The document discusses the formation of the solar system and Earth. It describes how gas and dust clouds condensed and particles stuck together, growing in size through collisions to form planetesimals and eventually planets through giant impacts over millions of years. The Earth's composition is related to that of the solar nebula from which it formed.
The document discusses the formation of the solar system and Earth. It describes how gas and dust clouds condensed and particles stuck together, growing in size through collisions to form planetesimals and eventually planets through giant impacts over millions of years. The Earth's composition is related to that of the solar nebula from which it formed.
The document discusses the formation of the solar system and Earth. It describes how gas and dust clouds condensed and particles stuck together, growing in size through collisions to form planetesimals and eventually planets through giant impacts over millions of years. The Earth's composition is related to that of the solar nebula from which it formed.
The document discusses the formation of the solar system and Earth. It describes how gas and dust clouds condensed and particles stuck together, growing in size through collisions to form planetesimals and eventually planets through giant impacts over millions of years. The Earth's composition is related to that of the solar nebula from which it formed.
While seismic refraction data can inform us of both the depth of
Discontinuities in the Earth and the variation in seismic velocities
with depth to good accuracy, It is difficult to extract the density from seismic velocity alone. The velocity equation for P and S waves also other variable K and μ, so no unique solution.
Hence there is no unique solution.
It still requires K In 1923, Two geophysicist Adams and Williamsons formulated another Equation that eliminated K....considering how gravity and density would Change as a result of the mass of the overlying layers,,,,self compression The integration begins at the top of the mantle by Based on a density of 3200 kg/m3....taken from occasional Mantle samples found at the Earth’s surface.
Choosing a density for the core is more hit-and-miss...
However, constraint is that total mass cannot exceed the
Known mass of the Earth, density variation through the Core can be determined with a degree of certainty. EARTH REFERENCE MODEL The density of the continents is lower than that of the oceanic Crust – 2600-2800 kg/m3 for continent.... 2800-3000 kg/m3 for oceanic crust.
Crust-mantle---boundary....called as Mohorovicic discontinuity....Moho..
Region beneath the Moho and down to 220 km referred as Low velocity zone.
In 220-400 km, velocity increases smoothly and then hits
2 discontinuity at 410 km and 670 km...known as Mantle transition zone This is a region within the mantle where the crystal structure of The constituent minerals olivine and pyroxene are transformed Into a dense mineral known as perovskite. D’ denotes 670-2700 km D’’ denotes 2700-2900 km
D’’ is marked by reduced velocity gradients compared
With the monotonic increase in seismic velocity through D’.
Core is distinguished from the lower mantle by the
Gutenberg discontinuity, named after its discoverer. The Sun, Meteorites and bulk composition of the Earth
How the planet formed initially?
Solar system includes- asteroids, comets and planetary
satellites. 2 types of planets- 1. Terrestrial planets, small rocky bodies orbiting close to the SUN (e.g Earth) 2. Gas giants- follow more distant orbits in the colder outer reaches of the Solar system. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, and remains in operation. With a 2.4-meter (7.9 ft) mirror, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra. The telescope is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble. To get some idea of the scale of the gas clouds, you See in the diagram, individual columns are up to 4 light-years Long and emerge from an even larger and more diffuse cloud of gas and dust.
Small globules protruding from the
Ends of the gas ‘fingers’ that have Been dubbed evaporating gaseous Globules (EGGs) within which the Density of the gas has increased to Such an extent that the cloud is Locally collapsing to form a star. These EGGs are roughly the size of Our Solar System. Formation of the Solar System It all started around 4.6 Ga.
1. Condensation of the solar nebula and accretion
Gravitational collapse of an interstellar dust cloud dominated
By Hydrogen and Helium, traces of metallic and silicate dust, H2O, CH4, NH3....
Once the sun started to shine, the heat vaporised most of the Dust and ices and the vapour was transported further away From the Sun by the early intense solar wind.
Condensed particle of dust stick together ....it took ~10,000 years
In the inner orbits, these clumps would have been dominated By silicates and metal, their composition is preserved in the most Primitive of the chondritic meteorites... 2. Formation of Planetesimals and development of planetary embroys
Particle collision continued increasing the size of clumps
Producing a profusion of bodies ranging in size from 0.1 to 10 km in diameter, termed planetismals (tiny planets)
Slowly during accretion, larger bodies would begin to heat up
Because of the release of kinetic energy as smaller bodies impacted.
It is estimated that the planetary embryos (up to A few thousand km
in size) would have swept up any remaining planetismals within a few thousand years. 3. Planetary Embryos, giant impacts and assembly of a planet Next stage of growth would have been slower. Giant impacts between 2 embryos probably fragmented both Of the impacted bodies with the debris subsequently recombining To form a new, larger body.
The heat released was enough to melt the newly combined mass Creating a molten mantle of silicate material known as magma Ocean. Metallic material sank through the magma ocean and formed A dense metallic core, producing a differentiated planetary embryo. Completion of a terrestrial planet formation Giants impacts would have continued to take place and it Might have taken 10 Ma for the terrestrial planet to reach Half of the size and about 100 Ma to reach and build an Earth sized planet.
Once the last giant impact had occurred to form Moon.....
Of course accretion continues...
but too small to be noticeable. Even today,,,accretion rate to the Earth today, including dust Particles is ~10*7 kg/y. So,,,overall, we see that following steps involved During planet formation
-Condensation of gas to form dust particles
-Accretion of dust to form planetismals -Larger collisions between planetismals to form planetary embryos -planetary embryos with giant impacts made planets
The composition of the Earth is related to the composition
Of Solar Nebula, as most of the material from the solar Nebula condensed to form the Sun, the composition of the Earth is also related to that of the Sun.
