awareness about the
environment in which we live. For this objective, people need to be
educated about the Earth science. This science is not only about the
solid Earth or Geosphere but it also includes the oceans (hydrosphere),
and the gas envelope (atmosphere) whose physical and chemical
processes operating at different scales affect the plants, animals and
other living organisms, all grouped under Biosphere. Several volumes
on each of these spheres or domains of Earth are available but they are
generally meant for specialists; beginners may be frightened to see
these fat books on individual topics. Earth sciences have now reached a
stage where they explained not only what happened in the geological
past and is happening at the present time, but can also predict what will
happen in the future. Hence it is felt that every student should have at
least some basic understanding of the subject of Earth sciences, leaving
his/her option for doing the major in one or more of the science
subjects, including the geosciences.
We started knowing the Earth only from 200 B.C., although humans
arrived on the Earth since about 20 lac years (= 2 million years). About
2000 years ago there were only 200 crore or 2 billion (2x109) human
beings on the Earth. Now we are about 7.0 billion of which 1.25 billion
(125 crore) people are in India itself. The Earth allowed us to live on it.
To sustain ourselves, we exploit the Earth's raw materials (coal, iron, oil
etc.). We are consuming everything from the Earth at a fast rate. We
have water crisis, 40 nations have acute water shortage. If we make a
list of waste that we produce, it is 2 kg per day per person. Because of
our clever technology we are changing the environment. But we must
know that any change in the environment or any chemical change that
influences or destroys one organism may well do similar things to all
organisms. For example, the pesticide D.D.T. used for eliminating
malaria by mosquito affected birds and other species. Hence DDT was
banned all over the world. This is because all life has a genetic code
based on the same molecular building blocks. It is, therefore, essential
that we must be Geo-literate, Eco-geoliterate to know the Earth. It is
necessary to know how the Earth and its cousins in space are formed.
What the Earth is made of and how old is the Earth? What are the
inaccessible parts below our feet and how the solid, liquid and airy
envelopes, respectively called Geosphere, Hydrosphere and
Atmosphere, move over different time scales; what way the planet
Earth is unique, and so on. An improved knowledge of the Earth can
help us better understand events such as earthquakes, volcanoes and
tsunamis that are related to plate movements.
To appreciate all these domains of the Earth, the present compendium
divides its theme in 5 chapters, each is shown to be linked with the
other ones. Chapter 1, The Planet Earth and its Cosmic Cousins, starts
with a brief review of what different nationals thought about the
Universe and its stars and planets. Here, the origin of the Earth is
described in relation to the solar system and thereafter in relation to the
universe. Also, some salient features about the Earth and other planets
as well as with other cosmic cousins are discussed. Chapter 2,
Geosphere, our Deep Earth, covers all the basic information about the
Earth, its different layers, their composition and their origin. A special
feature is the discussion of geological time scale which is understood in
million years and not smaller time units to which a common reader is
generally accustomed to when he reads or hears about social events
happening in days, months or years but never in million years.
Chapter 3, Hydrosphere, our Blue Earth, deals with the oceans
(hydrosphere) which constitute about 70% of the Earth's area. The
description is on the ocean water currents, ocean floor topography and
the role of ocean on Weather or Earth's environment. Chapter 4,
Atmosphere, our Airy Earth, describes all about atmosphere, its layers
and about rain and wind to understand weather. Chapter 5, Biosphere
and Earth's Environment, discusses the relationship of human and the
Earth, or of biotic and abiotic world, global warming caused by natural
causes and human activities. A brief discussion is given on Gaia theory
of Lovelock and to the question of Earth as self regulating system.
Suggestions have been offered for the steps needed to be undertaken
by the humans to protect Earth's environment. The science contents in
the book are written in a style “as simple as possible but not simpler”, in
the words of Albert Einstein. This is likely to benefit school-going
students and common man in the enhancement of general
understanding of the Earth. To keep the text in a story telling style I
have not included any figure which can be easily conceived by a
serious reader.
The book contains only essential information which must be known to
a socially responsible individual and is free of irrelevant material and
mathematical equations. A reader by going through it cover-to-cover is
sure to get general understanding of all aspects of the Earth sciences.
My wife, Kanchan, gave me all support in writing this compendium. I
am extremely happy to present this booklet for those who are curious
to know the planet Earth, especially at a time when my alma mater
completes its 100 years of imparting knowledge of Earth science to
several thousands of students from India and abroad. Finally, I
sincerely thank the Organizing Committee for the One hundred year
Celebration, particularly Professor Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, Head of
the Department, for uploading this compendium on the Centennial
Web page and also publishing it in a booklet form for the use of any
interested individual.

Jaipur, March 2020 Ram S. Sharma

sharma.r.sw@gmail.com
 Introduction
Why should we know the planet Earth?

The planet Earth is our home. It behaves as a system in which land

(rock), ocean, air and living organisms interact through physical,
chemical and biological processes that move materials and energy on
the Earth. Thus, the Earth system has four domains of study, viz.
Geosphere (from surface to the center of the Earth), Hydrosphere (all
water on the Earth), Atmosphere (blanket of air surrounding the
planet) and Biosphere (life and the environment). These four domains
or spheres of study constitute an important branch of natural science,
the Earth System Science. The Earth System Science (ESS) is broadest in
scope of natural sciences. It gives full understanding of the world we
live in and also gives full information of natural resources which
sustain the society for its basic requirements. In the ESS we study all
about the Earth and its processes. Everyone is affected by the Earth
processes, for example climate change. In ESS we study how the
landscapes formed, where are water and natural resources now and
where would they be in future, where earthquakes or volcanoes can
occur— these and other events of great concern to human society. The
Earth System Science covers five study areas: (1) Geology—physics
and chemistry application to the study of Earth materials and its
processes. (2) Astronomy—study of other planes and stars by
application of physics, chemistry and geology. (3) Meteorology—
forces and processes in atmosphere changing weather and affecting
Earth's climate. (4) Oceanography—physical and chemical properties
of ocean and its lives. (5) Environmental science---interaction of
organisms with their surroundings. Study of geology or geosciences
has led to many discoveries and the application of these scientific
discoveries is called technology. Technology gave Geofacts. For
example, Earth core is located 6378 km from the surface; Temperature
at core is 72270C; 70% of fresh water is in glaciers, and many other facts.
The geosciences discoveries and their application (i.e. technology)
helped to solve needs and problems of human society. Earth System
Science is the only science through which society is directly connected,
as stated below.
1. It sustains the society for its raw material requirements.

2
2. It gives better life to human race.
3. It helps us to understand global warming and environmental
pollution.
4. It solves water crisis, faced by most nations.
5. It enables us to land-use planning in better ways.
6. It helps undertake waste-disposal problem in safer ways.
7. It educates us as to how inside and outside environment affects
the Earth surface.
8. It develops our understanding about how Earth's magnetic field
protects us from solar wind.
9. It enables us to explore our space, ocean and land resources.
10. It gives us understanding of extreme weather (tornadoes,
cyclone, hurricane, and thunderstorm), and many related
subjects.
Strange it may be, a large section of educated population in India is
ignorant about the basic idea of Earth Sciences and related activities
which include Academic/Research (e.g. understanding origin and
distribution of resources), Developmental (making roads, bridges,
dams etc.) and Awareness (global warming, climate, water and
environment). Since society is facing scientific challenges in regard to
natural resources including water, waste disposal, environmental
protection, natural hazards, land use etc., we must realize the role of
earth system science for social issues. Also, space research has taken a
new trend while industries (oil and mining) need interaction with
geoscientists for their developments. Hence India must build strong
departments of Earth sciences with sustained leadership.
It is not enough that geoscientists carry out good research, exploring
incredible history of our planet by sophisticated technology and
computer generated analogy. The educated public, in particular the
young scientific community, needs to have sufficient literacy in the
Earth Science in order to understand the discoveries, earth science
scope and cross-discipline research activities. To disseminate
information about Earth sciences, we should celebrate Earth Science
Week by Photo Gallery, Posters, Model exhibition, Lectures, News
Letters, Press releases and Earth Science Teaching award. This would
generate awareness amongst the school-going students who do not
have the subject of Earth System Sciences in the 10+2 curriculum;
although some knowledge about the rocks, fossils & environment is

2
integrated into their General Science courses in schools. However,
Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) at Kharagpur, Mumbai,
Roorkee and more recently IIT- Bhubaneswar have full-fledged
department of Earth sciences where admissions are made on the basis
of JEE results. Also, Earth science is a part of the 5 year BS-MS dual
degree programme in some of the recently established IISER (Indian
Institute of Science education and Research), particularly at Kolkata,
Mohali , Bhopal, and Thiruvanathapuram. Candidates after 10+2 can
get admission if they have qualified Kishore Vigyanik Protsahan
Yojana (KVPY), JEE, and with high marks in State and Central Boards.
These institutes give integrated education of basic sciences including
geosciences. The students can thereafter seek post-graduation and PhD
in some chosen branch of Earth sciences and thereby can seek jobs in
research institutes and universities in India and abroad.
It is interesting to know that Geosciences started as observational
science using a hammer, clinometer-compass and a microscope.
Modern Earth Science education uses sophisticated equipments and
technological update. Newer courses of Remote sensing, hydrology,
environmental geology, engineering geology along with computer
science offer plenty of job opportunities. Co-operation with related
fields, e.g. geosciences and civil engineering offers job outside their
fields. But the whole thing is centered on a committed and competent
faculty as also the modern equipments. The students should know that
Geoscience is the foundation for a rock solid career.

2
 Chapter 1
The Planet Earth & its Cosmic Cousins

1.0 The Solar System

The solar system is the collection of planetary bodies that are
gravitationally bound to the Sun. The Sun is at the centre of the solar
system and contains most of its mass—99%. At least 9 planets orbit the
Sun. Moving outward from the Sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth and
Mars, all of which are rocky (terrestrial) planets. Next is the main
Asteroid belt. Then there are the outer planets in the order Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the controversial Pluto. These are
gaseous planets composed mainly of hydrogen (H) and helium (He)
gas. Almost all planets have one or more moons which revolve around
their planet. Beyond Neptune (and Pluto) lies the disk-shaped Kuiper
Belt of comets and assorted objects.

Fig. 1: The Solar System with the Sun and the planets drawn approximately
to Scale. Eccentric inner Asteroid belt is also shown.

The planets orbit the Sun. They emit no light of their own, like the
moon. They simply reflect sunlight. The planets show a high order in
their motion and positions. All planets travel in elliptical orbits around
the Sun, and except Pluto, all planets and their moon follow orbits that
lie roughly in the same plane. Furthermore, all the planets and almost
all their moons orbit in the same direction—counterclockwise when
viewed from the Sun's North Pole.

2
The Solar system, like the interior of an atom, is mostly empty space.
We can only comprehend the sizes and distances of the planets from
the Sun if we reduce the size of everything by a factor of billion. If the
Earth is the size of a grape, its moon becomes pea-size with a distance of
about one foot or 30 cm from the Earth. The Sun becomes the size of a
hippo or rhino, having the distance of 150 m or one and a half football
fields; Jupiter, on this scale has the size of lemon with a distance of
about 15 football fields away from the Sun. Pluto is about the size of a
mustard seed with a distance of 60 football fields from the Sun.
Because of these great distances, astronomers use the astronomical unit
to measure them. One astronomical unit (AU) is about 1.5x108 km---
which is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Table 1 gives the
distances from the Sun in km as well in AU and other details of the
Solar system.
Table1: Some general information about the planets of the Solar System.

Diameter Mass Av. Distance Time to

Name Satellites
Km Earth=1 from Sun orbit Sun
Mercury 4878 0.05 58 88 days none
Venus 12102 0.95 108 225 days none
Earth 12756 1 150 365 days 1
Mars 6780 0.11 228 678 2
Jupiter 143,000 318 781 11.86 years 100+?
Saturn 121,000 96 1426 29.5 years 30+
Uranus 51,100 14 2879 83.7 years 21+
Neptune 49,500 17 4500 165 years 13+
Pluto 2390 0.002 5900 249 years 3

The above information about the solar system was obtained by the
early observers of the sky, and is the result of the observations by
curiosity-driven human beings of different nations. The stars observed
in the night sky are grouped by Greeks, Babylonians and Indian
astronomers according to their country's culture. The group of stars is
called constellations. For example, the group of seven stars that seem
to rotate around the North Star is called “Saptarishi” by Indian sky
viewers and sages, and Big Dipper by Greeks. Although the stars, as we
know today, are at different distances from the Earth but ancient

2
astronomers conceived them as being attached to a gigantic sphere
surrounding the Earth. This is called Celestial Sphere---an imaginary
sphere. It is definitely a useful concept for visualizing motions of stars,
which result due to daily rotation of the Earth on its axis. The concept is
also useful because it refers to the motions of celestial objects as a whole
and so it does not change the relative motions of these objects. The
position of North Star (Dhruva-tara, in Hindi language), around which
Saptarishi or Big Dipper move, remains stationary because it lies close
to the projection of Earth's rotation axis. This star appears to turn
around an imaginary N-S axis every 24 hours. Being at great distances
from the Earth, the stars appear as though they were all positioned on a
celestial sphere. Astronomers measure the vast distances between the
Earth and stars by the measuring unit called Light years. One light year
is the distance that light travels in 1 year (or 946080000 seconds), about
10 trillion kilometers.
[Speed of light is 3x108 meter/second; so in 365x24x60x60 = 946080000
seconds, the distance is 9460,000,000,000 km which on rounding gives
10,000,000,000,00 km = 1012 or 10 trillion km]
Light emitted by distant stars is seen after many days and if news is
broadcasted from a distant star of say 200 light years, we will have it on
the Earth after 200 years—certainly not for the present generation.
1.1 Early observers
Those persons who looked at the surface of the Earth were religious.
They considered the Earth as flat and centre of the Universe in which
the Sun and other shining object revolve around the Earth. This
geocentric concept continued for several years. Because the Earth was
declared flat by these religious people, nobody could have believed at
that time that we could reach America by sailing eastward from
Chennai.

Science could not have advanced under divine control

Some ancient thinkers who looked above at the sky had different view,
because, as Leonardo da Vinci said, “all our knowledge has its origin in
our perception”. These observers saw Earth's shadow on the moon
during lunar eclipse, saw the hull of the ship first and not the sails or
mast from distance, and many similar observations, all of which led
them to conclude that the Earth and other planetary bodies are oval
and revolve around the Sun. The proponents of this heliocentric or
sun-centered theory were mainly a Pole, named Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473-1543) and a German scientist Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Later,
Galileo Galilei, an Italian medical doctor turned Astronomer,
supported this view by his crude telescope.

That the Earth and other planets move around the Sun was one of
the greatest human achievements

Subsequently, images from spacecraft have now conclusively proved

that the Earth and all planets and the Sun are not flat, and that all 9
planets revolve around the Sun.
In 5th century, the Indian astronomer Aryabhatta also provided some
useful physical data for the Earth, its rotation, spin and orbits etc.
Several physical data collected over time are:
Circumference = 39842.4 km
Diameter = 12766 (equatorial) and 12756 (polar)
Earth spin on its axis = every 24 hours with a speed of 1660 km/hr
Earth orbits the Sun in 365 days and 6 hours.
Earth travels 1,07,200 km per hour (around the Sun)
The volume of the Earth can be calculated from radius (hint, 4/3 p R3)
Initially there were 6 planets that were discovered by Astronomers,
mainly by Galileo with the help of telescope. But later a German
astronomer based in England, William Herschel found the planet
Uranus by a detailed sky survey in 1781. Thereafter in 1846 the planet
Neptune was discovered and in 1930 Pluto was revealed.

This was one of the most mind-changing discoveries in the history of Science as
it showed that the universe is dynamic place where new object might be found.

Six of the 9 planets are orbited by one or more natural satellites called
moon. The space probes have brought detailed information on the
satellites of the solar system (see Table 1).
1.2 Origin of planet Earth
The question of how the Earth originated is connected to the evolution
of the Solar system, which is 5 billion years old. Five billion years ago
there was no Sun and no Earth and no other planetary bodies of the
Solar system. But the galaxy or the Universe is believed to have existed
14 billion years ago. The region of the galaxy that would become our
solar system was dark, cold and almost empty. The pattern that is
present in the Solar system suggests that the origin of the Solar system
is not accidental. Any theory of the Solar system formation must
explain the major regularities stated already and recalled here: (1)
Orderly motions among the planetary bodies of the Solar system and
(2) The clear division of the planets into 2 main types terrestrial (rocky)
and gaseous.
A range of theories flourished in the 19th and 20 century. The most
widely accepted theory is the Nebular theory by Immanuel Kant and
Pierre Laplace. According to this theory, the Sun and planets formed
together from an interstellar cloud of gas and dust, called nebula (Latin
for “cloud”). Initially the cloud or nebula was very diffuse and large,
perhaps many times the orbit of Pluto. Mutual gravitation between the
gaseous particles resulted in an overall contraction of this nebula. The
immense gravity of this large cloud attracted more dust-and-gas
inward toward its centre. As the matter in the cloud fell in, it began to
spin and became hot. Over time the nebula (or cloud) collapsed
(gravitational collapse) and began to condense. With the collapse of
nebula, it was heated up in accordance with the law of conservation of
energy which states that in the absence of external work input (or
output), the energy (potential + kinetic) remains unchanged. As a
result, the gravitational potential energy of attracting particles
transformed to heat as the particles grew close together. The center of
the nebula became dense enough to trap the heat energy which no
longer radiated away. The hot central core of the nebula remained a
protostar, later to become our Sun.
Objects in the space do not speed up or slow down unless the speed is
changed by something else. This is called conservation of angular
momentum which is the product of mass x velocity x rotational speed.
Conservation of angular momentum is a crucial aspect of the nebular
theory. It is because of the conservation of angular momentum (inertia
of rotation) that the nebula spun faster and faster, like an ice skater
pulling in her arms to increase spin. The cloud maintained a constant
mass as it shrank so that the gravitational force grew stronger and the
cloud (or nebula) took on a spherical shape. Under the influence of
gravity, the shape of the nebula changed from sphere to flattened disk,
much like spinning a lump of dough on your hand causes it to flatten. It
is also possible that the nebula attained a net rotation due to rotation of
galaxy itself.
In the next step there was a passing star (from already existing galaxy)
which sucked a cigar-shaped mass of the nebula, which
fragmented/separated into different sizes and later cooled in space
and yielded planets. The remaining hot, central mass of the nebula, the
protosun, as a clump of gases and dust became the Sun. The planets all
orbit the Sun nearly the same way because they formed from the same
flat nebular disk. The direction in which the disk was spinning became
the direction of the Sun's rotation and orbits of the planets. Thus we see
that nebular theory accounts for the formation of the planets and their
clear divisions into two groups.
But current view is somewhat simpler and considers the origin of the
Earth and the Solar system in context of Big Bang theory advanced for
the evolution of the universe.
1.3 Big Bang theory
The theory of Big Bang is about the origin and structure of the universe.
It is our best idea, telling us how the universe works and is due to
George Gamow, although the name was give by the British
cosmologist, Sir Fred Hoyel in an attempt to ridicule it. Sir Hoyel along
with Herman Bondi and Thomas Gold believed in Steady State
universe which is considered always the same and is infinite and
expected to remain infinite. Big Bang marks the beginning of both
space and time of our universe. The universe and all the matter in it are
derived from a minute singularity. It is considered as a point in which
the mass-energy (ME) of the universe was concentrated. With a
gigantic explosion, called Big Bang, 14 billion years ago (14Ga), space
was created and the universe began to expand. The universe is
considered as 4-Dimensional analogue of the surface of an expanding
balloon on the surface of which each point is moving away from the
other point, in an analogous way when we see ants on an expanding
balloon whereupon every ant sees every other ant moving farther
away. This does not mean that each ant is in a central position. In an
expanding universe there is no inside or outside of the surface since the
surface is all that exists. The picture of expanding universe is based on
the work of American astronomer Edwin Hubble. It is assumed that the
expansion only matters on cosmic scale and does not affect the Solar
system or even a whole galaxy.
Besides the expansion of the universe, the second line of evidence in
support of the Big Bang is the leftover heat from the Bag Bang—more
formally known as the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR). CBR is a
form of electromagnetic radiation. In 1965, the scientists Arno Penzias
and Robert Wilson at Bell Laboratory in New Jersey used a simple
radio receiver to survey the heaven for radio signals. They found that
no matter which way they directed their receiver, they detected
microwaves with a wave length of 7.35 cm coming toward the Earth,
with no specific source of the radiation. Where were the microwaves
coming from and why, was a puzzle to Penzias and Wilson.
Theoretical physicists at Princeton University, working around the
same time as Penzias and Wilson, showed that if the universe began in
a primordial expansion (as described by the Big Bang) it would have
cooled by now. This is because the initial universe which was smaller
and hotter by the filled-in hot fog of hydrogen plasma, grew cooler as
the universe expanded, resulting in the cooling of plasma and
radiation. The atoms became stable and could no longer absorb the
thermal radiation and the universe became transparent. The photons
(radiation) that existed at that time and filled the larger universe
became fainter and less energetic. This radiation, as electromagnetic
radiation, when observed by radio telescope, would appear glowing.
The glow would be almost the same in all directions, not restricted to
any star or galaxy or other object. Calculations by the Princeton
physicists gave present temperature of the universe to be 2.7 K (= -
171.3oC). Any object at 2.7K would emit radiation. Thus, a universe of
this T would be expected to emit microwave radiation of just the
frequency observed by Penzias and Wilson. Thus, the microwave
radiation observed by Penzias and Wilson was found to be emitted by
the cooling universe itself. This faint microwave radiation, now
referred to as CBR, is taken as strong evidence of the Big Bang. Both
scientists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, won Nobel Prize for their
discovery of CBR in 1965.
The CBR is anisotropic and hence looks different from different
directions. This anisotropy of the background radiation reflects the
inhomogeneities and irregularities in the early universe. These
irregularities allowed atom to meet atoms and eventually to form
entire galaxies in the sky. These galaxies are not randomly distributed
but form clusters and other patterns.
1.4 Galaxies
A galaxy is a large assemblage of stars, interstellar gas and dust and
dark matter in the core called black hole. The black hole forms the
central mass around which the rest of the galaxy rotates. Most
astronomers believe those 10 to 15 billion years ago, galaxies formed
from huge clouds of primordial gas pulled together by gravity, similar
to the formation of our solar system. Galaxies are distinguished by
their shape. For example spiral galaxy, elliptical galaxy, disk-form
galaxy. The galaxy we live in is a Milky Way Galaxy. It is a faint band of
light that stretches across the sky. When we look at this Milky Way, we
are looking at the disc of our own galaxy. It consists of closely packed
stars, including the Sun. In the center of this galaxy is huge black hole,
the site where matter collapsed into a miniature version of the
“singularity” (from which the universe itself sprang). The black hole
forms the central mass around which the rest of the galaxy rotates. The
Sun takes about 225 million years to complete a single lap.
1.5 Formation of Earth and other planets
In the Milky Way Galaxy, the spinning gaseous disk surrounding the
“protosun” was the source of material that would become the planets.
As the disk was spinning, matter collected in some regions more
densely than in others. Because of their extra mass the atoms or
particles of gas and dust exerted a stronger gravitational force on one
another than on neighbouring regions of the disk. So they pulled even
more material to them. When the atoms of the gas-dust stuck together,
shock waves were produced, accelerating atoms to velocities close to
that of light. These atoms through chemical reactions built up more
complex molecules which gradually stuck together to form lumps,
called planetesimals. Planetesimals grew larger through countless
collisions until they became gravitationally stronger than surrounding
matter, and finally the planetesimals became full grown planets. The
inner planets formed from materials that remained solid at high
temperatures. Hence the inner parts are rocky. The outer planets by
contrast consist mainly of hydrogen and helium gas that coalesced in
the cold regions of the solar system, far away from the Sun. In these
cold regions of the solar system, the gravitational forces among gas
particles overtook the gas pressure that tended to disperse them. A
German-led group of scientists ran an experiment, called the Cosmic
Dust Aggregation Experiment (CODG) on NASA space shuttle to
prove that dust particles in space can stick together in this way.
Observation on a very bright star, Pictor, with a good telescope shows
that it lies at the centre of a flat disc of muddy-looking dust. Similar
dust discs have been observed around other stars and they confirm that
when a star forms it does not absorb everything around. Instead, some
stars form at the center of a spinning disc of material. Enough material
is left over to produce planets.
1.6 Characteristics of each planet
It is time that we know the characteristics of each planet of the Solar
system. First we give a brief account of the rocky or terrestrial planets
followed by gas planets.
Mercury
It is closest to the Sun and hence is the fastest planet circling the Sun in
only 88 Earth days. It is slightly larger than the Moon. Mercury spins on
its axis only three times for each 2 revolutions. This makes its day time
very long and very hot with a temperature of 430oC. Because Mercury is
small and has a weak gravitational field, it holds very little atmosphere,
slightly more than a vacuum that most laboratories can produce on the
Earth. Without a blanket of atmosphere there is no wind to transfer
heat from one region to another. Night-time, the planet Mercury is very
cold, ca.-170oC. It is seen as evening star during March and April and
as morning star during September and October. It is seen near the Sun
at sunset and sunrise.
Venus
It is the second planet from the Sun. Venus closely resembles Earth. But
it has a very dense atmosphere and has an opaque cloud cover about
96% CO2. Thus it traps heat near the Venutian surface. This plus the
proximity to the Sun make the Venus the hottest planet in the Solar
system, with high T of 460oC and thus too hot for oceans. Venus takes
243 Earth days to make a full spin, and only 225 Earth days to make one
revolution around the Sun. This means that a day on Venus lasts
longer than a year on Earth. Venus spins clockwise, whereas the Earth
spins anticlockwise. It is the first star-like object to appear after the
Sunset. So it is often called the “evening star”. About 17 probes have
landed on the surface of the Venus. From the spacecraft data, we know
that Venus has very active volcanoes and extremely harsh place.
Earth
The planet Earth is our home and is the blue planet, with more water
than land. The Earth orbits the Sun with its night side always facing
away from the Sun. Our distance from the Sun is just right to maintain
an average temperature delicately balanced between that of freezing
and boiling water. Details are given in chapter 2.
Mars
This planet is slightly more than half the Earth's size. It is similar to the
Earth in having a core, mantle, crust, and a thin cloudless atmosphere.
It has polar ice caps and seasons that are nearly twice as long as that on
the Earth because Mars takes nearly 2 Earth years to orbit the Sun. The
Martian atmosphere is about 95% CO2 with only 0.15 % oxygen. It is
thin to trap heat. So, temperatures on Mars are generally colder than on
the Earth, ranging from 30oC in day to -130oC at night. Some surface
features on Mars, e.g. hollows, channels on Mars appear to have been
carved out of water. This is indicated from photographs sent to Earth
stations by space ships or spacecrafts fired by NASA ( Mariner 4,
Viking, Curiosity Rover) and recently fired Mangalyan by ISRO
Indian Space Research Organization) on September 24, 2014. Mars
have two moons—Phobos and Deimos. Both have catered surface.
Outer planets are different from the inner rocky planets in having
different size and composition. The outer planets are gigantic, low-
density planets. All have ring systems. Saturn ring is most prominent.
The rings were formed when comets or asteroids collided with a moon
of Saturn, shattering them into many pieces. These fragments spread
out around Saturn and formed the ring. We will consider the outer
planets in the order of their distance from the Sun.
Jupiter
It is the largest of all the planets. Its atmosphere is 82% H, 17% He and
1% methane, ammonia and other molecules. It is 11 times bigger than
the Earth. Jupiter's core is solid sphere and 15 times massive as the
center of the Earth. Jupiter has 28 moons of them Io has more volcanic
activity than any other body in the Solar system.
Saturn
It is10 times the Earth' diameter. It has bright rings that are clearly
visible with a small telescope. The rings are composed of chunks of
frozen water and rocks as remains of a moon torn apart by tidal forces.
Saturn has some 24 moons; largest is Titan.
Uranus
Its density is slightly more than that of water. The most unusual feature
of Uranus is its tilt. Its tilt axis is 98o to the normal of its orbital plane
and hence it lies on its side. Uranus has 21 moons.
Neptune
It is 4 times the Earth in size. It has 8 moons in addition to the rings.
All these planets receive energy from the Sun. Earth receives about 1019
kilocalories sun energy every day. Therefore, we should also know
some salient features of the Sun.
1.7 Sun—the star of the Solar system
The Sun has 4.5 million tons of mass. The Sun's core has 10% of Sun's
total volume. The core is very hot, 1.5 crore degree Celsius. It is also
very dense, 12 times the density of lead. Because of enormous
temperature, the gases H and He and minor quantities of other
elements exist in the plasma state. The energy from the core to the
surface travels in the form of γ-rays and X-rays. Overlying the core is
the radiation zone in which these rays undergo countless collisions
with atoms. Above this zone is the convection zone which consists of
low-density gases that stirred by convection. The atoms of the gases are
heated by radiation and form the radiation zone. As the gases become
hot and less dense, they rise to the surface in form of visible light, UV,
and infra-red radiations. The atoms of gases in the convection zone
have lost some of their energy as radiation, they therefore loose volume
and become denser and hence sink back to the radiation zone. There,
the gases are heated again as they absorb radiation from the Sun's core.
The heated gas atoms rise again, carrying energy from the bottom to
the top of the convection zone. They lose this energy at the surface by
radiation and sink again. The visible region of the Sun is its surface
which is a glowing plasma region of ca. 100 km thick. It emits most of
the light we see is known as photosphere. Here, there are also
relatively cool regions that appear as spots when viewed from the
Earth. These are Sunspots. They are cooler and darker than the rest of
the photosphere. They are caused by magnetic fields. The form of solar
magnetic field is not constant. A reversal of magnetic poles occurs
every 11 years when the number of sunspots also reaches a maximum
number. Sunspots can be seen by unaided eye when the Sun is low
enough on the horizon. Sunspots are typically twice the size of the
Earth. They move around due to Sun's rotation and they last about a
week or so. Above the photosphere is a 10,000 km thick layer of plasma
seen as a pinkish glow around the eclipsed Sun. This layer is called
chronosphere. Beyond this is a region of Sun's corona---a shell of
plasma of several million kilometers. This shell merges with what is
known as the Solar wind---a whirl of high-speed protons and electrons.
It is the solar wind that produces the tails of the comets and aurora
borealis on the Earth.
In a similar way the Sun originated, all stars are also born from
contracting nebula but they do not progress through the lives in the
same way. Stars become dense by mutual gravitation between the
gaseous particles. Being dense, the center of the nebula traps radiation
so this energy is not radiated away. The hot central core of the nebula
becomes a protostar. All stars have much in common with the Sun.
Since all stars are born from interstellar dust, they have the same
composition as the Sun, i.e. each star has about 75% hydrogen and 25%
helium plus some heavier elements. Stars shine brilliantly for millions
or billions of years because of nuclear fusion reactions that occur in
their cores. When nuclear fuel exhaust, the stars die. Stars differ in their
brightness and colour. Brightness relates to how much energy a star is
producing, while colour indicates its surface temperature. Blue star is
hotter than yellow star which is hotter than red star. Stars brightness is
also dependent on how far it is from the Earth.
1.7.1 Chemical composition of the Solar System
The galaxies and their stars and other planetary bodies are formed of
different elements. Measurement of different elements in the universe
provides one more evidence for the Big Bang. The universe is found
contain about 74% of hydrogen (H) and 26% of helium (He) by mass.
These two elements are the lightest elements. Hydrogen is the simplest
possible atom, consisting of a proton (a positively charged particle)
orbited by negatively charged electron. Helium atom is the next
simplest atom whose nucleus contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons
(neutral with no charge). The amount of helium in the universe is in
agreement with the theory and is the principal evidence that the Big
Bang happened. This was revealed from the analysis of the spectra of
stars by Cecilia Payne in 1925.
But looking at the Earth we find that it is principally made up of
Oxygen (O), Silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg) and few other
elements namely calcium (Ca), potassium (K) and sodium (Na). Over
47% of the Earth crust (top most layer) is oxygen and 28% by weight is
silicon. There is quite a bit of hydrogen in the water (H2O). But helium is
so rare, and is now extracted from natural gas. Lithium (Li) is found in
parts per million (ppm) amounts. Lithium has some high-tech uses
such as the ability of Li(OH) to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and
prevent astronauts from asphyxiation. Lithium is hardly important for
life although we use it in battery cells.
1.8 How were all the elements of periodic table formed?
The answer is that nucleosynthesis occurred in the universe. The
theory of nucleosynthesis is one of the great achievements of 20th
century. The term simply means the synthesis (or fusion) of
nucleus—the central core of atoms. Nuclear fusion can be understood
as a kind of nuclear reaction in which lighter atomic nuclei combine to
form heavier nuclei. All fusion reactions release energy because the
total mass of reactants is greater than the total mass of the products.
The mass lost in the reaction is converted to energy in accordance with
Einstein's famous equation, the mass-energy equivalence, E = mc2.
Fusion brought about by high temperatures is called thermonuclear
fusion and takes place in our Sun by fusing 4 hydrogen nuclei to form
one helium nucleus. The resulting helium has 99.3% of the original
hydrogen mass. The difference in mass is converted to energy which
radiates away from the core in form of gamma and X-rays. At the
surface, much of this energy is emitted as light, a tiny bit of which
reaches our planet Earth. The basic assumption here is that once the
nuclei are there, the electron required to orbit them will come as a result
of electromagnetic force.
Nucleosynthesis occurs when a star, like the Sun, attains very T, about
10 million Kelvin (106K). At such high temperatures the hydrogen is
ionized or stripped of their electron and protons, thus creating plasma
of free electrons and protons. Plasma is a state of matter similar to gas
except that it consists of ions and electrons rather than atoms because
high energies have stripped of their electrons. In this process,
hydrogen nuclei begin to form helium nuclei when 4 hydrogen nuclei
(or protons, P) fuse to form one helium nucleus (2P+2N). The process is
called “hydrogen burning” a kind of nuclear fusion, and is the same
force that powers a hydrogen bomb. A star's hydrogen burning lasts
for a period of a few million years to 50 billion years, depending on its
mass. A star with a mass less than 0.08 times the mass of the Sun would
never reach the temperature of 10 million Kelvin, the threshold needed
to sustain fusion of hydrogen. The process of nucleosynthesis, taking
place in stars at early stage of Big Bang is called Big Bang
Nucleosynthesis. It is shown in the following steps for simplicity.
P+P = PN + e + v (1)
HH Deuterium positron neutrino
PN + P = PPN + energy (2)
Helium 3
PPN + P = PPNN + energy (3)
Helium 4
This thermonuclear reaction converting H to He, releases an enormous
amount of radiation and thermal energy (for reaction H burning gives
1.442 MeV, according to Hans Bethe, 1939). Outward-moving radiant
energy and the gas accompanying it exert on an outward pressure,
called thermal pressure on the contracting matter. When nuclear
fusion occurs fast enough, thermal pressure becomes strong enough to
halt the gravitational contraction. At some point, outward thermal
pressure balances inward gravitation pressure, and the star's size and
mass stabilize. In this situation, the collision of 2-Helium to form a
stable nucleus of a newer element is not possible, because it needs
higher temperature since He nucleus has twice electric charge of H.
Stars, like the Sun, never achieve hot enough cores to permit these
transmutations to go very far. But for stars with masses above 10 times
that of the Sun's mass gravity overwhelm thermal pressure and the star
pulls inward. As the burn out H-core contracts due to gravity, the T
rises. At a certain point, the T becomes high enough in the core to begin
He-burning—the fusion of 3He produces C atom which, in turn, form
Oxygen (when these C nuclei accumulated other particles). The star
then has a structure of concentric shells. Helium fuses to C at the Star's
centre while H fuses to He in the surrounding shell. As fusion
continues, C will continue to accumulate in the star's core, but T will
never become hot enough to allow C to undergo fusion. Now gravity
takes over and the star contracts which boosts its temperature. The star
continues to emit vast amounts of energy. With further combinations
of more neutrons and protons as stars burns, the end result is getting
atoms heavier, until we have iron (Fe) and Nickel (Ni)—two of the
more abundant metals---marking the final process of Stellar
Nucleosynthesis. It is for this reason that we have abundance of Fe and
Ni in meteorites and Earth's core. The star now has an onion structure
by the chains of transmutation. The iron (Fe) nucleus (having 26
protons) is more tightly bound than any other element. This happens in
older and hotter stars than the Sun, which we call Red Giants or Red
Supergiants. The star can shrink no more because electron cannot be
pushed more than a threshold value. The star stabilizes and will no
longer be producing energy. The star therefore faces energy crisis. The
consequences are dramatic. When the core density becomes so great
that all the nuclei are compressed against one another, the core
implodes. Such a stellar explosion is a supernova---a most spectacular
event in Nature. This violent explosion hurls into space the elements
previously manufactured over billions of years. The supernova
elements are captured by the existing nuclei in the stellar cloud. The
whole collapse is catastrophic and lasts only for a few minute. It is
during this brief time that the heavy elements beyond iron are
synthesized to produce such elements as silver (Ag), gold (Au), and
uranium (U). Remember that these elements for which we have a craze
originated from ashes of the ancient stars. The super-stellar origin
explains why elements that are precious to us are very rare in the
universe overall. The inner part of a supernova star becomes a neutron
star which provides an explanation for the existence of Pulsars which
are source of low-frequency radio emissions.
When nuclear fuel of a star exhausts, the star dies. These dead stars are
called white dwarf and are produced form low to medium size stars
which have burnt out their nuclear fuel. The white dwarf cools for
millions of year in space until it becomes cold and radiate visible light.
1.9 Asteroid Belt
During planet formation of the Solar system, some cosmic material is
never swept into the planet formation. The reason for this that the light
or photons emitted from the Sun stops more dust and gas to fall in.
This scrap material forms the asteroid belt which contains objects like
comets, asteroid, meteorites which are observed in the sky. Nebular
theory predicted about the location of this asteroid belt between Mars
and Jupiter.
1.9.1 Asteroids are small, rocky bodies that orbit the Sun. Asteroids are
in a way minute planets. The asteroids are in large number and are of
different sizes, but none is larger than the size of the Moon. The biggest
asteroid called Lutetia is heavily cratered when photographed by
Rosetta Mission of the European Space Agency.
1.9.2 Comets, like asteroids, orbit the Sun. They differ from asteroids
in chemical composition. Comets are not rocky but dirty snowballs
which consist of water, methane or ice in which chunks of rocks, metals
and dust are embedded. There are two groups of comets in the Solar
system. One is the asteroid belt and the other is the Kuiper Belt orbiting
the Sun in a track beyond the orbit of Pluto. As the comet approaches
the Sun, solar heat vaporizes its ice which glows and seen as a luminous
tail called coma.
1.9.3 Meteorites: our cosmic visitors
A piece of debris chipped off from an asteroid or comet is called
meteoroid while a meteor is meteoroid that strikes the Earth's
atmosphere about 80 km from the Earth's surface. It is seen as a falling
star or a flash of light. When it reaches the ground it is called meteorite.
Meteorites that have been found on the Earth are either Stony or Iron-
based. Some of the Stony meteorites look unaltered material from the
early solar system. But others look more like terrestrial rocks. To
explain their presence this way, it is conceived that they were built into
a planet that later fragmented. Similarly, the iron meteorites contain
patterns that show that they must have cooled slowly, probably in the
core of an Earth-like planet which fragmented to release this stuff of
iron meteorite. There are even a few “stony-iron meteorites that seem
to have come from the boundary between the iron core and the rocky
outer layer of a planet. This planet must have long gone from the early
solar system. This must have been much smaller than our planet Earth,
and it also never had oceans and life, unlike the Earth.
On the ground the stony meteorites appear darker than most Earth's
rocks. And iron meteorites may look shiny and will be unusually heavy
for its size. Meteorites never occur alone. They tend to occur in several
pieces, scattered in fields. So if you find one, you should find more. The
most distinctive meteorites are the chondrites which show spotty bits--
-called chondrules. If one finds a freshly fallen meteorite, one should
put it in a plastic air-tight bag so that its gases are not lost and scientists
can analyze the “original” or unchanged cosmic material—the
meteorite. Meteorite as space probe carries with it history of events in
the universe over the 5 million years.
1.9.4 Meteorite impact
When meteorites fall on the ground their evidence is seen in a
crater—better called impact crater. About 170 impact craters are
recognizable on the Earth such as Arizona crater in USA, Yucatan
peninsula of Mexico, Lonar Crater Lake in Maharashtra, India, and
many others. On February 14, 2013 a meteorite fell in Siberia (Ural Mt.),
injuring about 1000 people.
There are various ways to distinguish the impact crater from that
resulted from an eroded volcanic vent, or a sink hole formed by
dissolution by rain or erosion by sea.
In impact craters one can see a succession of ring-shaped ridges in
which the rock materials have been bodily uplifted by the impact, like a
car bonnet in a head-on collision. Other evidence is deep layer of
breccias or shattered rock within the crater itself. Sometimes one finds
tektites which are glassy masses formed by the impact and then flung
away as scattered stuff near the margin. In some shattered rock pieces
we find a characteristic silica mineral called stishovite (SiO2) which has
very high P stability.
Some geologists considered the meteorite impact as a cause of
extinction of dinosaurs and millions of other species about 65 million
years ago. This was supported by the findings of traces of the metal
iridium at the top of the rock-sequence of Cretaceous age (about 65
million years old). Iridium is rare on the Earth but is associated with
meteorites. The Swiss geologist Walter Alvarez started to find iridium
in various sites around the Earth in Cretaceous rocks, just the places
where the dinosaurs vanish. This all sounds very satisfying. But how
does a meteorite impact in Central America (Arizona) kill off the
dinosaurs in Europe? Surely, meteorites are the cause of devastation as
in 1908, a rocky meteorite when struck Tunguska area in Siberia
devastated an area of several hundred kilometers, was heard several
kilometers far and divested a large area. Such an impact must have
killed millions in the past in smaller area but not globally vast areas.
Some other theories were advanced for the mass extinction of the
dinosaurs and we shall discuss in chapter 2. But as the nuclear
explosion hurls vast amounts of dust into atmosphere directly and
ignites fires, not allowing sunlight to reach the Earth's surface,
meteoritic fall might alter the climate fatally, causing extinction of
dinosaurs.
1.10 Moon
This is one satellite that orbits the Earth. It spins once every 27 days
about its own polar axis as often as it revolves around the Earth. This is
the reason we see the same side of the Moon encircling the Earth.
About 16% of the Moon's surface is covered by big round areas, called
Maria (mare in Latin is sea) by early astronomers, although no ship
ever sailed on them. The Maria is solid layers of lava produced at the
late stage of the Solar system when the Moon was bombarded by large
planetesimals. Their impact produced such heat that the immense
craters they generated filled in with molten rock. Today they are
smooth because they were solidified that way. By contrast, the rest of
the Moon is made up of highlands which have survived from the
earliest days of the solid Moon. They have been cratered and at many
places new craters have obliterated older craters beneath them.
On the origin of the Moon, many scientists believe that a Mars-sized
rock body (as unaccreted rock debris orbiting the Sun in the early
history of the Earth) collided with the Earth, about 20 million years
after the Earth had formed. Material blasted out from the Earth, which
formed the Moon. This idea is known as the Giant impact Theory of
the origin of the Earth's Moon. The Moon is too small to have an
atmosphere and is therefore without weather. Also, the Moon being
too small, it has little gravitational pull to have an atmosphere and is
therefore without weather. The only eroding agent has been meteoritic
impacts. More information about the Earth's moon will soon be
obtained from Chnadrayan-2 launched by Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) on 22nd July 2019.
 Chapter 2
Geosphere, our Deep Earth

2.0 The Earth beneath our feet

In chapter 1, we have understood the origin of the planet Earth which
formed about 4.6 billion years ago from debris orbiting the Sun. In this
process some of the debris (dust and cloud) collided and fused into a
rocky mass forming rudimentary Earth. Each time material from space
collided with Earth and attached to it. The kinetic energy of the
impacting bodies transformed to heat. Consequently, Earth became
molten and thus had the ability to flow due to convection currents that
continued to prevail in the molten Earth. Under the influence of
gravity, dense and heavy iron-rich matter sank to the Earth's center to
become the core. Less dense, silicon- and oxygen-rich material rose
toward the surface by differentiation—the process by which gravity
separates materials of different densities. This differentiation during
fluid state of the Earth gave rise to different layers--crust, mantle and
core. Finally, the frequency of the impact (of debris) slowed and the
Earth cooled. Remember that when the planet was molten there were
no rocks. Later when the Earth's surface cooled, there was
crystallization of minerals which on consolidation formed rocks. The
first rocks to appear were igneous rocks—those formed directly from
the crystallization of magma (molten rock) or lava. Finally, we got a
solid ball of the planet Earth with a circumference of nearly 40,000 km
and diameter of 12732 km. This gives 509 million square kilometer
surface area of the Earth, including its land, ocean and ice.
2.1 Earthquake revealed Earth's interior
A few thousands of kilometers below our feet, a lot of things are
happening even today, which influence our everyday life. The
information underneath the Earth's surface is obtained by earthquake.
Earthquakes are caused by stress (or force) applied to rocks at some
place in the Earth's interior. The stress results into strain (compression
or tension) and the rock undergoes deformation such that it reaches its
yield point—the breaking strength. At this point the rock suddenly
breaks loose and slips into a new position. As a result, the stored elastic
energy is released in form of seismic waves which travel through the
rock. The study and measurement of seismic waves or the science of
earthquake is called Seismology. The actual site of initial slipping of
rock is called the focus of an earthquake. The seismic waves radiate out
in all directions from the focus, like sound from a ringing bell. The
point at the Earth's surface directly above the focus is called the
epicenter.

Fig. 2: A Schematic Section through the Earth showing its layers as revealed
by Seismology.

Seismic waves, like any other kind of wave, reflect from surfaces and
refract through other surfaces. This reflection and refraction together
with variations in speed and wavelengths (symbolized, λ, lambda)
reveals much about the medium in which these waves travel.
Seismic waves are two main kinds. (1) Body waves which travel
through the Earth's interior, and (2) Surface waves which travel on the
Earth's surface like ripples on water. Body waves are further classified
into two varieties: (a) Primary waves (P-waves) and Secondary waves
(S-waves).
P-waves are longitudinal waves. They compress and expand the
material through which they travel. These waves are the fastest
seismic waves, travelling at varying speeds (between 2 and 8 km per
second), depending on the nature of Earth's material—fluid, magma or
solid rock.
S-waves, on the other hand, are transverse waves. They vibrate the
particles of their medium up and down and side-to-side. They travel
more slowly than P-waves. S-waves can travel only in solid materials;
they cannot travel in liquid medium.
Surface waves travelling on the Earth's surface are of two types. (i)
Rayleigh waves and (ii) Love waves, each named after its discoverer.
Rayleigh waves roll over and over in a backward tumbling motion,
similar to the ocean waves, except that ocean waves tumble in a
forward direction. Love waves travel just like S-waves, except that the
shaking is horizontally side-to-side. As a result of this side-to-side
shaking, Love waves are damaging particularly the tall buildings.
There are several ways to assess the strength of an earthquake, for
example from the quantity of damage by earthquakes at a specific
location. But the size of earthquakes in terms of their magnitude is a
better method, first suggested by Charles Richter. This magnitude
scale is called the Richter scale, after its proposer. Richter's magnitude
is a measurement of how much the ground shakes during an
earthquake. Richter scale is logarithmic to accommodate the wide
variation. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake shakes the Earth 10 times more
severe than a magnitude 6.0 earthquake but 100 times more severe than
a magnitude 5.0 earthquake. The instrument that measures this
magnitude is called seismometer. In India we have placed a number of
seismometers at different locations to measure earthquakes. One must
note that we cannot predict earthquake. Scientists can only measure
the build-up stress in rocks and so predict a likelihood of an
earthquake.
Earthquakes occur all over the world and are as devastating as they are
common. Most earthquakes occur along circum-pacific region—called
the Ring of Fire—the site of abundant volcanic activities all over this
region since crustal (lithospheric) plates occurring in this region have
movements in different directions.
A powerful earthquake occurred on December 26, 2004. The
earthquake originated beneath the Indian ocean, off the western coast
of Sumatra. This location marks the boundary between subducting or
down-going Indian plate and the overriding Burma plate. Although
the earthquake itself caused severe damage and casualties, the
aftermath of it was even more devastating. With its epicenter beneath
the Indian Ocean, the earthquake generated huge seismic sea
waves—the tsunami. The coastal areas throughout the Indian Ocean
basins were damaged. This tsunami killed about 200,000 people in
Indonesia and other adjoining countries.
2.1.1 The Earth's interior was probed
By the end of 19th century a massive earthquake occurred in India
(Assam earthquake of 12th June 1897). An Irish geologist, Richard D.
Oldham, working in India was examining the records of this massive
earthquake. He observed that its S-waves travelled some distance
through the Earth and then stopped. He also observed that the P-
waves travelled as far as the S-waves into the Earth but then refracted at
an angle and lost speed. With the knowledge that S-waves cannot
travel through the liquid but P-waves can but at a reduced speed,
Oldham inferred that; the earthquake waves had hit an internal
boundary---a place where the solid Earth becomes liquid. He had
discovered that the Earth has a distinct core.
Following this discovery, a Pole seismologist Andrija Mohorovicic
(pronounced mohorovuchick) analyzed seismic records from an
earthquake near his home town of Zagreb (in Croatia). He detected a
sharp increase in the speed of seismic waves at another boundary that
lay at shallower depth within the Earth. He disclosed that the wave
speed increased because the wave was passing from a low-density
solid to a high-density solid. Mohorovicic discovered in 1903 that the
Earth is composed of a thin, outer crust that sits upon a layer of denser
material, the mantle. This dividing line between the Earth's crust and
mantle is called the Moho Discontinuity or “Moho” ever since.
In 1913 a seismologist named Beno Gutenberg substantiated Oldham's
findings by showing that the mantle-core is very distinct and is located
at a depth of 2900 km. He found that when P-waves reach this
boundary they are refracted so strongly that the boundary casts a P-
wave shadow over part of the Earth. This shadow is a region where no
waves are detected. The core-mantle boundary also casts an S-wave
shadow that is even extensive than the P-wave shadow. This indicated
that S-waves are unable to pass through the core. And since S-waves
are transverse and unable to pass the liquids, Gutenberg realized that
the core, or a part of it, must be liquid.
Taken together the discoveries of Oldham, Mohorovicic and
Gutenberg show that the Earth consists of 3 layers of materials, each of
different composition.. These layers are crust, mantle and core which
collectively constitute what we call Geosphere. Each layer is a
concentric sphere so that overall the Earth's structure resembles that of
a boiled egg.
This simple picture of the Earth's layers was refined in 1936 by Madam
Inge Lehmen, a Danish seismologist. Her research showed that P-
waves refract not only at the core-mantle boundary but again at a
certain depth within the core, where they gain speed. The way in which
P-waves refract within the Earth's core suggested that the core actually
has two parts—a liquid core and a solid inner core.
2.2 Earth's layers
Seismology thus revealed the layered structure of the Earth. Each of the
Earth's layers is described in brief for their characteristics.
2.2.1 Crust
The crust is the Earth's topmost layer. It is thin, brittle and can crack.
The crust has two distinct regions: oceanic crust and continental crust.
These are made up of different rock types. The oceanic crust is dark,
dense and formed of fine-grained rock named basalt. The oceanic crust
is about 12 km thick.
The continental crust, on the other hand, is composed of mainly
granitic rocks that are light coloured. The continental crust is generally
35 km thick.
2.2.2 Mantle
It constitutes about 87 % of Earth's volume and 65% Earth's mass. Like
the crust, the mantle is rocky, made up of high density rocks called
peridotite, constituted of mainly pyroxene and spinel and/or garnet.
These mantle rocks, therefore, contain heavier elements such as Fe, Mg
and Ca. Hence the mantle is denser than the crust. The mantle also
gains density due to the weight of the overlying crust which
compresses it. Weight increases pressure and minerals are squeezed to
have denser structure.
Although the mantle has a fairly uniform composition, it is divided
into two different regions, based on their physical properties. The
upper mantle extends from the crust –mantle boundary (i.e. Moho) to
the depth of 660 km depth. The lower mantle extends from 660 km to
the depth of 2900 km at the mantle-core boundary.
Greater details from seismic studies showed that the upper mantle, at a
depth of 150 -200 km is viscous, above which the crust and its
underlying mantle of ca. 150 km depth act as a single layer of relatively
rigid rock. This 150 - 200 km thick part of combined crust and upper
mantle above the viscous layer (named Low Velocity Zone or LVZ) is
called the lithosphere. Beneath the lithosphere the viscous layer is
called asthenosphere which flows in a plastic manner, similar to silly
putty which acts like a solid under sudden stress but behaves like a
fluid when stress is applied slowly. The rigid lithosphere behaves like a
raft on the slowly flowing asthenosphere and is thus responsible for the
movement of lithospheric plates.
2.2.3 Core
The core is at the centre of the Earth and has a radius of about 3500 km.
The core is of the size of the Moon and occupies up to 15% of the Earth's
volume and 30% of its mass. The core is twice as dense as the mantle
because it is made up of metallic iron. Iron is much heavier than O2 and
Si in the crust and mantle. The core consists of two layers—the solid
inner core and liquid outer core. The inner core is solid because of very
high pressure, about 14 million times the atmospheric pressure at sea
level and hence it is densely packed. It has temperatures in the range of
3900oC to 7200oC, thus as hot as the Sun's surface. There are two main
sources of heat in the Earth's core. (1) Heat generate during the “Great
Bombardment time” in the early history of the Earth when chunk of
space debris crushed into the Earth and the energy of these impacts
was largely converted to heat. (2) The transformation of gravitational
potential energy to heat as dense material, mainly iron sank to the
centre of the planet Earth in its differentiation history. A minor
contribution could also be due to decay of radioactive elements which
produce energy that converted to heat. To some people it may be a
curios question as to why the inner core is solid if it is so hot? The
answer is that immense pressure from the weight of the overlying earth
layers prevents inner core melting, analogous to the case of pressure
cooker where high pressure prevents high temperature water from
boiling. The high pressure results into packing of atoms too tight there
to flow as a liquid.
2.3 Earth's magnetism
The outer core has mainly iron and nickel and some sulfur and oxygen
etc. and resembles metallic chondrite. The outer core has less weight on
it. Consequently the iron and nickel that is above the inner core are
molten. This molten layer is 2200 km thick. The movement of this
molten metal is responsible for generating the Earth's magnetic field.
As the Earth rotates, the liquid outer core spins. Convection current
starts in the outer core. The moving iron and other metals in the outer
core produce a flowing charge or current which creates Earth's
magnetic field. As long as there is energy in the core to keep the iron
moving, there would always be a magnetic field. As a result the Earth
acts like a huge permanent magnet.
Perhaps the most unexpected finding of several decades of seismic
studies is that the inner core does not share the same 24 hours rotation
as the rest of the Earth, including you and me. Instead it is rotating
slightly faster by 20 km a year. The rotation became apparent because
the whole of the inner core has a structure in which the iron crystals
point N-S and earthquake waves move through them faster in this
direction than E-W direction. These aligned crystals form a “fast track”
for seismic waves. Remember that the movement of liquid and solid
metals in the outer core helps to create Earth's magnetic field. The
roughly N-S alignment of the field drags any small magnetized object
into line with it. The Earth's magnetic field is governed by three
components: (1) movement of the liquid, (2) an electric current, and (3)
a magnetic field. If two are there, the third will come into being. It
works on the principle of dynamo used to generate electricity. When a
metal wire is moved in a magnetic field, a current is created. The same
principle is behind a power station. So if a magnetic field is applied to a
wire with electricity in it, the wire responses in its movement.
In case of the Earth, there is a convective movement of metal. And all
these moving iron have an electric current. Hence, there results a
magnetic field. The Earth's magnetic field is not very powerful. It is
rated at 0.0005 tesla (unit of magnetic field). Remember that magnetic
imaging machines in hospital have magnetic field more than 1.5 tesla
(abbreviated 1.5T).
It is hypothesized that the Earth's magnetic field is produced by a bar
magnet in the centre of the Earth, slightly displaced from the axis of
rotation. This hypothetical bar magnet is oriented with its south pole
directed toward the north Magnetic Pole. As a result, north of the
compass needle points to the Magnetic South that makes a slight angle
with the geographic north. Scientific records of hundreds of years
show that the relative position of the Earth's rotation axis and the
magnetic axis has changed a few degrees. Remember that the intensity
and direction of the Earth's magnetic field vary from place to place on
the surface of the planet Earth. Earth's magnetic field is not fixed
although there is the inertia of billion of tones of molten iron. The field
changes direction over a few thousand years. Inferences from
solidified lavas indicate that average time between reversals is 25,000
years. The last reversal was 78000 years ago.
We do not fully know how this reversal occurs. But it has something to
do between turbulent eddies in the outer core and the base of the
Earth's mantle. This can produce patches of trapped molten iron in
which magnetization is opposite to the main strength of the magnetic
field. Such a patch of “reverse polarity” might eventually spread to
occupy the region of one magnetic pole while the second reversed its
polarity. It is also possible that impact of heavy meteorite or asteroid
could cause magnetic reversals as the impact sends shockwave into the
core-mantle boundary.
The Earth's magnetic field is not so powerful but its effects are deep into
space, about one lac kilometer (100,000km) above us. This magnetic
field interacts with the Sun's radiation. And the results of this
interaction are very interesting.
2.4 Sun emits Electromagnetic Radiation
The Sun bombards the Earth with more than light. This was disclosed
by the discovery of infrared light by William Herschel (who discovered
the Uranus). He used a prism to separate out sunlight into the
spectrum, VIBGYOR (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red),
similar to that used by Isaac Newton about century ago to demonstrate
that white light (sunlight) has 7 components. But Herschel placed a
thermometer beyond the red end of the spectrum and found that the
temperature rose. He had indeed discovered infrared light---below the
red end of the spectrum. This discovery was one of the corner stone of
the science of astronomy. As our knowledge advanced we found that
the Sun emits a wide range of energy in from of particles (photons,
positrons, electrons or β-articles, and α-particles or protons) and waves
of different wave lengths from gamma (g) rays, X-rays, ultra-violet
(UV) rays, visible light, infrared, microwave and radio waves, in the
order of increasing wave length (10-6 nm to 103 m) and decreasing
frequency (10 22 to 102 herz). The g-, X- and UV- rays radiations from the
Sun are low in power but they have important effects. The most
important is that they react with the upper atmosphere and produce a
layer of charged particles called ionosphere. This layer has the
property of reflecting radio waves. Unknown in late 1930s, the British
Army Group mistakenly considered the jamming of their radar by the
Germans during the World War II while it was being done by the
particles emitted from the Sun.
2.4.1 Solar wind
The particles from the Sun flow constantly and are named as Solar
wind whose composition is thus similar to that of the Sun. That is, the
solar wind contains large numbers of protons and alpha particles
(nucleus of hydrogen and helium) as well as electrons. All these
particles carry electric charges. They emit maximum energy during
Sun-spot activity (which is magnetic in origin) which results into mass
ejections of these particles (in plasma state) from the Sun. These
particles as solar wind stay away at a safe distance of approximately 1
lac km from the Earth's surface, because Earth's magnetic field diverts
them from the surface of the Earth. This is how mother Earth protects
us from being destroyed by high energy particles.
When these charged particles, travelling toward the Earth, are diverted
they arrive at a feature called the Bow Shock where the Earth's
magnetism diverts them around the Earth. Since these particles arrive
in several million tones quantity, they exert pressure and the Earth's
magnetic field is hindered from spreading into space. But a balance
occurs between the incoming solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field.
The place where these two are matched in strength is called the
magnetosphere. It is an oval field around the Earth. At this balanced
place, a hot layer of charged particles is formed, called magnetosheath.

Fig. 3: Magnetosphere, the bubble of magnetism surrounding the Earth, and

its different domains. Note the deflection of solar wind due to Earth's
magnetic field.
Since the magnetosphere (the bubble of magnetism that surrounds the
Earth) is not spherical, some particles, however, find their way towards
the Earth's surface. Since the Earth's magnetic field is roughly aligned
with the Earth's rotation axis, the lines of force emerge out of the Earth's
surface in Arctic and Antarctic and make loops in space to join up. The
charged particles then run along these loops and in so doing they come
close to the Earth's surface at regions called the Polar cusps. Here, these
particles are fed into the ionosphere existing in the upper atmosphere.
Space scientist van Allen from USA, while experimenting with
satellites in 1958, found that these particles spread into two layers,
called inner and outer van Allen belts. Because the Earth's magnetic
field is not symmetrical, there is a spot in space about the South Atlantic
where van Allen Belts get closer to the Earth's surface. This situation is
dangerous for space travelers, and hazardous to electronic
equipments.
The charged particles penetrating the Earth's magnetosphere, ending
up in the Van Allen Belts, overflow and move toward the N and S
magnetic poles, along the lines of force of the Earth's magnetic field. As
they get lower, they meet the upper atmosphere and interact with the
electron in the air molecules far above our heads. The result is amazing
lights called aurora--the Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere
and the Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere. Any time we see
an Aurora, it is more than 100 km above our head. It is
characteristically green but also red, created by charged oxygen atoms.
Blue color is also seen from charge nitrogen atoms. These colours
correspond to the amount of energy emitted when an electron around
oxygen or nitrogen atom absorbs energy from the solar particles and
then falls back again to its orbit. The shapes of aurora can be arc, bands
and coronas which can change rapidly and bewilder the humans.
2.5 Reading Earth's past in rocks
Scientists found ancient lavas having glassy crust to suggest that
molten lavas were chilled rapidly underwater implying that there was
water on the earth from early times. A corroded zircon of 4.4 billion
years age in metaconglomerate from Neyerrer Complex in Western
Australia also suggests that water was present since the time the upper
surface of the Earth became solid. Radioactive studies and lava flows
offer evidence that there has been abundant water throughout Earth's
history. This water may have come from remote, i.e. from comets and
asteroids that collided with the Earth in its early period. Some scientists
argue that the ocean water came from the Earth itself, from the Earth's
mantle. This proposition is considered more probable because, after
the formation of the planet Earth there was an intense period of
volcanic activity. This released large quantities of water vapour (and
other gases) into the atmosphere. As the Earth cooled below 100oC, the
water vapour in the atmosphere condensed to form clouds and
eventually formed rain, filling the hollows and large low-lying regions
–the oceans
The rain water in particular broke down the already formed igneous
rocks by the physical and chemical processes, causing weathering and
erosion of the igneous rocks. The material released by the action of rain
produced different sizes of sediments which were transported and
deposited on the ground and sank to the bottom of sea water. Here,
deposition occurred with largest grain at the bottom and smaller grains
at the top (geologists call it graded bedding). These sediments were
laid in horizontal layers which is called bedding in geological
terminology. Sediments are classified by their mode of formation, for
example, sandstone (clastic material), chalk and limestones
(biochemical), and salt and other evaporates (chemical). Once living
plants and animals when died were also entombed in these sediment
layers which are now seen as remains or fossils preserved in the
sedimentary rocks. The exposure of sedimentary rocks from ocean
depths is caused by natural upheavals or diastrophic movements
followed by erosion processes. Some scientists consider the exposure
of the rock by isostasy. This is a useful term in earth science and is
understood as the vertical positioning of the continental crust,
maintaining balance of gravitational and buoyant forces. Like a ship,
which submerges more or less depending on whether it is loaded or
empty, the crust's vertical position in the mantle also depends on its
density. To maintain isostatic adjustments the lightened mountain is
buoyed up as erosion takes away its top material. As a result, the
submerged portion of the continental crust (standing as mountain) is
raised to shallower depths.
There is another group of rocks that constitute the Earth's crust. These
are called metamorphic rocks. When pre-existing rocks, such as
sedimentary rocks and/or already crystallized igneous rocks are
subject to increased temperature and pressure we get metamorphic
rocks. The high T and P conditions come from deep burial during
mountain building processes. Metamorphic rocks are characterized
generally by layers and band of minerals called foliation.
Metamorphism also produces non-foliate rocks like marble and
quartzites. Different combinations of T and P result in different grades
of metamorphism characterized by minerals: chlorite, biotite, garnet,
staurolite, kyanite and sillimanite---in increasing grade. When the
main agent of metamorphism is T we address this as contact
metamorphism in contrast to dynamo-thermal or regional
metamorphism that is associated with mountain building processes.
When hot water during metamorphism transforms the effected rocks,
we get hydrothermal metamorphism which is often associated with
valuable ore deposits of copper, zinc, lead, gold etc. The study about all
these three types of rocks is the subject of Petrology.
The formation of all these three types of rocks, whether igneous,
sedimentary or metamorphic rocks, has happened many times in the
Earth's history. And it becomes a task for geoscientists to decipher the
geological history in rocks as if the man has travelled back in time to
view the geologic processes. This history is recorded only in the rocks
and the fossils contained in them. To use a rock to read Earth's history,
it is important to know how old the rock is. Today we use radiometric
dating of rock for actual age. But before this, geoscientists relied upon
the relative dating. Relative dating is the ordering of rocks in sequence
(depositional order of old vs. younger) on the basis of comparative
ages. Relative dating considers several basic principles.
1. Horizontal deposition: Each layer of sediments is laid down
nearly horizontal over older sediment. Layers that are inclined at
any angle were tilted into the positions by tectonic disturbance
such as uplift or folding, after they were deposited.
2. Superposition: In an undisturbed (flat) sequence of sedimentary
rocks, each layer is older than the one above and younger than the
one below (called Law if superposition), like a huge cake.
3. Cross-cutting: A fracture or Fault that cuts into rock must be
younger than the pre-existing rock. Similarly, an igneous
intrusion (an intruding magma) is younger than the rocks into
which it intruded.
4. Inclusion: is piece of rock contained within another rock. Any
inclusion is older than the rock containing it.
5. Faunal succession: The evolution of life is documented in the rock
record in the form of fossils. Because fossilized organisms follow
one another in a definite time sequence (Darwin's evolution
 theory on which paleontology as the science of fossils is based), it
is possible to identify the relative age of a rock from the fossil
contained in it. It is also interesting that fossils become a great tool
for matching up rock of similar ages in different regions.
Once geologists establish a time period on the basis of fossil record, the
fossils can be used in the rocks to identify other rocks of the same age in
distant regions of the Earth. This is the subject of stratigraphy. Thus
time related changes in fossils could be used to erect a stratigraphic
time scale. Many of these concepts go back to the 18th century
geologists, especially William Smith who is regarded father of
stratigraphy. The reconstruction of geological history considers the
concept that present is the key to the past. The natural things which are
happening now may have also occurred in a similar way in the
geological past.
2.6 Record of Earth's early history
The Earth has witnessed a large number of events from its existence
since about 4.6 billion years ago. This vast time span is called geologic
time. The oldest time period is called Hadean (4.5 to 3.9 billion years) is
followed by Archean which ended at 2.5 billion years. Geologic history
of these early periods is not very well known as the rocks were formed
mostly from lava (magma) and were overprinted by thermal effects of
later eruptions. Moreover, life also did not appear on the Earth until
mid Archean time.
Life on the Earth appeared late because early atmosphere was
dominated by CO2, N2O, SO2, NH3, N2, and H2O vapour. There was no
free oxygen in the early atmosphere until Late Archean time which is
evidenced by unicellular chlorophyton, called Cyanobacteria. These
single-celled algal organisms or Cynaobacteria, existing as earliest life,
entrapped sedimentary grains and formed sedimentary layer of
fossilized Cyanobacteria, called Stromatolytes. These fossils are of 3.5
billion years age and are found in Western Australia. This is the first
direct fossil traces on the Earth, and thus in support of oxygen in the
early Earth's atmosphere. The oceans of Late Archean and of
immediate later age could have been full of the algal mats because we
find stromatolytes elsewhere in the periods of 2.5 billion years to 570
million years. For the origin of oxygen, it is proposed that
Cyanobacteria produced oxygen (O 2 ) as a by-product of
photosynthesis:
 CO2 + H2O (in light) → CH2O (carbohydrate) + O2
Biochemists claim that prior to photosynthesis, atmospheric oxygen
was produced by photochemical reaction in which UV rays dissociated
Earth's water:
2H2O = 2H2 + O2
The oxygen produced by photosynthesis and photochemical reaction
helped to develop and support multicellular life and also ozone layer
to protect life from dangerous solar radiation; free oxygen was
necessary to build ozone layer.
2.7 Geologic Time
Geologists use a time scale in million years. They have divided the time
span in time units of different sizes. The largest unit of geologic time is
called the eon. The eon we are living in is called the Phanerozoic which
means visible life. The Phanerozoic eon begins from 550 Million years
(abbreviated Ma, milliard anno in Latin) until present. This eon is
further divided into 3 eras: The Paleozoic era (time of ancient life); The
Mesozoic era (the time of middle life); and the Cenozoic era (time of
recent life). Thus, the Cenozoic is age of mammals. The geological time
scale is shown in Table 2.
The eras are further divided into smaller time units called Periods.
Periods are characterized by differences among life forms. Finally,
periods are divided into the smallest geological time, the epoch.
Epochs are generally defined in terms of geological distinctions rather
than differences among life forms. The names in the geological column
are interestingly derived from rock types (see Table 2). Carboniferous
from coal strata; Cretaceous from chalk strata. Others come from
where they were first described: Jurassic from Jura Mountain. Permian
(Perm) in Russia. Cambrian is after Latin word for Wales, while
Ordovician and Silurian get their names from ancient Wales's tribes.
Devonian after Devon in England. Triassic is so called because it
divides naturally into three subunits (not shown here).
Note that Phanerozoic makes up only about 11% of Earth's history
while majority of the Earth's history occurred in Precambrian, before
Phanerozoic era. This vast span of time, over 4 billion years, is divided
into three eons, as stated already and reproduced here for ready
reference
Hadean (4.5 – 3.9 Ga, giga anno)
 Archean (3.9 – 2.5 Ga)
Proterozoic (2.5 Ga to 550 Ma).
Together, the three ancient eons make the Precambrian time (4500 to
550 Ma).
The Precambrian time makes up about 90% of the Earth's history, but
we know the least about this geological time. Most of the rocks that
were formed in the early period of Earth have been eroded away or
metamorphosed or even recycled into the Earth's interior. The
beginning of the Precambrian was marked by considerable volcanic
activity and frequent meteorite impacts. During Hedean eon (4500 –
3900 Ma) large chunk of interplanetary debris as a leftover of the
formation of the Solar system continually smashed into the Earth. At
this time the Earth was an oceanless planet covered with stuff (lava
streams and gases) from volcanic eruption from hot interior.
In the Archean time there was already a permanent crust as evidenced
from the radioactive dating of the continental nuclei in some regions of
the globe. The early formed continental crust was patchy but later these
continental fractions or microcontinents joined to form bigger
landmasses, which we now call continents. The oldest part of the
continents is called craton that is made up of granite-like rocks. Most of
these cratons are buried beneath sedimentary rocks. But deep erosion
has exposed rocks of cratons. This exposed cratonic region is called the
shield, e. g. Indian shield, Canadian shield etc. The continents or
landmasses again fragmented and moved as lithospheric plates due to
mantle convection currents. The assembly and reassembly of the plates
constitute the domain of plate tectonics, discussed on page 48.
The Phanerozoic eon has been very interesting period, although it
makes only 11 % of the Earth's history. Here, a variety of life, as fossils,
is found in the rocks of this time, unlike the Precambrian which contain
too few species to allow any detail information. As stated, the
Phanerozoic is divided into 3 era.
The Paleozoic era (ca. 550 - 251Ma) lasted for about 300 Ma. Just before
the dawn of this era, the continents were joined in a single
supercontinent, called Rodinia (Russian word for “homeland”). Early
in the Paleozoic, the supercontinent Rodinia fragmented.
Consequently sea levels rose and fell several times due to movements
of plates and consequent disturbance in oceanic currents. This allowed
shallow seas to cover the continents periodically (geologically called
marine transgression), causing deposition of sediments on coastal
regions and inland of the continents. It also influenced the
development of life forms, especially marine life (fishes, amphibians
and reptiles). The Paleozoic era is divided into 6 periods; each is
characterized by changes in life forms and tectonics.
Table 2: Geological Time Scale dividing Earth history into time units of
different sizes. Units of time on this scale is in million years (Ma). The
Paleozoic, for example, began about 542 Ma.

Eon Era Period Subperiods Epoch Ma

Holocene 0.01
Quaternary
Pleistocene 1.8
Neogene
Pliocene 5.3

Miocene 23.8

Tertiary Oligocene 33.7

Paleogene Eocene 54.8

Paleocene 65

Cretaceous 145.5

Phanerozolc Mesozoic Jurassic 199.6

Triassic 248

Permian 280

Pemsylvanian 318
Carbonifrrous
Missisiplan 354

Paleozoic Devonian 417

Silurian 443

Ordovician 490

Cambrian 542

Proterozoic 2500

Precambrian Archean 3800

Hadean 4500
The Cambrian Period (ca. 550 - 488 Ma) has a stretch of 50 million years
time between two ice ages, one in the Late Proterozoic and the other in
the Early Ordovician. So Cambrian itself was a warm period, implying
that one of the continents were located at the poles during Cambrian.
Ice sheets and glaciers that had formed during the Proterozoic melted
during the Cambrian, resulting into sea-level rise. Low-elevation areas
were flooded and much of the land became covered by seas. The
flooding expanded habitat for the marine invertebrates that had first
appeared in the Paleozoic. These organisms thrived and produced a
great diversity of marine organisms. Hence, Cambrian period became
known as the “Cambrian explosion” of species---an event in the Earth's
history in which life suddenly became far more common and varied.
The most important event in the Cambrian was the evolution of
organisms that had the ability to secret calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and
calcium phosphate (CaPO4) for the formation of outer skeleton or
shells. Skeleton gave protection against predators and UV-rays,
allowing organisms to move into shallow habitats. The most diagnostic
animal of the Cambrian is the trilobite—the armored “cockroach”. The
trilobite lived well beyond the Cambrian period. There are also soft-
bodied creatures in Cambrian as found in Burgess Shale in Canada.
The Ordovician Period (488 – 444 Ma). This was a cold period because
most of the landmasses had aggregated near the South Pole. The
Ordovician marks the earliest appearance of vertebrates, including the
jawless fishes. Because of glaciations, sea levels dropped, consequently
the shallow-water organisms were deprived of their habitats. This is
marked by extinction of shallow water marine fauna, while deep water
life remained unaffected. The appearance of first primitive fish and the
now extinct marine organisms seen as saw-tooth like fossils, called
graptolites, are characteristic of the Ordovician.
The Silurian Period (444 – 416 Ma). During this period, most of the
landmasses remained near the S-pole. However, North America and
Europe were positioned near the Equator. This is evidenced by the
deposits of rock salt and other evaporite minerals. This period is
marked by the emergence of plants on land. Concurrently, there were
also many shallow-water life forms such as corals and fresh-water
animals. Also, air-breathing scorpions and millipedes were common
land animals during the Silurian.
The Devonian period (416 - 359 Ma). The massive sandstone deposits,
known as the Old Red Sandstones, are characteristic of this period.
During the Devonian, North America and Europe drifted near the
equator whereby the climate was warm and moist. Therefore, plants
had spread over the land surface, with many more species of fish and
growth of plants and insects. In the seas, fishes diversified in many new
groups, which is why Devonian is casually known as the “age of
fishes”. Among the bony fishes, the finned fishes gave rise to land-
living terrestrial vertebrates which shared many features with the
amphibians of today. Remember that during Devonian the
Gondwanaland continents, namely India, Africa, South America,
Antarctica and Australia remained in the Southern hemisphere. The
end of Devonian was marked by a mass extinction of many marine
species. Its cause is still unknown.
The Carboniferous Period (359 – 299 Ma). This period is marked by
warm, moist climate and hence contributed to lush vegetation, forests
and swamps. As plants and trees died, their remains settled to the
bottom of these stagnant swamps and decayed an aerobically to
produce coal. Most of the coal used today derives from these
Carboniferous swamps. In this period, insects evolved to diverse forms
such as cockroaches, dragonflies etc. It was during the Carboniferous
period that the Appalachian mountain of eastern North America was
formed when the united Europe-North America (together called
Laurasia) collided with the Gondwanaland. North Americans divide
the Carboniferous into Lower (Mississippian) and Upper
(Pennsylvanian) units.
The Permian Period (299 – 251 Ma). This was the period when
Wegener's Pangaea was formed, with all the land we see today. The
beginning of Permian has many signs of life that may have continued
from Carboniferous. This was the period when reptiles and ancestors
of mammals were evolved. The end of Permian is marked by much
mass extinction, what is known as the Permian extinction—the biggest
mass extinction in the Earth's history. Permian extinction causes the
demise of 90% of species living at that time. The cause may have been a
reverse greenhouse effect due to lack of CO2 in the atmosphere when so
much life was converted into coal. The other cause may be that there
was huge volcanic eruption at that time. As result, sulphate aerosols
from the eruption could have rapidly cooled the climate by blocking
solar radiation. Because of these two causes together, the
photosynthesizing species may have been the first to be affected,
breaking the entire food chain and hence causing mass extinction. It is
also possible for this major extinction that the formation of Pangaea
generated changes in the temperature and sea level, leading to the
Permian mass extinction.
Extinction of a species can occur only if its habitat is destroyed or the
prevailing environmental conditions suddenly change in such a way
that populations is unable to adapt.
The end of the Permian is also the end of the Paleozoic era which
showed so many changes to life on the Earth through time.
Mesozoic Era (251 – 65 Ma). The Mesozoic Era is known as the “age of
reptiles”. Reptiles that survived the Permian extinction became
dominant species of the world in this era. Mammals also evolved in
early Mesozoic but they were relatively small compared to the
dinosaurs. Land plants also diversified during this era. The major
geological event of the Mesozoic was the breakup of the landmass
Pangaea which existed 200 Ma ago. Rifting of Pangaea began in
Triassic, continued in Jurassic and by mid Cretaceous the break up had
split into several smaller continents. The breakup of Pangaea impacted
biological evolution. Organisms were separated from one another and
caused divergence in the evolution.
The Mesozoic starts with Triassic period which lasted from 251 to 199
Ma ago during which map of the world did not change much. The
ancestors of both dinosaurs and warm-blooded present-day animals
gained ground at this time. The Jurassic (199 – 145 Ma) has the fossils of
corals and other animals, indicating warm climates. The first bird
Archeopteryx also dates from this era. The Jurassic saw the final
breakup of Pangaea. North and South America were separated by a
seaway. India also separated from the East Gondwana assembly.
Antarctica-Australia remained joined. At this time the sea level rose up
and previous land was flooded. The final period of Mesozoic is the
Cretaceous Period which lasted from 145 to 65 Ma ago. The high sea
levels had vast chalk (limestone) deposits across large areas of the
world. Cretaceous was also the time when huge volcanic outpouring
occurred. Deccan basalts of India are well known and are found
around large part of Maharashtra state of India, particularly in and
round Mumbai. Dinosaurs and other animals disappeared in this
period. What caused the Cretaceous extinction is again a puzzle. Some
say huge volcanism, others claim huge meteorite fall. But break up of
Pangaea resulted into sea-level rise and also change of habitat for the
dinosaurs and other animals.
The rest of the geological column is the Cenozoic era. Its lower half,
called the Tertiary, is itself divided into Paleogene (65 -23 Ma) and
Neogene (23 to 1.8 Ma). Enormous tectonic disturbance occurred
throughout the world during the Tertiary. There was further opening
of the Atlantic Ocean in the Paleogene. This was associated with
further movement of continents. And Africa-Arabia collided with
Europe to raised Alps while India and Asia collided to form the
Himalaya. Major evolution of land is marked by the development of
mammals. The Neogene period lasted for about 21 million years time.
This period is noted for the separation of human ancestors from their
last ape relations. The Neogene is divided into older Miocene and
younger Pliocene. The boundary is defined by the percentage of still-
existing molluscs in fossils.
The final phase of story is the Quaternary period which lasted just 1.8
million years ago. In the geological nomenclature it has been named
the Pleistocene period. This is too short a period to have something
happened as a global event. It is marked by the formation of most
landscapes of northern hemisphere through a number of glaciations.
During the Pleistocene epoch global temperatures dropped and ice age
occurred. The cool temperature had profound effect on life,
particularly in their adaptation, developing wooly coats on animals.
Because of the cold of Pleistocene sea levels were lowered and which
made the migration of Homo sapiens easier. For example, the ice-made
“land bridge” (now the Bering Strait) between Siberia and Alaska
provided easy migration route for the Homo sapiens from Asia to
North America.
The time we are living is called the Holocene (10,000 year to present).
Some cold climate periods occurred as between 1200 and 1700 AD. But
the Holocene is a relatively warmer period. The present time has been
warmer than an ice age. It is referred to as interglacial period, perhaps
because the pessimists, in-charge of the terminology, think that the
warm period is a prelude to the next ice age. It is possible that global
warming may also force humans to migrate to colder regions of the
Earth. But we leave this to the fate of the human race!. The Earth has
interesting interaction with the Sun and we have to look on this aspect
now.
2.8 Sun-Earth-Moon Interactions
The Sun-Earth-Moon forms a dynamic system that influences all life on
the Earth. The Sun is 109 times larger in diameter than the Earth. On the
other hand, the Earth is about 3.4 times larger in diameter than the
Moon. The distance between the Earth and the Moon is 3,84,000 km
while the Sun is nearly 400 times (15,3600,000 km) away from the Earth.
The Earth spins W to E on its axis and causes day and night. This can be
inferred simply by observing the Sun rise first in Japan and thereafter
in India to the west of Japan. Scientists used other methods for this
anticlockwise rotation of the Earth whereby the Sun appears to move E
to W each day. It is every day experience that we observe while
standing on the Earth a daily rising Sun in East and setting of the Sun in
West. Remember that this is only apparent or illusory because Sun does
not revolve around the Earth. It only appears that way because we
observe the sky from the planet Earth that rotates. One complete
rotation of the Earth defines one year, precisely 365 days and 6 hours.
Because of the Earth's revolution the Sun also appears to move N and S
in the sky; northward during the northern summer and southward
during the northern winter.
The Sun, being in the centre of the solar system, affects the Earth
interestingly. The Earth receives heat or light from the Sun, at the rate of
340 Watts for every square meter surface. This energy is not equally
distributed around the Earth because the Earth's orbit around the Sun
is tilted at an angle 23.5 degree to the equator. That is why all globe in
the market have a tilt of 23½ degree to the horizontal. A consequence of
this tilt off a vertical axis we have seasons--summer, spring, autumn
and winter. Earth's axis remains tilted at the same angle as it orbits the
Sun. It points once toward the Sun and once away from the Sun.
Seasons have nothing to do with the Earth's distance from the Sun since
its orbit varies only slightly (1.7% from a perfect circle). The Earth's
orbit is therefore only slightly elliptical. With its elliptical orbit and
23.5o tilt, the Earth is closest to the Sun on 21st June, called Summer
Solistice and also farthest from the Sun on 22nd December, called Winter
Solistice. The first day of the Summer Solistice is the longest day of the
year as the North Pole is of the Earth is closest to the Sun. For a person
standing on the 23½ o north latitude, the Sun would be at zenith (Sun's
maximum height) on the summer solstice.
If the Sun is higher in the sky, it heats by shinning down on the Earth
below rather steeply, like shining a torch straight on a wall. If we shine
the torch at an angle, the light is less brighter. This is because the same
amount of energy in the former case is hitting smaller area. The Sun
rays are directly vertical on the equator twice, around 21st March and
23rd September. These are called Summer Equinox and Winter Equinox.
On these times, the days and nights are of equal length.
Like the Sun appears to change its position in the sky throughout the
year, in a similar way the Moon also changes position as it orbits the
Earth. As the Moon orbits, its illumination side changes. The sequential
changes in the appearance of the Moon is called Lunar phases. We
know that the light given off the Moon is a reflection of the Sun's light.
Moon is illuminated at all times. But only one-half of the Moon is
illuminated. How much of this lighted half is visible from the Earth
varies as the Moon revolves around the Earth. When the Moon is
between Earth and Sun, the side that is illuminated is not visible. This
is called new Moon. But as it moves in its orbit around the Earth, more
of the Sunlit side of the Moon is visible. So when the Moon moves to the
far side of the Earth from the Sun, we have full Moon, with entire Sunlit
side facing the Earth. The length of time it takes from the Moon to go
through a complete cycle, from one new Moon to the next is called
Lunar month. It is equal to 29.5 days. This is larger than the 27.3 days it
takes for one revolution around the Earth. The Moon also rises and sets
50 minutes each day because the Moon moves 13o in its orbit over a 24
hour period. The Hindu calendar is based on the Lunar movement and
its days become shorter or longer and the Calendar is adjusted
accordingly.
2.8.1 Earth tides
We know that the Sun contains nearly all the mass of the Solar system.
As a result it has all of the gravitational pull and this keeps the Earth
(and other planets) in its orbit. The Moon also has gravitational pull
which is more powerful than that of the Sun, because of its small
distance from the Earth. The gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon
gives rise to tides---the rise and fall of ocean water. The gravitational
attraction of the Sun and Moon also raises detectable tides or bulges in
the atmosphere and in the solid Earth itself. But the air tides are much
smaller than the variation in the Earth's atmospheric pressure (see
chapter 4). Bulges in the solid Earth is almost negligible but the US and
Japanese scientists claim that when the Solar and lunar tides coincide,
a significant earthquake or volcano may ensue. It is the tides in the
ocean that are most noticeable to humans and other life on the Earth.
These tides are interesting. The basic shape of ocean tide is a bulge
toward the Sun or the Moon. The Moon raises a tide of about 1 meter
high at the Earth's equator, while the Sun produces about ½ meter. This
may not be much in the Earth with 12700 km diameter.
When the rotating Earth is stretched along the line joining the Earth's
center to the Moon and the Sun. we get two bulges in the oceans (as well
as in atmosphere and the Earth itself). Hence we get two tides a day.
The sun tides are 12 hours apart, but the Moon tides are about 12 hour
and 25 minutes apart, because of the Moon's movement around the
Earth, as stated earlier. We have spring tides when the Moon is nearest
to the Earth and the Earth is nearest to the Sun. When the Moon is at
right angle to the Sun and Earth line, we have neap tides. So the height
of the tide depends on whether the gravitational pull is working
together or in opposite direction.
The consequence of the tide is very interesting. It has been steadily
slowing down the rotation of the Earth. Calculations showed that days
are getting longer by about 1.4 milliseconds (1/1000 second) every
century. This may not sound much but it adds up. And about 550
million years ago it gives 420 days in a year with each day 21 present-
day hours in length. How did we know this is indeed interesting? In a
fossil shell of Cambrian (550 million years) age people counted about
400 annual rings, in a similar way as we count growth rings in a circular
section of a tree-trunk. We know that trees like summer more than
winter and they grow when it is warm and therefore the age of a tree
can be determined by counting growth rings. There are also creatures
which show monthly growth rings. Paleontologists now study corals
that form solid shells in the day light but stop at night. Between one day
growth and next day we get a small band which can be observed with a
microscope. The sedimentologists use lake deposits to find out the
chronology of the past. When the snow melts, spring floods give large
amount of mud which is deposited into the lakes as dark layer of coarse
sediments. Above these is layer of fine sediments deposited on the later
in the year when water was very calm. This type of layering is called
varve clay—a pair of light and dark sediment layers. Like counting tree
rings we can use the varve to build up lengthy climate records.
 Chapter 3
Hydrosphere, our Blue Earth

3.1 The oceans

The solid Earth is overlain by the oceans which occupy about 70%
Earth's area. The ocean water is about 97% of total water found on the
Earth. Another 3% as fresh water is contained in landmasses. The water
on and in the Earth's crust makes up the hydrosphere (hydro means
water in Greek). Some people call the frozen belts at the Polar Regions
as cryosphere. We shall also talk about it in this chapter. The ocean
water looks blue from space because blue light is reflected while other
wave lengths of the visible spectrum are absorbed by water. Scientists
suggest that oceans existed since the beginning of the Earth's history
because detritus zircons of 4.4 billion years old (Earth is 4.6±1 billion
years old) in a conglomerate from Western Australia and glassy crust
on ancient lavas show the evidence of having contacted water.
Scientists hypothesize that the ocean water originated from two
sources. One is remote source, when comets and asteroids containing
0.5% water collided with the Earth and left behind much water to fill in
the Earth's vast hollows. Another hypothesis is that volcanism from the
Earth's interior contributed water, besides gases and other products.
The volcanism took place over the course of several hundred million
years. Over time when the Earth's surface cooled, the water vapour
gradually condensed and fell as rainwater on the Earth's surface to
collect in the large hollows and low regions of the Earth, which we call
oceans.
Out of the 71% oceanic areas, 81% water covers the southern
hemisphere while landmass dominated northern hemisphere has only
61% water. There are 3 major oceans: Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean,
and Indian Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is the largest than all landmasses
combined. Atlantic Ocean extends for about 20,000 km from N of
Arctic, where it is called Arctic Ocean, to Antarctica in the south. Indian
Ocean is located in the southern hemisphere. The storm-lashed region
surrounding Antarctica is known as the Southern Ocean. All the
oceans are interconnected but the different oceans are only for historic
and geographic reasons.
Polar regions are covered by vast ice cap which is very thick and is
called pack ice. The percentage of ice on the Earth has varied over
geologic time from zero to as much as 10% of the present hydrosphere.
The level of ocean surface is known as the sea level. The sea level has
risen by several meters when ice melted during warm periods and
fallen by hundreds of meters when glaciers expanded during ice ages
recorded a couple of times in the Earth's history. Tectonic forces also
affect sea level for example when the Earth's crust is uplifted or sunken.
Scientists found sea level rise by about 3 mm per year between 1994 and
2004, mainly due to thermal effects.
3.1.1 Composition of Ocean water
The ocean water contains dissolved gases (CO2, O2 etc.) and dissolved
nutrients, mainly nitrates and phosphates, besides containing mineral
salts in solution. More than 70% chemical elements are found in it , but
sodium chloride (NaCl) plus four other salts, magnesium chloride
(MgCl2), sodium sulphate (Na2SO4), calcium chloride (CaCl2), and
sodium fluoride (NaF), make up 97% of the salt in the sea. The oceans
are therefore saline, too sour to drink. The salinity is understood as the
proportion of dissolved salts to pure water. Oceanographers express
salinity of the ocean water in grams of salt per kilogram of water, or
part per thousand (ppt). Average salinity as 35 parts per thousand or 35
ppt. Scientists note this with the symbol ‰ (per mill). So the salinity of
the ocean is written as 3.5‰. Remember that the salts in ocean water
exist as ions. In terms of concentration of ions, sea water is about 55%
Cl-, 33% Na+, and 8% SO4-2. Each of the other ions makes up 1% or less of
the weight of a given sample of sea water.
Salinity of sea water varies in a narrow range. Decreases when
freshwater are added, as during heavy rain or when ice melts on a
seasonal basis. Conversely, salinity increases with evaporation. It is
for this reason that in equatorial regions where rains are abundant,
salinity is lower (~32 ppt). In polar regions, salinity increases because
of ice formation, making the leftover water more salty. Therefore
explorers use the ice for drinking. In summary, the salinity increases as
you travel N or S toward higher latitudes. The lowest salinity occurs
where large rivers empty into oceans, creating areas of water called
estuaries, formed by reverse condition to delta. The sea water in tropic
is saltier because more water evaporates from the sea at high
temperatures. Water in the 1 – 3% salinity is termed brackish water. If
the salinity goes over 4%, the water is termed hypersaline, e.g. Dead
sea, which is filled by rivers but it empties only by evaporation so the
salt stays, with no outlet..
The oceans seem to be saline from very ancient time. This is inferred
from the proportions of Mg and Ca in carbonate shells of ancient
marine organisms. And the reason for the salinity is that salts have
been added to sea water by volcanic eruptions and by weathering of
rocks. On the other hand, salts are removed from sea water by
biological processes (silica by diatoms, & Ca-salts by foramanifers) and
formation of evaporates. When marine organisms die, they sink and
their hard part becomes the component of bottom sediments. Decay of
the organisms finally releases salts. Thus, we see that salts are added to,
and also removed from, the oceans, keeping the salinity of ocean water
nearly constant, near 3.4 permil. It seems that the marine life is
responsible for this constant salinity (3.45 ppt or 3.45‰) for their own
survival.
The presence of various salts results into different physical properties
of ocean water from those of freshwater. Because of salts, sea water is
denser, or has higher density in language of physics. A similar
difference in physical properties occurs due to temperature. The ocean
is heated from above by the Sun. The surface layer thus becomes hotter
than rest of the ocean. But oceanic surface temperature ranges from
minus 2 degrees (-2oC) Celsius in Polar waters to 30oC in equatorial
regions, with average temperature of surface being 15oC.
3.1.2 Ocean water layering
Below the surface layer of the ocean is the mixed layer up to about 200
m down where wind, tides and currents try to homogenize the physical
properties of ocean water. Oceanographers noted that from 200m
depth the T begins to fall steeply to about 4oC, in a layer called
thermocline. The thermocline is a transition layer characterized by
decreasing temperature from 100 to 1000 m depth. Below the 1000 m
layer is a dark, cold layer with temperatures near freezing. This deep
ocean water is always cold, even in tropical oceans. Because of
dissolved salts the ocean water at this great depth is dark since sunlight
can hardly penetrate. Interesting to note is that at thermocline red light
does not penetrate as far as the blue light. So, most marine organisms to
their advantage have shades of red on their body so as to appear black
and escape from predators.
The ocean layering is based on density differences. The density of sea
water varies from 1.02 to 1.03 g/cm3 against fresh water having density
1 g/cm3. Density of ocean water varies due to salinity and temperature
variations. Density variations due to salinity are far outweighed by
temperature variations. Oceanic water freezes below zero degree at -
2oC) while fresh water in your fridge becomes ice at 0oC. Salinity and T
seem to have opposite effects on density. As the salinity goes up and its
T drops, the oceanic water increases in density. Although the density
variation in ocean water is small it is an important factor in circulation
of ocean water.
In Polar Regions, frozen sea water overlies the saltier cold water,
because salt ions are not incorporated into ice crystals. This saltier cold
water sinks and migrates toward equator as deep water mass along the
ocean floor. On the other hand, subtropical waters in winter time move
into Polar Regions where it becomes colder and denser than
surrounding polar surface waters. The result is that the moving
subtropical water sinks, (since warmer, less dense water floats on the
cold water). Oceanographers recognized three deep-water masses,
mentioned below in order of decreasing density.
1. Antarctic Bottom Water, moving westward toward the equator
2. North Atlantic Deep Water moving towards east
3. Antarctic Intermediate Water, moving westward
As stated, the movement of Deep Ocean water results from difference
in density and temperature between water masses. Density currents
move slowly in deep ocean waters and follow a general path—the
Global Conveyor Belt. The conveyor belt begins when cold, dense
water such as North Atlantic Deep Water and Antarctic Bottom Waters
sink at the poles. After sinking, these water masses slowly move away
from the poles and circulate through major ocean basin. After
hundreds of years the deepwater returns to the surface through by
vertical movement called upwelling that originates below
thermocline. Once at the surface, the deep water is warmed by solar
radiation. All the three major deep waters, stated above, occur in
Atlantic Ocean, but Indian and Pacific Ocean contain only two
Antarctic deep water masses.
In contrast to the slow movement of deep water currents, moving with
density differences between water masses, the surface water
movements are largely driven by the wind and by the Coriolis force
due to varying rotational velocity from the equator to the poles of the
Earth. Therefore the top of 100 to 200 m of the ocean moves at a speed of
more or less 100 km per hour when the winds move the water along
with it. We know that Trade winds in northern hemisphere blow from
E to W (Earth spins W to E), so the ocean currents also flow from E to W
in tropics. Northern Polar winds also push surface currents form E to W
in the northern hemisphere. But due to Coriolis force the currents are
deflected toward E in the northern hemisphere and toward W in the
southern hemisphere.
3.1.3 Oceanic currents
If the Earth had no landmasses, the global oceans would have simple
belts of Easterly and Westerly surface currents, in closed circular
current systems. But the Earth has land masses, more in northern
hemisphere than in southern hemisphere. So, the ocean currents are
divided into several belts, called gyres. In each gyre the currents in
northern ocean are west moving due to W to E rotation of the Earth.
When the currents encounter landmasses, they are deflected toward
the poles. These Poleward-moving waters carry warm, tropical waters
into higher and colder latitudes. An example of a warm current is the
Gulf Stream in North Atlantic, which flows (170 km/Day or 2
m/second) from the Gulf of Mexico to Western Europe. By the time this
westerly current or Stream reaches the west coast of NW Europe,
where it is called Atlantic Drift, the warm water has cooled and
deflected by landmasses to return to the Equator. The resulting current
then brings cold water from higher latitudes to tropical regions. This is
the Californian Current in eastern Northern Pacific. Also, in north
Pacific, the Kuroshio Current of Japan carries warm waters northward
and the Californian current brings it southward again. Thus there are
two gyres (currents) in the northern hemisphere: the Northern Pacific
gyre (moving W to E) and the Northern Atlantic gyre (W to E
movement). In the south Atlantic we also have Brazil current and
Agulhas in the Indian Ocean, both having westerly currents.
In the southern hemisphere, the oceanic current flows non-stop by
wind and waves from W to E. The gyres of southern hemisphere
circulate in anticlockwise direction. There are three gyres in the
southern hemisphere. These are the southern Pacific gyre; South
Atlantic gyre and the Indian Ocean gyre. The parts of all gyres closest to
equator move toward W as equatorial current.
This is the rough outline of the general circulation patterns of the
surface ocean current, leading to the distribution of heat, salt and
nutrients from one region of the ocean to another. These ocean currents
can be tied with the climatic circulations, and meteorologists face
tough time for accurate weather forecast.
More than for its water, the ocean has attracted oceanographers for its
hidden topography. When we move into the sea from shoreline—the
place where ocean meets the land—we see sand, familiarly known as
beach sand. It is loose sand formed from shore erosion by wave action.
There is also bigger size eroded material, depending on the energy of
the wave striking the coast. Several types of erosional features can be
seen in coastal areas. These include Spit (a narrow bank of sand),
Mainland beach, lagoons, Baymouth bar (closing of Spit), Barrier
islands (long ridges of sand), etc. The edge of the continent covered
with sediments is the continental margin, but continents extend
further inside the ocean. Shallow part closest to the continent is the
continental shelf. It is a nearly flat underwater surface, extending from
the shoreline toward the ocean basins. It generally extends seaward to
a width of up to ~1500 km with a depth of 130 m sea water. You can
guess the situation if you are told that the sea level during the last ice
age was 130 m lower than at present.
Beyond the continental shelves, the sea floor drops quickly to depths of
several km, with a slope of about 100 m/km. These sloping regions are
called the continental slopes. The continental slope is considered the
true edge of a continent. From here onwards starts the oceanic crust. In
many places the slope is cut by deep submarine canyons, comparable
to Grand Canyon in Arizona. At the base of the continental slope there
occurs a wedge of sediments which were brought from shelf and slope
region by rapidly flowing water currents along the bottom of the sea,
called turbidity currents in geological term. Scientists study turbidity
currents in laboratory by simulating them in glass tanks. The gently
sloping deposits at the base of slope are several km thick and are called
continental rise. The rise become thinner and eventually merges with
sediments of the ocean floor.
Beyond the continental margin are ocean basins which are generally 3
to 5 km deep from surface and are characterized by flattest and deepest
part of the ocean floor, called abyssal plains. These plains are covered
with fine sediments and sedimentary rocks on top of ocean floor
basaltic rocks.
During World War Second and perhaps because of this World War,
scientists started exploring the ocean. They used a variety of research
vessels to learn about the topography, water depth, chemistry etc. of
deep oceans. Echo Sounding methods or Sonars from a ship were used
to map the ocean floor. Sometimes vessels (submersibles) carried
humans in them to collect samples of sediments, water and biological
material. While other vessels e.g. Autonomous Benthic Explorer, ABE,
without pilot made video recording of the deep sea environment,
temperature and water chemistry while Remotely Operated vehicle,
ROV, were deployed from a ship to collect deep sea data, as deep as
6000 m. And the findings were very interesting. The most prominent
features of the oceans are Mid Oceanic Ridges (MOR) which run all
through the ocean, with a total length of 65,000 km---a distance greater
than Earth's circumference. The MORs has an average height over 6 km
and emerge from the ocean as volcanic island. The MORs is the sites of
frequent volcanism and earthquake activity. The crest of these Ridges
often has valleys called Rifts that run all through the centre of the
ridges. The MORs do not run continuously as they are dissected by
stepped fractures, which are about 60 km wide and curve across the sea
floor. Another interesting feature is the deep-sea trenches. These are
elongated depressions of about 100 km width. The trenches extend a
few thousands of kilometers.
Satellite data have revealed that the ocean floor is dotted with several
solitary mountains called seamounts. They are not located near the
active volcanoes and are therefore considered as being extinct
volcanoes.
3.1.4 Ocean features
Many people in scientific community had considered oceans and
continents as permanent features. But a German meteorologist, Alfred
Wegener, impressed by the geometrical fit of Africa and South
America on map, thought that the two continents were once united but
later drifted in their present position. He gathered a variety of evidence
including fossil flora and fauna, climatic indicators (coal, glacier
deposits etc), trends of geological structures across continents,
similarity of ages of rocks at margins of the now widely separate
continents. Based on these evidence he suggested that all the present
continents had assembled 200 million years ago into a supercontinent
which Wegener called Pangaea. Wegener then proposed that the
Pangaea subsequently broke up and the continents drifted slowly in
their present position on the globe. But geophysicists rejected
Wegener's hypothesis because there was no mechanism known to
geophysicists to move the huge continents. For the rest of his life,
Wegener continued travelling to remote and difficult regions to gather
evidence in support of his theory. While collecting further evidence he
made an expedition to Greenland in 1930. But he died of exhaustion
and his body could not be recovered by his fellow explores who called
off the expedition.

Fig. 4: Topographic profile of the ocean from the continental shelf to the
abyssal plain as revealed by geophysical studies (drawn after Press &
Siever, 1974).

Oceanographers continued their research. They collected samples of

deep sea sediments and the underlying oceanic crust. Analyses of these
sediment and rock samples led to two important discoveries. First, the
ages of the rock that made up the ocean floor varies such that samples
near the oceanic ridge were younger than the samples collected away
from the ridge. This trend showing oceanic crust younger near the
ridge and successively older away from the ridge was found
symmetrical across the ridges. Scientists also discovered from the rock
samples that rocks of the ocean floor are not older than 180 million
years. Why is the ocean floor rocks are so young whereas the
continental rocks are very old—some are at least 3.8 billion years old.
This was a great puzzle to the scientists, because geologists accepted
that ocean has existed nearly the same time as the rocks had appeared
on the Earth's crust. It was a big question as to why there was no trace of
older oceanic crust.
The second discovery was that ocean floor sediments are only a few
hundred meters thick at the most, whereas the continents have
sediment blanket of as much as 20 km thick. Scientists also found that
sediments near the oceanic trench were found thicker than at any other
place on the ocean floor.
To solve these puzzle, scientists performed paleomagnetic studies
(fossil magnetism) of the rock samples. We know that when lava
solidifies, iron-bearing minerals such as magnetite crystallize like a
tiny compass and align with Earth's magnetic field. We know that
Earth's magnetic field is reversed when the flow of molten iron in the
Earth's outer core changes. This would cause compass to point to the
South, instead of N when the magnetic field is normal as at present
time. The basaltic lavas of the ocean floor were investigated for their
fossil magnetism. When scientists towed magnetometers behind a ship
to measure magnetic orientation of rocks of the ocean floor a surprising
pattern emerged. The rocks parallel to the ocean ridges on either sides
show a series of stripes of Normal and Reverse polarity. The scientists
were further surprised to discover the ages and widths of the stripes,
matching from one side of the ridges to the other.
Data from ocean topography (ridges, trenches, & faults), ages of ocean
rocks and sediments together with paleomagnetic results led H.H.
Hess of Princeton University to suggest that the Sea floor is spreading.
According to the hypothesis of sea floor spreading, lavas form ocean
ridges are extruded and flows laterally, forming a new crust that move
away slowly from the spreading center. One consideration that led
scientists to the development of a new concept is that oceans cannot go
on increasing their area and their old crust must be consumed in the
Earth's interior at the same rate as it is added from the MOR. It was
suggested that with the formation of new crust at MOR, the old crust is
destroyed at deep-sea trenches. In this process the continents were also
drifted riding over the moving ocean floor. In 1968, three scientists, B.
Isacs, J. Oliver and L.R Sykes, at Lamont Geological Observatory
published a significant review of all the data and advanced a theory
that continents along with their rigid upper mantle part (i.e.
lithosphere) move as enormous slabs, later called tectonic plates or
lithospheric plates. This concept developed into what is familiarly
called plate tectonics.
3.2 Plate boundaries
There are about 12 lithospheric plates, demarcated by trench, ridge, or
faults. Accordingly there are three types of plate boundaries. Each type
of boundary has certain geologic characteristic and processes
associated with it.
Divergent boundaries are those along which plates separate. These
boundaries are characterized by active basaltic volcanism, shallow
focus earthquakes and high rates of heat flow, as at Mid Oceanic
Ridges. The outpouring of magma along ocean ridges and building of
the oceanic lithosphere is volumetrically the most significant form of
volcanism.
Convergent boundaries are the locations where the leading edge of
one plate overrides another plate. The overridden plate is subducted
along the trench and resorbed by the deep mantle. It is at the
convergent boundary that we have mountain or fold belt. Only at this
boundary we have deep-focus earthquakes.
The third type of margin is the transform fault. Here the plates slide
past each other, without creating or destruction of plates. Transform
faults are characterized by shallow-focus earthquake with horizontal
slip. Each plate is bounded by some combinations of these three kinds
of boundaries.
3.2.1 Plate tectonics theory
The plate tectonics became a global tectonics theory, conforming to all
observations made on continents and oceans. All earth science research
is now viewed and assessed in light of this theory, be it mountain
building, assembly and dispersal of continents, resources,
paleoenvironment, or paleomagnetism.
Fossil magnetism in older rocks from different continents was studied.
For many old rocks the fossil magnetic pole did not coincide with the
present magnetic pole. This means that either the rock or its continental
host have moved since the rock was formed or the magnetic pole has
moved, or both have moved. For a given continent, by measuring the
ages and fossil magnetic poles for many rocks, the relative positions of
continent and magnetic pole as a function of time is shown what is
called a path of apparent polar wandering. From the understanding
that the magnetic pole position has remained close to the Earth's
rotation axis, it was interpreted that the continent has moved relative to
the pole. The paths of polar wandering give information about the N-S
movement and rotation of the continents. The Deccan Plateau lava
flows has age of 65 million years. The record of fossil magnetization in
these lavas suggested that at this Geological time India was located
near latitude 45o S as against its present position in northern
hemisphere. Calculation gave that India moved with a velocity of
5cm/ year until it crossed the equator about 50 million years ago before
colliding with Asia and forming the Himalayan Mountain.
The continent of Antarctic, once in the assembly of the Gondwanaland,
is all covered by ice. It is therefore called the cryo-continent. For about
50 million years this continent separated from the continents of
Pangaea and is now located in the South Pole. Antarctic remains dark
for 6 months because the Sun never gets far above the Antarctic horizon
in the months of May to October. The Antarctic runs for about 4000 m
above sea level. It is for this reason also that it is even colder. In winter,
the area of this ice continent nearly doubles because of frozen ocean
water. Therefore, men did not enter Antarctic, although explorers
made expeditions in the Arctic long ago. Due to the ice cover, the
Sunlight is reflected away and the reflectivity (or Aledo) is up to 0.85,
against the Earth's albedo of 0.37. Hence, the Antarctic has an average
temperature of -49oC. However, the surrounding islands and coastal
regions are less severe cold.
From aerial photographs, Antarctic is divisible into two parts, Western
and Eastern Antarctic, along the West Greenwich meridian. The East
Antarctic is the main art of the ice continent where we find
Precambrian rocks similar to the shield areas. The rocks show at the
surface due to high topography. The Western Antarctic extends as a
peninsula toward South America, appearing as if it is an extension of
the Andean Mountain.
Antarctic is the locus of the south geomagnetic pole, besides being a
major reflector of Sun energy. It is also not having human activities.
Antarctic therefore offers a full-scale experimental model for the
geophysicist, climatologist, geologist and meteorologist. About 12
nations showed interest and a treaty of 1959, suspending national
claims to Antarctic territory, encouraged countries to have their
permanent stations on Antarctic.
Since Antarctic thick ice is very old in the basal part, it definitely
preserved an invaluable record of the Earth's past climate. Ice cores
drilled in Antarctic by Russian scientists have produced climatic
record of 200,000 years or more. India has also a station Gangotri and is
doing biological, atmospheric and geophysical-geological researches. .
Countries are trying to grab Antarctic land for no obvious reasons. You
can also go to Antarctica as there are no visa requirements and on your
return journey think of towing away an Antarctic iceberg in case of
water scarcity back home. There are a number of icebergs in the
surrounding ocean of Antarctic. An iceberg is like a mountain floating
in less dense water. About 90% of these icy mountains are below water
because ice is about 10% less dense than water. And you know from
Archimedes principles (a body in water is pushed upward by a force
equal to the weight of the water) that ice is about 10% less dense than
water. So when 90% of the ice is under water, the floating iceberg is
with almost 10% of its mass above the surface. Some icebergs when
they are huge get broken off seaward end of the glacier, while others
are formed when ice sheets break loose.
Glacier formations have been at many times in the Earth's history.
There are three major glaciations before the Pleistocene: One at 3 billion
years (Archean age), second at 2.4 billion years (Early Proterozoic), and
third glacier at about 300 million years (Permo-Carboniferous). The
last glacier was at 1.8 million years ago. Glaciation is evidenced by U-
shaped valleys, roche moutanees (polished rocks by passing glaciers),
moraines (erratic rock pieces dumped by glaciers) and drumlins (heaps
of material like ancient burial mounds laid parallel to the movement of
glacier) and eskers (long ridges of material laid down by treating
glaciers). Older glaciers are recognized only by tilites and oxygen
isotopes studies. Various theories have been advanced for the
occurrence of glaciations, amongst them fluctuations in Earth's orbit,
changes in rotation axis of the Earth (Milankovich cycles). Ice ages have
cycle of about 100,000 years and less than 20, 000 years of warm period
(interglacial period). The last ice age ended at about 10,000 years ago.
The warmer period since then is known as Holocene. Archeologists
suggest that it was during glacial periods that humans migrated across
the world. When water turned into ice humans crossed between Asia
and Alaska to reach America via Bering Strait.
3.3 Hydrogeological cycle
The watery and icy regions are connected by a water cycle, technically
called hydrological cycle. This becomes obvious when we look at the
constant evaporation of ocean water whereby air takes the water
vapour with it, forming clouds that shower on the surface either as rain
or snow. About 78% precipitation occurs over the oceans, making a
simple water cycle---water evaporates, rises, forms clouds which
condense and rain again on the ocean.
The water cycle becomes complex when rain or snow falls on land. On
the land, the water is carried in a river and returned back to sea. The
river or stream water flowing on the land is called runoff. Runoff water
is also formed when large quantities of snow melt in spring and
summer months. When the runoff water from the two sources becomes
large, the rivers swell and can lead to flooding, as we find every year in
the river Brahmaputra in northeastern India. Warning about floods is
given by meteorological department on the basis of weather conditions
and continuous record of water levels in each stream so that people can
go to safe places in advance of flood.
Blockade of the river water by sediments or from landslides form lakes
which often become sources of fresh water. Lakes are formed when
river water finds low-lying areas on their route.
If the rain water is absorbed into soil and trickles into the ground where
it soaks into pore spaces of sandstones and other sediments it becomes
the groundwater. If the pores of the subsurface rocks are completely
filled, we have the zone of saturation. The upper boundary of the zone
of saturation is the water table. Materials above the water table are
moist and form the zone of aeration in which air occupies much of the
pores. Ground water that flows though permeable sediment and rock
is called aquifer. The aquifer, as a stored underground reservoir, is
available to humans either as springs or in wells. The storage of
groundwater is always in the pore spaces and fractures in rocks and
unconsolidated sediments.
Wells are dug or drilled to reach an aquifer. The level of water in the
wells is the same as the level of surrounding water table. As stated
above, this surface is the boundary between two zones of rock or soil.
The one below the water table is saturated zone where pores are
completely filled. Below this is the impermeable layer which acts like a
barrier for the groundwater. The groundwater table lies at varying
depths beneath the surface, depending on topography, nature of rocks
that retain water etc.
When water is drawn out of a well, it is replaced by surrounding water
in the aquifer. Over pumping of the well lowers the local water level
(called drawdown aquifer) and results in a cone of depression around
the well. Water from rain replenishes the water content in an aquifer
and is called recharge. However, if withdrawal of groundwater is more
than the recharge rate, the well becomes dry. If recharge area is at a
higher elevation than rest of the aquifers, we have a sloping water
table. In this situation the aquifer contains the water under pressure
because the water at the top of slope exerts gravitational force on the
water down slope. In a well dug in this aquifer, water spurts above the
land surface in the form of a fountain called artesian well, name after
French province Artois where such well were first drilled.
Fresh water is Earth's most precious natural resource because it is
essential for life. Fresh water availability depends on several factors
such as amount of rain, infiltration, porosity and permeability of
subsurface rock or sediments, and recharge. Human activities can
change these factors, especially by overuse and causing pollution of
recharge areas by sewage, industrial wasters, chemicals or pesticide
etc. The pollutants spread rapidly through permeable aquifers,
contaminating the ground water and making it unsuitable or
hazardous to drink. Humans must be aware of how their activities
affect the ground water system. To discover groundwater and its
monitoring is the job of a groundwater scientist, called hydrologist. He
estimates the direction of groundwater flow with the help of
topographic map, thus helping farmers and town planners in locating
new wells in their area. One must study the water in his area to know
where water is located and whether it is fresh or salty and how is this
water is obtained. Water containing high concentration of calcium,
magnesium or iron is hard water which is obviously less favored as
compared to sweet water. In the developed world, the hydrological
cycle is rarely seen working in its natural form. People make dams and
flood-control systems to store water and generate electricity to the
needy population.
 Chapter 4
Atmosphere, our Airy Earth

4.1 Atmosphere is an envelope of gases

In preceding two chapters we talked about geosphere and
hydrosphere. Now we have another sphere called Atmosphere. It is a
gas envelope that surrounds the Earth, without which no life could
exist or survive because it contains oxygen which is essential for life.
According to scientists, the atmosphere is mainly composed of 78%
nitrogen (N2) and 21% oxygen (O2) and the remaining 1% consists of an
inert gas argon (Ar), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and water
vapour (H2O). The Earth's atmosphere also contains tiny solid particles
such as dust, salt, & ice and airborne micro-organisms such as fungi
and bacteria whereby we get airborne diseases like flue. Today, oxygen
and nitrogen are continually being recycled between atmosphere,
living organisms, the ocean and Earth's crust, emphasizing once again
a close link between geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and
atmosphere. You may wonder why nitrogen is the most abundant
element in the atmosphere. The reasons are: it is unreactive to
materials that make up the solid Earth; it is very stable in the presence
of solar radiation having no chemical reactions occurring there; it is
involved with oxygen in the life cycle of living biosphere and fossil
organic matter since geological time; it has limited solubility, like
oxygen, in ocean water. These are also the reasons for the fairly
constant amount of N2 and O2 in the atmosphere over several years. The
concentration of CO2 and water vapour is in parts per million.
Concentration means the number of molecules within the same
volume. It is convenient to talk about proportions of gases, e.g. O2 =
21% of the molecules of gas in the atmosphere. The CO2 as 0.39% which
can be expressed in mnemonic way by saying 390 parts per million or
ppm. This number is called mixing ratio. The CO2, water vapour (H2O)
and methane (CH4) play an important role in regulating temperatures
of the Earth. Water vapour, methane and CO2 in the atmosphere are
therefore called greenhouse gases that keep the Earth warm by
absorbing heat radiated by the Earth and preventing the heat from
escaping into the outer space, similar to a greenhouse. CO2 is also
cycled between the four spheres, stated above.
Water vapour varies between 4% to nearly zero from place to place and
CO2 is also variable from the present value of 0.339 % (or 339 ppm) to
0.38% (or 380 ppm, this year slightly more) of the atmosphere. Unlike
symmetrical molecules of N2 and O2 which are made up of two identical
atoms, whose electrical fields cancel each other out, the greenhouse
gases have more than one chemical bond one or more of which interact
with IR light in the atmosphere, holding thermal energy and thus
becoming greenhouse gases.
The Earth's atmosphere in the geological past is found to change
considerably. Scientists think that the atmosphere began to form at the
same time as the Earth's geosphere began to form. The early
atmosphere probably contained helium (He), hydrogen (H), methane
(CH4), ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), but without oxygen.
Km
Exosphere 600

500

400

Thermosphere
300

200

100

Mesosphere 80 Mesosphere

50 48 Stratosphere
Ozone
Stratosphere Layer

10 12 Troposphere
Troposphere

-80 -20 0 20 80
Temperature 0C

Fig. 5: Atmospheric layers and Temperature variations (see text).

This was the time asteroids and meteorites began to collide with the
Earth. At this time the Earth had not acquired sufficient gravity. Hence
most of the light gases, like H, and He, escaped into space. But once the
Earth began to differentiate, large quantities of gases, especially CO2,
SO2, NO2, N2O, CH4, NH3, were emitted from volcanic eruption but this
early atmosphere had no free oxygen from the beginning. The most
probable source of oxygen was dissociation of water molecules (in the
ocean) by UV rays from the Sun.
The reaction, 2H2O = 2H2 + O2, is called photochemical dissociation.
Another source of oxygen is photosynthesis brought about very early,
about 3.5 Ga, by a single-celled algal organism called Cyanobacteria in
the ocean. This is photosynthesis reaction: H2O + CO2 + Sunlight =
organic compound CH2O + O2. Over a period of a billion year or so the
cumulative effect of these early one-celled, photosynthesizing
organisms was to transform Earth's atmosphere by removing huge
amount of CO2 from the atmosphere and generating free oxygen. When
photosynthesizing organisms died, they sank to the bottom of the
ocean and were buried. Their organic molecules, which they produced
and which composed of their tissues, were incorporated in the
sediments. These lithified algae appeared as a fossil called
stromatolytes in marine sediments of Late Archean (3.5 Ga) in Western
Australia and in Early Proterozoic elsewhere, suggesting that early
oceans were full of algal mats to produce more oxygen. That oxygen
was liberated by Cyanobacteria is evidenced by the occurrence of
banded iron formation, familiarly known as BIF. Scientists know that
when O2 in atmosphere and in dissolved water of the ocean reacts with
the reduced iron (Fe2+) occurring in the minerals (magnetite Fe3O4,
wustite FeO, fayalite Fe2SiO4, pyroxene Fe2SiO3) of the mafic melts
produced from mantle, it forms ferric oxide, seen as red colour on the
rocks and weathered soil. The BIF, containing alternate bands of chert
(silica) and iron oxide, is the proof that the oxygen was liberated by
Cyanobacteria and was dissolved in the ocean. Remember that no
more than 1% oxygen can be dissolved in ocean water which already
has oxygen in its H2O. When the dissolved iron was used in chemical
reaction, oxygen began to increase in atmosphere. Thus, Earth's
atmosphere gradually evolved to support more complex life on land
and sea. Later, higher plants supplied the rest of the oxygen to have the
present level of 21% in the atmosphere. Oxygen is most stable form in
molecular oxygen (i. e. O2). As O2 accumulated in Earth's atmosphere,
an ozone layer is formed (O2 + O = O3), providing an environment
where new life forms could develop. Remember that Ozone is a less
stable molecule with three oxygen atoms (O3). Ozone forms in the air
after thunderstorm. It is a component of smog. Ozone is reactive and
toxic to lungs. The ozone is found in the upper atmosphere and
protects us against UV rays from the Sun because long exposures to UV
rays cause skin cancer and other diseases. We observe Ozone Day on 15
September every year.
4.1.1 Atmospheric pressure
You must know that the atmospheric gases are pressing you with a
weight equivalent to a 10 m column of water. But you do not feel this
weight crushing against our bodies because the pressure inside our
bodies equals that of the surrounding air; there is thus no net force for
us to feel. Another way to think about the atmospheric pressure is to
measure the height of mercury filled in a glass tube of one square
centimeter cross section and about 1 meter high and placed with its
open end in a reservoir of this metal (Hg) exposed to the air. We
observe that the mercury in the tube stands at 76 cm height as it is
balanced by the atmospheric pressure exerted on the reservoir. If we do
this experiment at sea level, using water, instead of mercury, in a glass
tube of 1 cm cross section and slightly more than10 meter high, we will
see that water in the tube stays at about 10 meter high. This means that
the air at sea level exerts about as much pressure as a 10 m column of
water. We can, therefore, make a water barometer but we need a
spacious house to display it. Since mercury is denser liquid we use
mercury barometer to have sensitive size. The mercury barometer is
also used by doctors to measure blood pressure of his patients. In
houses we have a no-liquid barometer, called aneroid barometer which
contain very thin-walled metal box which expands or contracts,
according to the fall or rise of the atmospheric pressure.
The pressure at sea level is designated as 1 atmosphere pressure.
Pressure by definition is Force per unit area. So the SI unit for P is N/m2
which is equivalent to 100,000 pascals (105 Pa), in honour of the famous
mathematician Pascal. In view of our experiment with the glass tube in
mercury, we can calculate atmospheric pressure by using the formula,
dhg where d = density of mercury, 13.6 g/cm3; h = height 76 cm of
mercury, and g = acceleration due to gravity, 9.8 cm/s2. This gives
101292.8 pascal or 101292.8 kg/m/s2 as an equivalent unit. This given
value of 1.01292x105 Pa is equal to 1 bar (in old C.G.S system of units (1
bar = 106 dyne cm-2). Thus, 1 bar is nearly equal to one atmosphere
pressure in the given SI Units. In brief, 1 atm P = 1.013 bar (rounded). At
sea level the atmospheric pressure in SI units is equal to 100,000N/m2,
or 1000 millibar (mb).
Atmospheric pressure varies at a particular time and place. The
differences in pressure are very small, hence we use millibars,
thousandth of bar (1 millibar = 1/1000 bar) to measure atmospheric
pressure. The pressure variation is mainly by heat of the Sun. We know
that hot air expands and becomes less dense. Measurements have
shown that 1 cubic meter of air at 20oC at sea level has a mass of 1.2 kg,
while at a height of 10 km the same volume of air has mass of 0.4 kg.
This clearly shows that higher you go above the sea level, the lower
would be the air pressure. On the Everest mountaineers record 350
millibars, about one-third of that pressure at sea level. It means at such
high altitude it is hard to get enough oxygen and artificial oxygen is
essential to survive on the summit of Everest. Oxygen in our blood
stream is used to form Oxyhemoglobin, a chemical used by human
organs. In addition to being at low pressure, the air at high altitude also
has less water vapour. It is for this reason that people in high places are
likely to dehydrate faster. But people living in high altitude such those
living in Tibet, in High Himalaya, in Andes, have adapted to their
physiology, having high blood flow, bigger lungs than those living
near sea-levels.
4.1.2 Atmospheric layers
Like the solid Earth, the atmosphere is also divided into distinct layers.
We have 5 layers as we go high. These are: troposphere, stratosphere,
mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere, each unique in
composition and temperature. Troposphere is the layer closest to the
Earth's surface. It contains most of the mass of the atmosphere. Its
thickness varies with location, in a similar way as the crust below our
feet. Near the equator the troposphere is about 16 km deep and at the
poles it only 8 or 9 km thick. Although thin, the troposphere has the
weight of the rest of the atmospheric layers that press it down.
Troposphere contains 75% mass of the atmosphere and therefore it
becomes the prime layer for having most activities related to weather,
as will be discussed later.
The average temperature at the Earth's surface is about 14.5oC,
although exact temperature depends on whether we live in India or
Norway. When you measure T through troposphere, we find an
interesting phenomenon. As you go up, T drops with height. Finally
we reach a point where T stops decreasing. We have minus 50oC (-50oC)
at this point and we call the location by the name tropopause. The
reason for the drop is that the atmosphere does not absorb huge
amount of incoming solar energy.
Weather occurs primarily in the troposphere because it contains all the
gases. Commercial jets for example generally fly just above the
troposphere in order to avoid turbulence caused by weather
disturbances.
Beyond the troposphere we arrive at a layer called the stratosphere.
Here, the T starts to increase again and goes on climbing until it has
reached near 0oC at the top of stratosphere. The reason is that
something is heating up from energy. This energy is coming from the
famous “Ozone layer” within the stratosphere. The ozone layer
absorbs most of the UV radiation in solar energy, warming the
stratosphere. The ozone layer protects us from the worst effects of the
UV rays from the Sun in form of skin diseases. Ozone layer above
Antarctic is found to have a hole, discovered by a team of British
Antarctic Survey. The hole is attributed to the chlorofluorocarbon
(CFC)---inert gas molecules used in cooling for refrigerators and in
propelling deodorants from spray can etc. Once in atmosphere, the
CFC stays for many years (80 -120 years). CFC decomposes from the
effects of solar energy during which a series of reactions generates Cl2
which react with ozone and depletes this zone. Estimates are that one
Cl atom can destroy at least 100,000 ozone molecules in one or two
years before it forms HCl and carried away by atmosphere. It is for this
reason that we do not use CFC any more.
Stratosphere contains only 25% of the atmosphere but there is water
vapour in it. Hence stratosphere is almost devoid of clouds.
Stratosphere extends about 50 km above the sea level beyond which a
limit comes when T touches 0oC. This point is called stratopause.
Above the stratopause is the mesosphere. Here the temperature is
down, although some solar energy is still being absorbed. Top of the
mesosphere shows temperature around -90oC and defines mesopause
at about 85 km above sea level. At this height we have little water which
appears in night-shining clouds, called “noctlucent” which are made of
ice crystals. These clouds are seen only at night in polar regions.
Troposphere and tropopause are termed the lower atmosphere by
meteorologists, whereas the stratosphere and mesosphere are middle
atmosphere. The upper atmosphere consists of one layer called
thermosphere. The thermosphere and upper mesosphere are ion-rich
regions and can be called ionosphere. Here, the ions are produced by
the interactions of high frequency solar radiation with atoms of
atmospheric gases. Incoming solar rays strip electron from N2 and O2
atoms. As result, the ions cast a faint glow. The glow near the Earth's
magnetic poles gives fiery light called auroras. Thus there are no
molecules in thermosphere. The thermosphere is regarded as the start
of outer space. It is this region where space shuttle and crewed space
ship fly, besides satellites, because there is no friction as a result of the
absence of air.
The thermosphere ends up at about 600 km at which exosphere starts.
This is a layer of hydrogen (H) and helium (He) atoms from the solar
wind that gradually fades away into outer space. Exosphere is the
outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere. It extends from about 600 km to
more than 10,000 km above the Earth's surface. There is no clear
boundary at the top of exosphere. It can be thought of as a transition
between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
4.2 Weather machine
Circulation of the atmosphere contributes to weather, because the
atmosphere is the most restless component of the Earth. Meteorologists
or scientists studying weather have recorded wind speed up to 300 km
per hour. This is a big contrast to the movement of ocean currents
which is a few km an hour and of continental movement which is about
5 cm a year. Weather pattern shows that the general circulation of the
wind is E-W or N-S, because the direction of Earth's wind is influenced
by Earth's rotation---Coriolis effect. As a result of the Coriolis effect the
rotating Earth from W to E results eastward movement of air on the
equator and in the northern hemisphere, at a speed of 1670 km/hour.
The air moving toward the poles appears to curve to the right or East.
The opposite is true for air moving from poles to the equator because
the eastward speed of polar air is slower than the E-ward speed of the
land over which it is moving. Remember that a wind gets its name
from the direction it comes, and not where it is going. For example,
30km/hr NW wind indicates that wind is blowing from NW at a speed
of 30km per hour.
The movement of the atmosphere is primarily due to movement of air
molecules from high pressure region to low pressure region. The air
near the Earth's surface is heated. As a result it expands and becomes
less dense than the surrounding air. This warm air rises. At higher
altitudes this rising air cools and its density increases. Therefore it sinks
relative to the surrounding air. As it sinks, it warms again, and the
process repeats. This process develops convection currents, resulting
into transfer of thermal energy in the atmosphere. Thermal energy in
the atmospheric gases is due to solar radiation and is in form of heat
from the Sun. Most of the solar radiation or solar energy that reaches
the Earth's surface is in the form of visible light and infrared waves.
About 30% of solar radiation is reflected into space by Earth's surface,
atmosphere or clouds. Another 20% is absorbed by the atmosphere and
clouds. Thus, about 50% of the solar radiation is absorbed by the Earth's
surface and keeps the Earth warm, as stated already. Thermal energy
in the atmosphere is transferred by convection---movement of heated
gas molecules and atoms from one place to another in the atmosphere.
This can be appreciated when we see the places on the Earth where the
Sun rays are striking straight over 12 months period, These are the
Tropic of Cancer in the Northern hemisphere from where the Sun
moves to Equator and then down onto the Tropic of Capricorn on the
Southern hemisphere. The redistribution of thermal energy in form of
heat/light over the period of 12 months drives the season about which
we have already discussed in chapter 1.
Uneven heating of Earth's surface is the cause of air-pressure
differences and thus movements of the wind. The air-pressure
differences or in other words density differences drive the Earth's
weather. Strictly speaking, it is not only the temperature but there are
other elements that affect weather. These are wind, precipitation,
cloudiness and humidity. The general pattern of weather that occurs in
a region of a period of years is what we call climate.
Besides Solar radiation, the second source of energy for the movement
of atmosphere is due to the effect of rotation of the Earth itself. We
know that the Earth spins from W to E. Everything on the Equator
moves at nearly 1700 km/hr (more precisely 1670 km/hr) to have a
complete rotation or one lap per day. But as we go near the Poles, the
rotational velocity will be slower and at the poles the velocity is almost
zero. So if we launch a rocket from the North pole straight at London, it
would never arrive because it would have no rotational velocity. This is
like throwing a ball by a man on the merry-go-round towards a man
standing away, who will always miss it by a small distance. The Earth's
rotation would have shifted London out of the way before the rocket
reached there. If we view the situation from the ground, we observe
that the missile would appear to be deflected to the W by a force which
we call Coriolis force, in honour of Gustav-Gaspard Coriolis who
wrote the equation for this phenomenon in 1835. Anyone planning an
intercontinental missile attack takes this phenomenon into
consideration.
The implication of the Coriolis force is that Equator-bound objects
coming from the N or S are pushed toward the W. On the other hand,
object moving away from the Equator are diverted E.
We will now consider how these two factors, namely solar radiation
and Coriolis force, control or affect the weather. Remember that the
weather is a global system and does not begin at any place. But to make
things simpler, we assume that it starts at the Equator. The solar
radiation (heat energy) on the Earth is more on the Equator than at
higher latitudes. Consequently, the air gets hot at the Equator and
expands to attain a low density. So it starts to rise. As the hot air moves
upward, it is replaced by humid air from oceans. The moist air thus
creates a zone of lower pressure by clouds, precipitating large rains
along the Equator. This is why the Equatorial regions are among the
Earth's wettest regions, and are home to the great jungles of Africa and
South America. Here, rain fall is generally 150 cm per year. Since the
two air masses, one from land and the other from ocean converge, the
Equatorial region is known as the convergence zone. This zone is almost
without wind because the hot air moved straight up. This created a
problem for the ships for want of wind. The ships stuck at the equator
for weeks in the “doldrums” – now a proverbial word for situations not
allowing taking a decision.
When the rising air eventually reaches the troposphere, it can rise no
higher and spreads laterally toward the Poles. This is now a dry air
which spreads and, being cold, it becomes denser. Hence it sinks down
toward surface at latitudes of about 30o N and 30o S of the Equator. The
sinking, dense air produces areas of high pressure with drier
conditions. This dry air (without water) piles up and produces desert
areas, for example Sahara desert of North Africa, The Great Victoria
desert of Australia and the Sonoran desert of Arizona and Mexico. All
these dry areas are about 20 -30o N or S of the Equator. Some of the
sinking air moves from the high pressure zones back toward the
Equator. As it flows, it produces the prevailing winds. But immediately
to the N and S of the Equator the winds, called Trade Winds, blow from
NE above the Equator and SE below the Equator. This is because the
winds (Trade winds) are dragged from N to NE by Coriolis force in the
Northern hemisphere; and from S to SE direction in the southern
hemisphere. These winds got their name, Trade Winds, because they
were extremely useful for the people planning maritime commerce.
The pair of convection cells between 0 and 30o N and S, which produce
the prevailing winds, are called Hadley Cells where one finds the
world's great deserts stated above. Although most of the air that sinks
at 30o N and S latitude returns to the Equator, some of this moves
towards Poles. Somewhere around 60o N and S latitude, this low-
altitude air flowing from the Equator meets the cold air coming from
the Poles. As the air descends, it creates a high pressure zone from
which the Trade Winds head for the Equator. But the rest of the
descending air heads toward the poles. Here the warmer air moving
away from the low latitude is buoyed upward by the cold polar air. The
descending air rises and moves back toward 60o N and S. As the air
sinks it completes the polar convection cells called Farrel Cells which
are the signs for westerly winds in northern hemisphere and easterly
winds in the southern hemisphere. The winds of the Farrel Cells are
gentler than those involved in the Equatorial Hadley system.
It is indeed interesting that the air flow to the N and S poles is not
continuous. The reason is that the Polar Regions have their own set of
air-flow cells, doing more or less reverse to that of the Hadley cells. The
polar cells, between 60o and Pole, form because of sinking of the cold
air. Since this air is dry and hence snow has built on the N and S poles
for many years. This descending air at or near the poles has almost no
rotational velocity. So it is deflected to W as it moves away from the
Polar regions. This effect enabled the sailors to discover America.
The difference in temperature between air in the Polar Cells and that in
the Farrel Cells produces one of the atmospheric most spectacular
phenomena called the Jet Stream. Jet stream is found 10 km above sea
level. They are high speed winds (95 to 195 km per hour) blowing W to
E under the influence of Coriolis force. The Jet stream not only plays an
essential role in global transfer of thermal energy from equator to the
poles but serves as a boon for the air travel going faster if going
eastward. The Earth Weather Machine is interesting as the Poles get
40% energy as much as the Equator.
From the above description we understand that weather forecast is not
so simple that it is hotter in the summer and colder in the winter and
somewhere in between in Spring and Autumn. The weather is
complicated by the liquid Earth below the airy Earth.
The land and sea have significant influences on the weather (and
climate). When the air blows across, it rubs against the land.
Consequently, we have a “frictional layer” several hundred meters
above the ground level. The rougher the surface the greater is the
friction and so the greater is the drag. Due to this rubbing effect, we can
have eddies and turbulence of varying height and width, depending
on the landscape. Again, because friction reduces speed of the wind it
reduces the Coriolis effect. This causes winds in northern hemisphere
to spiral out clockwise from a high pressure region and spiral
counterclockwise into a low-pressure region. In southern sphere it is
the reverse.
We also know that the entire ocean, which constitutes 70% Earth's area,
is in contact with the air. When the air is pushed across the ocean for a
few thousand km, it absorbs water, and often it is also saturated
(cannot take water any more). But this depends on T and P. When this
moist air arrives on land, especially mountain or hilly land, the air is
driven uphill where P falls and hence precipitation, as in the west coast
of India, especially Kerala coast.
The different thermal properties of land and sea affect weather in a
very interesting way. We know that the land warms up more rapidly
than the water when the Sun shines on it. The reason for this is that
specific heat of water is more than land. [specific heat capacity of water
is 5 times more than of the rock or soil]. In the morning, when the land
warms up and sea stay comparatively cool, the air above the land gets
heated faster than the air over the sea. The air rises, causing a wind to
blow from the sea to replace it. This is the land breeze. In the evening,
the land will cool faster than the sea, and the wind blows towards the
shore, and we enjoy the sea breeze.
4.3 Monsoon
Monsoon is similar to land and sea breezes. We have unequal heating
of the Earth surface. But the energy is redistributed by circulation of
atmosphere and oceans. Heat generated in tropics is transported polar
ward by global circulation of air and warm ocean currents. Air over
land warms faster than that over oceans (because specific heat of ocean
water is more than any material constituting land). Consequently the
hot air over land rises and creates an area of low pressure. The low
pressure attracts moist summer winds from the Indian Ocean. The two
great air masses collide against each other, giving dark clouds and rain
(because of condensation of water vapour in the moist air from oceans).
When the high topography came onto existence by the birth of
Himalaya in Late Miocene when the Mt attained a critical height, the
Himalaya became a barrier to the SW flowing air currents. When the air
reaches the Himadri Mountain or the Himalaya, the air rises and it
cools. Since the moisture cannot be held any more we have rains on the
Indian side—the wind-side, while the other side is a leeward side and
often starve of rain and produces deserts, like Gabi desert in Asia. The
region such as Ladakh and Zanskar that lie N of the Himalayan
Mountain have only scanty rains or draught. Monsoon is linked to
global climate change. Only its strength varied since the time
Himalaya came into existence. Thus, the Himalaya also influences the
climate of the Indian subcontinent by sheltering it from the cold air
masses of central Asia. But reduced monsoon intensity is linked to Sea-
Surface Temperature (SST) in the Indian Ocean because of change in
the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) on account of reduction in net heat
input to the Indian Ocean. This reduced heat input is through the
Indonesian through-Flow of cold thermocline water from Pacific to
Indian Ocean.
From above we observe that orography and coastal areas give rains.
But when more water in the air than it can hold, we get dew. Dew plays
an important role in drinking water and for agriculture. Snow is the
cousin of the rain. A tiny ice crystal will form by freezing the droplets of
water. If the precipitation does not fall from the sky and only water
droplets are formed near the ground due to fall in temperature, we get
fog. When denser cold air pushes the warm air and the two with
different temperature mix, then we get thunder storms and turbulence.
Extreme weather is also encountered in certain regions. The frequently
encountered is the cyclone which is a tropical storm. It is produced
when a region of low pressure has inward swirling winds around it.
Anticyclones have outward flowing winds from a high-pressure zone.
Due to effect of the Coriolis force, the winds in a cyclone move
anticlockwise in the Northern hemisphere and reverse in southern
hemisphere. The converging air in the cyclone is forced to rise upward.
This can result into clouds and rain with thunderstorms. Cyclones
with wind speed over 60 km per hour are called storms or hurricanes in
US. In the NW Pacific they are called typhoons.
4.4 Interaction of atmosphere and ocean
The atmosphere and the oceans are closely linked by the transfer of
heat, gases and energy from one to the other. All these exchanges are
responsible for Earth's climate and weather. The ocean surface absorbs
most of the heat from the sun and the surface currents driven by wind
move the warm water around the world and warm the atmosphere
from below. The oceans thus help to regulate the temperature of the
lower part of the atmosphere. In addition, greenhouse gases like CO2
are transferred between atmosphere and oceans. The action of winds
blowing over the ocean surface creates waves and currents. When
winds are strong enough to produce spray, tiny droplets of ocean
water are thrown up into atmosphere where some evaporate, leaving
microscopic grains of salts in the air. These tiny salt particles may
become nuclei for the condensation of water vapour and form fog and
clouds. The ocean, in turn, act upon the atmosphere to influence and
modify climate and weather systems. When water evaporates, heat is
removed from the ocean and stored in the atmosphere by the molecules
of water vapour. When condensation occurs, this stored heat is
released to the atmosphere to develop energy of motions in air masses.
The atmosphere obtains nearly half its energy for circulation from the
condensation of evaporated ocean water.
The pattern of atmospheric circulation largely determines the pattern
of ocean surface circulation and location of clouds, which influences
the locations of temperature of the ocean surface.
One of the dramatic manifestations of the interaction between the
ocean and the atmosphere and its climate effect is the Southern
Oscillation. The Southern Oscillation is a back and forth variation of
atmospheric pressure between high P system located off the west coast
of South America and a low P system located in the Western Pacific,
near Indonesia and Australia. As a result, abnormal amounts of moist,
warm air cross North America, causing heavy rains and floods in Peru
while draught in Indonesia and Australia. This phenomenon is
manifested by the arrival of warm water off the coast of Peru near
Christmas time, covering the cold water near Peru. This is called El
Nino in Spanish language. The El Nino cycle was first noted by the
fishermen because warm waters were less fertile and the fisheries
would collapse that year. The weak monsoon in India is attributed to
El Nino effects. The world dries out during El Nino. There is another
cycle called La Nina in which there is cold water at the sea surface in the
eastern part of the Pacific Ocean near Peru. The cold water contains
nutrients that allow phytoplantkton to grow, feeding the very
productive Peruvian fishery. The contrast in sea surface temperatures
between the eastern and western equatorial Pacific drives a wind along
the equator that blows from E to W. The warm water, floating on the
colder water with a boundary called the thermocline, piles up in the
West. The tilted thermocline keeps the surface waters cold near Peru,
which drives winds, which keep the thermocline tilted and the cold
water at the surface. The cold water near Peru gets covered with warm
water during El Nino.
Although both these states (the wind and thermocline) are self
stabilizing, the atmosphere/ocean system flips back and forth between
the two climate states, about one cycle every 4 to 7 years.
There is a possibility that with global warming the Pacific may tend to
favour the El Nino state, but difficult to assess the impact on climate.
Another potential feedback from the ocean to climate is called the
meridional overturning circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Warm water is carried to the North Atlantic in the Gulf Stream. As the
water cools, its density increases and it sinks into the abyss, making
rook at the surface for more warm water to carry heat from the tropics.
The Pacific Ocean has a surface current analogous to the Gulf Stream,
called the Kuroshio Current, but surface waters in the Pacific are not
salty enough to get dense enough to sink So there is no deep meridional
overturning circulation in the Pacific.
 Chapter 5
Biosphere & Earth's Environment

5.1 The Biosphere

When astronauts and cosmonauts in orbit look homeward, they see
planet Earth with four spheres. Three spheres have been described in
previous chapters. The biosphere is the youngest sphere of incredibly
thin veneer of life. The youngest entrant in the biosphere is the Homo
habilis, which appeared ca. 2 million years ago and whose brain grew
until our kind—Homo sapiens. Having powerful mind, the Homo
sapiens, commonly called humans are now strong enough to have
distinct influence upon the spheres of water, air and land , so much so
that modern man has become a large-scale geological force. Man
exploits the Earth resources, using his clever technology of
exploitation, which are causing environmental problems, polluting
groundwater and air, unfit to drink and unhealthy to breath.
5.2 Earth's Environment
The Earth's environment encompasses the terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystem in which rock (land), ocean, air and living organisms,
defining lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere
respectively are interconnected by the physical, chemical and
biological processes which move the materials and energy on the
Earth. Solar energy variation and volcanic eruptions are main causes of
global temperature changes in the geological past.
According to geological investigation, Earth's climate or temperature
has changed drastically over the eons of time. Studies of rock strata
reveal that for the past 3 billion years, the Earth climate was tropical.
About every 250 million years this tropical climate is interrupted by
relatively short period of glaciations which covered a larger Earth area
by ice-sheets. The last glacial epoch was 6,50,000 (6 Lac 50 thousand)
years ago.
But it is also possible that volcanoes are responsible for the variations in
the Earth's temperature or for causing climate change in that the
volcanic dust, ash and gases reduced the Sun's radiation to as much as
30%, causing glaciations. In the current ice age of Pleistocene period,
we had four glacial periods separated by four warm interglacial
periods. There does not appear any consistent connection between
periods of volcanic activity and ice ages in the geological record.
Theoretical geoscientists believe that volcanic eruptions decreased
with time because Earth's mantle is cooling for loss of radioactivity.
Modern volcanic activity on surface is estimated to release only 130 to
230 mega tones of CO2 each year. Moreover, the regular repetition of
the ice ages at approximately 250 million years intervals suggests
volcanic eruption and other processes cannot generate a rhythmic
climate variation. It is then obvious that some sort of cycle in the Sun is
responsible for the climatic variations. The world-wide fall or rise in
temperature strongly indicates a change in the heat output only by the
Sun. The world-wide fall or rise in temperature strongly indicates a
change in the heat output only by the Sun. Furthermore, the regular
repetition of the ice ages at approximately 250 million years intervals
suggests some sort of cycle in the Sun. Long term T variations or
climatic changes are considered due to sun spot activity with
periodicity of 11 years. Increased solar activity coincides with warmer
than-normal sea surface temperatures while periods of low solar
activity coincides with colder sea surface temperature. Note that sea
surface temperature is used as an indicator of climate. The other
reasons are Milankovich cycles which occur (i) on 40.000 years
periodicity due to variable tilt of Earth axis, and (ii) on 11,000 years
periodicity due to rotation of axis itself, called precession which is like
rotation of a top as it slows down its spin. If the shape of the Earth's
elliptical orbit becomes more elliptical, the orbit elongates. As a result,
Earth travels a path closer to the Sun in some part of the year.
Consequently, the temperatures become warmer than normal. In the
nearly circular orbit as it is now, the Earth is farther from the Sun and
temperatures dip below average. If the angle of the tilt of Earth's axis
decreased, there would be less temperature contrast between summer
and winter. Winters would be warmer and summers would be more
cooler. As a result, the snow in polar latitudes would not melt in
summer, ensuing glaciation. In case the Earth wobbles, the axis will
rotate away from the currently pointing toward Polaris and point
toward another star called Vega, in about 11,000 years. Currently
winter occurs in N-hemisphere when the direction of tilt is as now. But
by change of direction of tilt, northern hemisphere will be tilted in the
opposite direction, relative to the Sun. So the N-hemisphere will
experience summer. But these climate changes occur once in few
hundred or thousands of years. What about the existing temperature
rise, which is called Global Warming.
Perhaps linking the very high temperatures with the CO2-dominant
atmosphere of the planet Venus, it was first proposed in 1861 by the
noted physicist John Tyndall that temperature variations on the Earth
are due to variations in CO2. An analogy can be given from a closed car
whose glass windows permit entry of the Sun's visible radiation,
warming everything inside the car. The window glass, like CO2, traps
the heat and the inside T of the car rises. While all water vapour in the
atmosphere remains close to the ground, CO2 diffuses more energy
through the atmosphere.
5.3 Greenhouse gases
We have already stated that the Earth gets its energy mainly from the
Sun. Most of the Sun's energy that arrives at the Earth is in the form of
visible and infrared light. The potentially harmful UV light is filtered to
a large extent by the ozone layer. So the visible and infrared light passes
through the atmosphere, consisting of nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2) and
minor amounts of CO2, H2O, CH4 and thereafter it reaches the Earth's
surface. Since the Earth's surface is reflective, it emits that energy. But
molecules of water vapor (H2O), methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide
(CO2) in the atmosphere absorb radiation at these wave lengths
because the chemical bonds between their atoms resonate at these
frequencies. Nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2) are unsuitable to absorb
radiation from the Earth because of their linear two-atom structure. So
the multidirectional bonded molecules of the minor gases (CO2, H2O,
CH4) capture energy emitted from the Earth's warm surface. These
gases keep the Earth fairly warm, like a greenhouse and keep the Earth
livable. Therefore these gases are called greenhouse gases. Their
present amount in ppm in the atmosphere is: CO2 = 380 ppm, CH4 = 2.0
ppm, and water vapour = 0.3 ppm (I ppm means 1 molecule of a gas in
1000 molecules of air). The parts per million does not sound like much
but CO2 is a powerful greenhouse gas.
We know that plants use solar energy to change CO2 into carbon. Less
CO2 in the atmosphere helps to cool the planet Earth. Wind and ocean
currents move heat to warm the higher latitudes. The landscape of the
solid Earth has been continually changing by its inside and outside
processes which are volcanoes, earthquakes, and plate tectonics that
initiate closing and opening of oceans, movement of continents and
mountain building, all undergoing perpetual erosion. Earth's
temperature is a balance between the rate at which the Earth absorbs
energy and the rate at which the Earth re-radiates it.
The deepest sediments show that there were at least 10 distinct
temperature cycles which coincide with high carbon dioxide (CO2)
contents in them. Knowing that in the early period of Earth's history the
source of CO2 in nature was primarily volcanic activity. Volcanoes
release CO2 into atmosphere and this CO2 is also dissolved in ocean
water in order to maintain equilibrium between atmosphere and
hydrosphere. The equilibrium is also maintained with the solid Earth
by the process of weathering. Weathering of rocks consumes CO2 . For
example:
Feldspar + H2O + CO2 → (K,Na,Ca) cations in solution + clay +
(SiO4) in solution +OH-
2Mg2SiO4 + 2H2O + CO2 →Mg3Si4O5(OH)2 + MgCO3
Olivine serpentine magnesite
Chemical weathering carries elements to the ocean. Fe is at once
precipitated; much of Mg and Na are taken up by the oceanic crust. Al
is kept in clay minerals. This leaves Si, Ca as important elements which
are involved in modern biogeochemical cycles and make up the shells
of diverse organisms that form in the ocean and whose precipitation
leads to chert (in the case of SiO2) and carbonates (in case of CaCO3).
Let us take a Ca & Si constituting-mineral wollastonite (CaSiO3)
Erosion of CaSiO3 (wollastonite) by interaction with H2O and CO2 form
dissolved ions of Ca 2+ and HCO3- & H2SiO4o (neutral silicate), as per
reaction:
CaSiO3 + 3 H2O + 2 CO2 = Ca 2+ + 2 HCO3- + H4 SiO4o
These ions percolate through soil to a nearby stream and eventually to
the sea.
In the modern ocean, organisms use these constituents to manufacture
their shells.
Prior to the evolution of shell-forming organisms, CaCO3 could
precipitated directly from seawater, inorganically:
Ca 2+ + 2HCO3 →CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O
Silica can also be precipitated as opal by the reaction:
H4 SiO4o →SiO2 + 2H2O
The calcite and opal hard parts fall to the sea floor to contribute to the
sediment accumulation on the oceanic plate which on subduction gives
rise to wollastonite from reaction of
CaCO3 + opal (SiO2) →CaSiO3 + CO2
The CaSiO3 is returned to the Earth and the CO2 rises to the surface in
island arc volcanism.
This cycle called plate tectonic cycle is continuous and acts in
controlling the CO2 in solid, liquid and gas.
Faster erosion would trap more carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air.
Consequently, temperature would fall, permitting the young
mountains to become the site for the glaciers. When glaciations grow as
a result of reduced CO2 in the Earth environment, the oceans shrink.
The smaller volume of ocean water releases CO2 in the atmosphere. As
a result, CO2 becomes more in atmosphere and the Earth temperature
rises and the ice melts away. The oceans regain the previous volume
and re-absorb the CO2 they had released. Result is that a new glacial
epoch begins. If no glaciations after mountain building, it implies a
balance between volcanic CO2 and consumed CO2 in weathering. Both
the atmosphere and the ocean continuously exchange CO 2 with rocks
and with living organisms. But when there is huge underwater
volcanism as happened about 100 million years ago when sea floor
spreading was faster, the extra volume of young hot rock on the ocean
floor displaced the ocean waters so that they flooded the continents,
thereby reducing the area of the rock available for weathering. If there
is excess CO2, it is added to the ocean water. The excess CO2 in ocean
water is balanced by precipitation of calcite by chemical process given
below:
H2O + CO2 = H2CO3 = HCO3 + H+

Ca2+ + 2HCO3 →CaCO3 + 2H+ (carbonate precipitation with high pH

of ocean water)
So long as the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere-ocean system
remains unchanged, cycle of temperature oscillations will tend to
repeat itself.
The interaction and near equilibrium between the past atmosphere,
ocean and lithosphere was interrupted with the arrival of plants, about
3.5 billion years ago. The biosphere acted as a sink of CO2 whose
supplier has been the volcanic activity. Flourishing vegetation was
responsible to take up huge CO2, giving oxygen by photosynthesis. In
photosynthesis the plants and algae absorb light which (in the form of
energy) is stored by a chemical called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in
plants. The solar energy is absorbed by a pigment called chlorophyll.
This pigment absorbs most of the light, except green which is reflected
and we see the plants green. The light absorbed in day time and the
energy stored in the ATP is used to turn water (which the plants draw
from roots) and CO2 (from the atmosphere) into carbohydrates/
organic compounds and release oxygen into the atmosphere. The
reaction is:
H2O + CO2 +sunlight →CH2O + O2
Plants borrow several billion tons of CO2 for photosynthesis, but when
plants formed coal, as in Carboniferous Period, CO2 was withdrawn
from atmosphere, causing reduction of Earth's temperature. That is
why we had large glaciations in the following Permian Period.
When plants in poorly drained areas (called Bogs) die, they
decompose. Overtime this plant material is compressed by weight of
water and sediments that accumulate. This gives rise to the formation
of peat—a light spongy material which has been used for thousands of
years by human. When peat is compressed, the next stage is lignite
which is a soft, brown, low-grade coal with approximately 1% sulphur,
hence insufficient for fuel. On further compression, we get bituminous
coal and when more pressure along with elevated temperature we get
anthracite which has more than 95% carbon content.
When the dead and decaying plant organisms were buried beneath
layers of clay and mud, we get lignite oil, called crude oil. The crude oil
when pumped out to surface it is used for producing petroleum
products such as gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene. Natural gas forms
along with oil and is found beneath solid rock layers that prevent the
gas to escape to the surface. Crude oil and natural gas migrate and get
accumulate in permeable (pore containing) sedimentary rocks such as
sandstones, limestones. Being less dense than water, oil and gas rise
until they reach a barrier of impermeable rocks such as slate or shale
that serve as trap rock. Geologic structures such as faults and folds can
also trap petroleum. Some petroleum resources are trapped in a fine
grained rock called oil shale that contains waxy mixture of
hydrocarbon compounds, called kerogene. So kerogene is vaporized
by crushing and heating oil shale and collected as shale oil. In brief,
incomplete decomposition of plants and other organic matter over
geological time gave rise to peat and other fossil fuels---coal, oil, and
natural gas. These energy sources are non-renewable because their
formation occurs over thousands or millions of years.
Thus we notice that when plants flourished the exchange of CO2
occurred not only between the atmosphere and the ocean and rocks but
also with plants. In this exchange the atmosphere and ocean gain CO2
from the volcanic activity and from the respiration and decay of plants,
whereas they lose CO2 to weathering of rocks and photosynthesis of
plants. As these processes change place, the content of CO2 in the
atmosphere also changes, shifting the radiation balance and raising or
lowering the Earth's temperature.
It also seems possible that in early geological time volcano was
obviously the source of CO2 while carbonate precipitation was the
main sink of CO2, together with weathering of rocks. And it is possible
that this feedback system would have brought the cycle back to normal
state.
5.4 Human and Environment
Until the beginning of the Anthropocene period, the period when man
arrived on the Earth, the Earth systems were all natural. Birds and
animals have been living in a balance with their immediate
environment. We can appreciate this balance when we are told that
lion, called the king of jungle, kills only one cattle from the herd of deer
or buffalo or zebra as a meal for self and his/her own family. However,
humans have an unequal capacity to modify the Earth's environment
in which they live. Man started using the natural systems for its
consumption at faster rate and by his clever technology, influencing
the planet and its four interconnected spheres. Think how much
pressure the 7 billion humans are giving to the Earth's natural
resources. We are demanding more and more land surface, water,
minerals, oils and other resources which are likely to exhaust in a few
years time from now. The present human population of 7 billion is
expected to grow for another 50 years at its current rate. With the
increasing population, demands for natural resources will also
continue to increase. Whatever humans use for their need all are
derived from land resources. To extract these land resources (Cu, Fe,
Ag etc) from Earth, mining techniques disturb Earth's surfaces, causing
groundwater pollution, and destroy quality of air we breathe.
Similarly urban development is also responsible for creating several
environmental problems such as reduction of agricultural land, waste
disposal, particularly those produced by industries. Heavy metals
such as lead (Pb), mercury (Hg) and poisonous chemicals such as
arsenic (As) are by products of many industrial processes. These
products pollute the groundwater, affecting human health. Again,
when fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) are burnt for energy, gases such as CO2
and some particles are released to Earth's atmosphere. The global effect
of this pollution is ozone depletion, global warming and acid rain.
Since 1970, ozone is found to decrease by several percent, although the
total amount of ozone in the atmosphere varies with location. Ozone
layer in the stratosphere serves as a protective shield because it filters
UV radiation which is harmful to eye, skin and even crop yields. Its
main cause is the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which is the result of
human activity. Ozone is low at the equator and highest in the Polar
Regions. The lowest ozone amounts have been found over Antarctic.
This is called Antarctic ozone hole. Because of this decreasing ozone an
International agreement was adopted under Montreal Protocol in
1987, agreed by all countries to phase out the production and use of
CFCs and similar chemicals. Consequently levels of chlorine, bromine
and other ozone-destroying chemicals reduced in the stratosphere
since 1990. Thus, ozone depletion is ruled out as a serious cause for
temperature variations of the Earth's surface.
5.5 Global Warming
Global warming is synonymous to Climate change but scientists prefer
to use climate change which our planet Earth is “seeing” since its
presence and humans experiencing it since their appearance and
especially since the time of Industrial revolution. Climate is an average
of weather over a period of some years.
Earth's environment in a simple language is Ecology. It is a
multidisciplinary field that explores dynamics or interaction between
Earth system—land, water, air and organisms (flora, fauna and
humans). Thus, Earth's environment can be understood only by Earth
system sciences which integrates physical, biological and informatics
sciences (forests, energy, mining etc.). Earth's Environment has not
been constant since life appeared.
Realizing that Earth's surface temperature varies from place to place,
Scientists measured temperatures over a specific time period of 100
years. These measurements show that the average annual global
temperature has increased by 0.6oC. This increase in average global
temperature is called global warming. Average temperature data
came from measurements on land and sea, historical records,
particularly from ice cores, sediments cores from Lake Bottom, and
biological material such as tree rings, pollens, plant/animal fossils,
insects, diatoms, and corals. These are called proxy data to
paleoclimate, since they provide a wealth of information for past
climates. Increase of greenhouse gases could increase the amount of
energy that Earth absorbs
Data from mid 19th century until 2010 showed that the concentration of
CO2 in atmosphere has risen by the amount of 100 ppm (about 35%).
The CO2 measurement was taken at Muon Lova in Hawaii, a place far
away from pollution. This is the time (post industrial revolution) when
humans began burning fossil fuels, although other factors such as solar
variations and volcanic eruptions could also cause global temperature
to change.
Some scientists adopted another methodology to see if global warming
is taking place in reality. In the US, the National Climate Data Center
(www.ncdc.noaa.gov) collected data to produce average temperatures
for the land, the ocean and the two combined for period from 1880 to
2010. The data indicated an average temperature rise of about 1.4oC
over this period of time for the land but somewhat less for the oceans.
So, there is a debate whether global warming is due to human-caused
greenhouse gases or natural causes or both.
Computer climate models calculate the average global temperature
that would result from various changes. The best agreement with
temperature data comes when greenhouse gas changes and natural
causes are used to calculate average global temperature, suggesting
that natural changes and greenhouse gas together are responsible for
the observed current temperature change. Although natural sources of
CO2 (volcanic eruption, solar activity and air movements) remained
beyond human control, production of greenhouse gases by human
activity (by burning coal, oil etc.) needs to be reduced to a minimum.
On this consideration the UN sponsored agreement, called Kyoto
Protocol was ratified by nearly all nations who agreed to cut the CO2
gas emission. Accordingly, nations began to change technology and
lifestyle for this treaty to be effective.
Some scientists consider that there is no global warming. They argue in
a different way. Since 70% Earth's surface is water, so with hotter
environment more sea-water turns into water vapour which itself is a
greenhouse gas. This water vapour would form clouds which in turn
reflect sun's radiation away and thus reducing surface temperature.
Non-believer in global warming further argue that coal burning in
industries produces aerosols (atmospheric clouds of tiny particles of
pollution) that would also reflect solar energy back into space.
Furthermore, some of the carbon entering the atmosphere will yield
more luxuriant plant life, and also more limestone deposits in the
ocean. This means that with more CO2 production there will be
concurrent CO2 sink in plants, oceans and weathering of rocks.
Whether Global warming is entirely due to human activities or due to
natural activities is indeed difficult to resolve. Global warming is really
a difficult matter to resolve. It is indeed a complex system and does not
seem to be related to specific events. Surely there would be still cold
winters and summers and a single storm can give unexpected climate
fluctuations.
In 1960s, James Lovelock, a British chemist advanced an idea which he
called Gaia theory, named after Greek Goddess of Earth. According to
this theory, the Earth is a self regulating system in which living
organisms regulate the climate and the chemistry of the atmosphere in
their own interest. Since billion years the amount of oxygen is
maintained at 21% in the atmosphere just in the interest of the land
plants and animals. Similarly near constancy of 3.4 % salinity in ocean
water is also maintained by the marine life in their own interest.
According to Lovelock, the rate of erosion of rocks would accelerate by
a factor of several hundred in the environment where life is present.
According to Lovelock, this is the reason why Earth's atmosphere has
very low concentration of CO2 as compared to that of Mars where life is
not present. Mars environment consists of mainly CO2 and N2. By
contrast, Earth's atmosphere contains both O2 and CH4 that are
produced continuously by living organisms, although the two gases
show reactions between them. Hence, by measuring the atmospheric
gases, Gaia theory enables us to know whether a planet, like our Earth
has life. Lovelock thus suggests that we can avoid huge expenditures
on space probes that are meant to detect life on a planet. Lovelock
opines that the atmosphere is a complex system and is created by life.
Lovelock and his US collaborator, a noted biologist named Lynn
Margulis, think that temperature is one of the most vital parameters on
the Earth to support life. Linked with temperature is the formation of
cloud which, if abundant, would reflect more solar energy back into
space. Lovelock pointed out that a chemical, called dimethyl sulphide
emitted by algae encourages cloud formation by creating aerosols of
small particles on which water vapour can condense. So the hotter the
environment becomes, the more is the algae. Consequently, there
would be more clouds and hence a cooler Earth. But if the Earth cools,
there are a few algae and hence scanty clouds. The result is rising of
temperature. This makes the whole system self regulating to keep the
temperature level. Lovelock argues that if there were no such
adjustment between algae and Earth's surface temperature, mammals
would not have evolved. It is in the interest of the life that the Earth
keeps balance between biotic and abiotic systems. It is the Gaia theory
which explains when ice ages start and when stop in accordance with
the period when the Earth gets too cold and when the Earth gets too
hot. Lovelock's Gaia theory however, does not allow that we do
whatever we like with the Earth's environment. It is very risky to pump
a vast amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere or to remove a
large part of the tropical forest. It takes a long time to recover from any
environmental damage by human or by natural processes.
It is the unusual environment that led to mass extinctions in the
geological past by natural phenomenon and not by human who
appeared very late on the Earth. The most famous mass extinction
occurred at the end of Cretaceous when dinosaurs disappeared from
the Earth. This period is also known for the extinction of fishes, and
many plants and animals. Several hypotheses were advanced for the
extinction of these species. Some suggested that extinction was due to
the asteroid impact but then we must have data favouring global
warming at this period. And it is a big question as to how an
asteroid/meteorite fall in Arizona could kill the dinosaurs of Europe or
far located Asia or Australia. Another theory is the volcanic eruption,
both on land and undersea, whereby enormous input of volcanic ash,
gases etc. in the atmosphere disallowed the Sun's rays to reach the
Earth. But here again we do not have climatic data to support cooling
of the Earth to support extinction by volcanic eruption. Another
possible reason for mass extinction is the plate tectonics and sudden
change in shape and size of the oceans Continents movement brought
changes not only in distribution patterns of sedimentation but altered
path of ocean currents, resulting into changes of temperatures on land
and near land masses. During the ocean reshuffling, methane as a
greenhouse gas may have released into atmosphere from methane
hydrate that long ago rested on the ocean floor. Billions of tons of
methane hydrate, often in the form of clathrates in ocean, remain stable
in cold under pressure. Methane is held in the molecular structure in
ice crystals at oceanic depths. But a change in ocean temperature could
have liberated much methane as greenhouse gas in atmosphere,
leading to mass extinction, particularly of the Permian (250 Ma ago).
But scientists need to collect data for this hypothesis. Whatever reasons
of mass extinction are, humans have to be careful to protect their
environment to keep the Earth a pollution free planet for survival of all
living organisms. Global warming has serious consequences for the
living organisms as it would cause melting of glaciers and in turn
would result in sea level rise, affecting vast populations of plants and
animals with whom humans share the Earth.
If the emissions of greenhouse gases are threat to global warming, the
humans can solve the problem by adopting many useful methods and
technology at individual, local or government level. Some of these are
enumerated below:
(i) Humans must use biodegradable products
(ii) Stop deforestation
(iii) Use energy efficient appliances
(iv) Manage better waste disposal methods such as composing
kitchen scrap, grow small gardens, reject plastic bags for grocery
and vegetable etc.
(v) Adopt energy-efficient technology e.g. increasing vehicle fuel
efficiency, install energy efficient lights, improve efficiency of
coal-fired power plants.
(vi) Adopt renewable energy and alternative energy resources other
than fossil fuels, as mentioned below.
(vii) 5.6 Renewable energy
Because of the environmental pollution and global warming, humans
have to adopt alternative energy resources, mentioned below.
1. Solar energy: is freely available and does not cause pollution.
Solar energy can be used through passive solar heating, Here solar
energy is trapped in materials and slowly released for heating.
Active solar heating includes collectors such as solar panels that
absorb solar energy for heating. Solar energy can be converted
into electric energy by using photovoltaic cell (briefly PVs), made
up of two types of silicon which absorb solar energy that strikes
the layers. The PVs cells get their name from the fact that photons
(light) interact with the cells to flow electron to metal plates,
producing voltage. Thus solar cells directly convert solar energy
to electricity. Solar energy has greatest potential for technology
breakthrough and most suitable for countries located near
Equator.
2. Hydroelectric power: Here we convert the energy of free-falling
water to electricity. It needs construction of a dam across a large
river to create a reservoir. The stored water in reservoir is allowed
to flow through pipes at controlled rates and a turbine is made to
rotate to produce electricity. Scientists are also thinking of
harnessing energy associated with ocean waves.
3. Geothermal energy: This energy originates from Earth's internal
heat. The steam produced from water heated by hot magma
beneath Earth's surface can be used to turn turbines and generate
electricity. Even hot water escaping from Earth's interior can also
be used for geothermal energy.
4. Wind energy: is clearly a renewable energy source. Power plants
are called Wind turbines. Wind is kinetic energy. Rotation of
turbine blades by blowing wind coverts wind energy to
mechanical energy which again is converted to electricity by a
generator sitting inside the hub of the structure. This conversion
of wind energy into electrical energy through wind turbines, is
loosely called Windmills.
5. Nuclear energy: Here we use the energy released from nuclear
fission in which atom with heavy nucleus, e.g. Uranium divides to
form smaller nuclei and one or two neutrons. In this process a
large amount of energy is released. Scientists suggest that nuclear
energy could produce electricity at much lower cost than coal and
other fossil fuels. Nuclear energy does not produce CO2 or any
other greenhouse gases. But hazards of nuclear power plants pose
a great danger.
6. Biofuels: can provide renewable energy from biomass fuels such
as wood, dried field crops and fecal material from animals. If
crops such as barley, wheat, sugarcane and corn are fermented,
we get Ethanol liquid which can be blended with gasoline and can
be used in cars and other vehicles. But corn for biofuels competes
with food, while sugarcane field demands large areas and thus
there is a fear of forest cuts and destruction of habitat.
Although solar energy, wind energy are pollution free and renewable,
but they have their associated problems Right now, solar power costs
more than other forms of energy because solar cells are costly and do
not last forever. Also, installation costs are appreciably high.
Moreover, storage requires battery storage technology and smarter
software to enable electricity grids to cope up with this new source of
energy. Wind energy, like biofules and other renewable source, cannot
be a base load energy source. Wind turbines cannot be placed too close
as they decrease wind velocity, besides destroying wilderness area and
unfriendly for aviation life and marine animals. Nuclear energy is good
for power but fear of accidents, waste storage problem and high cost of
operation is not favoured by mot nations. Nuclear proliferations and
terrorist's threat are other reasons. Lastly, these renewable sources of
energy do not contribute more 5% of all the energy requirements.
5.7 CO2 sequestration and storage
Until such time that Nations switch on completely on the renewable
energy sources, we need to develop newer technology to reduce CO2
emission. Instead of burning the coal in atmospheric oxygen, steam
should be allowed to run over coal during coal gasification to produce
CO + H2 (coal + H2O →CO + H2). The CO is then oxidized to CO2 and the
H2 is fed to an electric-generating fuel cell (i.e. flow through a battery).
Such plants can be modified to CO2 capture. The captured CO2 could
either be into a CO2-absorbving liquid such as Ca(OH)2 or onto a
chemical receptor able to capture CO2. Once CO2 is captured then we
can do one of the following:
I. Deep Storage: Since the deep ocean water hardly absorbs CO2 as it
is very slowly replaced by surface water which equilibrates with
atmosphere, we can think of pumping liquid CO2 directly into
deep seat at depths more than3500 meters so that liquid CO2
would sink to the ocean floor. Because of cold conditions and high
pressure prevailing at these depths, liquid CO2 would combine
 with H2O to form a solid substance called clathrate (C6H12O18),
piling up on the ocean floor.
II. Storage in Polar ice caps: Antarctica's ice caps are underlain by
hundreds of lakes. These lakes form because of Earth's internal
heat that diffuses upward from beneath, warming the basal ice at
places. When we pump liquid CO2 through ice into the lakes, the
liquid CO2 would react with lake water to form clathrate, which
would sink into the lake bottom. This process is feasible in Polar
Regions.
III. Storage in Deep sediments: In deep sediments deposited in the
basins, the pores filled with salty waters, known as brines. We can
pump liquid CO2 into these salty pores which will remain for very
long time. Unlike the deep oceans, these brines are too warm for
clathrates to form and the pumped liquid CO2 would remain in
the pores without forming clathrates. As India has a large coast
line, we can think of storage in deep sea sediments for CO2 storage.
IV. Conversion to Magnesite: The ultramafic rocks (e.g. dunites) can
be ground up and mixed at high T with CO2 to form magnesite—a
tough and resistant carbonate mineral, according to the reaction:
Mg2SiO4 + CO2 = 2MgCO3 + SiO2
We can also inject CO2 into the cracks of ultramafic rocks in the mantle.
All these storage technique are not without engineering challenges &
environmental impacts.
Chemical Technology to control CO2 emissions
1. Recently Indian chemical engineers developed an industrial plant
to capture the CO2 emitted from a coal boiler at Tuticorin in Tamil
Nadu, India. It is a world first plant which turned CO2 into baking
powder (NaHCO3). The plant operates a coal-fired boiler. CO2
emission from the boiler's chimney are stripped out by a fine mist
of a new patented chemical. The stream of CO2 is then fed into the
chemical plant that uses salt (NaCl) to bond with CO2 molecules in
the boiler chimney, making baking powder (NAHCO3) and other
compounds with many uses, including manufacturing of glass,
detergents and sweeteners.. The baking powder as a weak base of
white colour is used in deodorizing shoes, refrigerators etc.
The project saves 60,000 tones of CO2 emissions a year by
 incorporating them into the recipes of baking soda and other
chemicals.
2. Conversion of CO2 into renewable fuel called methanol
In March 2019, Indian engineers (Breathe, P Segbastian, U.
Waghmare and Rokshit Raghvan Belur) converted CO2 to
renewable fuel methanol so as to cut down the impact of
greenhouse gas emission. The research team participated in the
NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize Competition who converted CO2 into
methanol according to the reaction CO2 + 4H = CH3OH (or CH4O)
+O
In theory, CO2 is mingled with H, and by using some catalyst to bring
about the process economically and efficiently the process yielded
methanol, used as a clean source of energy useful for transport and to
form acetic acid and formaldehyde used in industrial process.
Postscript
Until solar energy is affordable for which a breakthrough in energy
storage technology is required, India is forced to use nuclear energy,
depending on the easy import of nuclear fuel. If India, with its
sufficient coal reserves and its established thermal power plants, needs
to continue its fossil fuels as the dominant energy market, provided it
develops further technology for reducing CO2 emission. If fossil fuel
has to continue to dominate the energy market, liquid CO2 would have
to be disposed, although it would raise the cost of fossil fuel energy in
coming years. If we shut our thermal plants out of the fear of CO2
emission, but the emission will still continue to a notable amount from
the natural burning of underground coal seams. As a geoscientist we
know that Models of estimating climate change are complex and
imperfect. More than 20 climate models have been attempted but some
parameters like energy reflection/absorption by clouds could not be
incorporated. Furthermore, in nearly all climatic models an estimation
could not be made as to how much ozone layer is responsible for the
present global warming.
The same computer simulations that provide magnitude of the
warming also suggests that as Earth warms, rainfall will be more and
even more strongly focused on tropics. It should surprise every
scientist why politicians-economists blame CO2 alone when H2O
exceeds several times as a greenhouse gas than CO2 in the atmosphere.
Our planning is always short duration, 4-5 years, to “solve” any global
problem due to our political system. Some countries once supporting
thermal energy reduction reverse their stand with change of regime.

References
Gerlach, T.M. (2011). Volcanic versus anthropogenic carbon dioxide. EOS,
Trans. AGU, v.92, No.24, pp.201-202.
Gutenberg, B. (1912). Die seismische Bodenunruhe. Dissertation for Ph.D.
submitted to University of Gottingen, Germany.
Hess, H.H. (1962). History of ocean basins. In: Engel, AEJ; James, H.L. and
Leonoard B.F. (Eds.), Petrologic Studies: A volume to honour A.F. Buddington.
Geol. Soc. Am. 599-620.
Ince Martin (2007). 2007). The rough guide to The Earth. Publisher Rough
guide, 304p.
Inge, Lehman (1936). Discovery of Earth's inner core. Publ. Int. Geodesy
Geophys. Union Assoc. Seismologist, Ser A, Trav. Sci, 14, pp.87-115.
Isaac, B., Oliver, J. and Sykes, L.R. (1968). Seismology and the new global
tectonics. J. Geophys. Res. v.73, pp.5855-5899.
Lovelock, J.F. (1972). Gaia as seen through the atmosphere. Atm. Environment,
v.6, pp.579-580.
Mohorovicic, A. (1910). Das Baben vom 8, X, 1909. Jb. Meteorolog.
Observatoriums in Zagreb (Agram), fuer das Jahr 1909, v.9, part 4, Section 1,
pp.1-63.
Oldham, R.D. (1989). Report on the Great Earthquake of 12 June 1897. Mem.
Geol. Surv. India, Calcutta, v.29, 379p.
Sharma, R.S. (2012). Has Earth science been ignored? Curr. Sci., v.103, Nr.3,
p.256.
Sevensen, H., Planke, S. Chevallier, L., Malthe-Sorensen, A., Corfu, B. and
Jamtveit, B. (2007). Hydrothermal venting of greenhouse gases triggering
Early Jurassic global warming. Earth Planet Sci. Lett., v.261, pp.375-388.
Tyndall, J. (1861). On the absorption and radiation of heat by gases and
vapours, and on the physical connections of radiation, absorption and
conduction. Phil. Mag. Ser., 4, v.22, pp.169=194 & 273-285.
Wegener, A. (!912). Die Entstehung der Kontinente. Geol. Rdsch., v.3, pp.276-
292.