The document summarizes key aspects of Earth's structure and systems:
1) It describes Earth's position in the solar system and its internal anatomy.
2) It discusses Earth's orbital changes, axial tilt variations, and their effects on climate and the distribution of daylight.
3) It outlines global wind circulation patterns, ocean currents, and how they redistribute heat and influence weather and climate.
16. Weather and ClimateWeather and Climate
What is weather?What is weather?
What is climate?What is climate?
How do they differ?How do they differ?
• WeatherWeather is the short-term state of the atmosphereis the short-term state of the atmosphere
at a particular place at any given timeat a particular place at any given time
• ClimateClimate is a long-term composite of weatheris a long-term composite of weather
conditions at a particular placeconditions at a particular place
• Short term versus long term---that is how theyShort term versus long term---that is how they
differdiffer
18. 5. Landforms and Surface Processes
• Glaciers
• Mass Wasting
• Streams
• Shorelines
• Deserts
• Groundwater
http://www.berann.com
H.C. Berann (1915-1999)
Yosemite National Park, 1987
19. What drives plate motions
• Forces that drive plate
motion
– Slab-pull
• Cold, dense slabs of
subducted oceanic
lithosphere pull the plate
towards the subduction zone
– Ridge-push
• The higher elevation of
spreading centers result in
oceanic lithosphere wanting
to move “downhill”, away
from the ridge
• Far less important than
slab-pull
– Mantle drag and plate
resistance
• Can act to increase or
decrease plate motion
22. What drives plate motions
• Models of plate-mantle
convection
• Any model must be consistent
with observed physical and
chemical properties of the
mantle
• Horizontal movement of plates
causes mantle upwelling
• Models
– Layering at 660 km
– Explains why basalts
erupted at mid-ocean
ridges are different (more
evolved, relatively shallow
source) compared to those
erupted at hot-spots (more
primitive, deeper source).
– We know that subducting
slabs descend beneath 660
km
23. What drives plate motions
• Whole-mantle convection
– Would mix the entire
mantle in the space of a
few hundred million
years, removing
heterogeneities
24. What drives plate motions
• Deep-layer model
– “Lava lamp model”
– Two layers swell and
shrink in a complex
fashion in response to
heat from the Earth’s
interior
http://www.berann.com Prof. H.C. Berann, the father of the modern panorama map, is renowned throughout the world for his combining old European painting tradition with modern cartography to produce his unique panorama maps.