9/10/2015

Origin and Evolution of Earth

Dr. Muhammad Azeem

Course: Environmental Chemistry

Beginning of universe

• “Big Bang” the origin of today’s universe.

• Estimated age of universe 12-14 billion years

• Just before Big Bang, all the matter and energy of the universe would
have been compressed into an enormously dense, hot volume a few
millimeters across.
• time of the Big Bang can be estimated by the back-calculation of the
universe’s expansion to its apparent beginning.

Quran Kareem ruling about the beginning of universe

• Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth
were of one piece, then We parted them, and we made every living
thing of water? Will they not then believe? (Al-Quran 21/ 30)

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Formation of our solar system

Our sun and its system of circling planets are believed to have formed
from a rotating cloud of gas and dust (small bits of rock and metal), some
of the gas debris from older stars.

Age of Earth is 4.5 billion years

solar system formed as dust condensed from the gaseous nebula, then clumped together to make plane

Composition of planets depends upon their distance to the sun

• The planets formed nearest to the sun contained mainly metallic iron
and a few minerals with very high melting temperatures, with little water
or gas.
• Bit far from the sun where temperatures were rather lower, the
developing planets incorporated much larger amounts of lower-
temperature minerals, including some that contain water locked within
their crystal structures.
• Very far from the sun, temperatures were so low that nearly all of the
materials in the original gas cloud condensed—even materials like
methane and ammonia.

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Earth Formation

• Earth formed by accretion, gravity collected together the solid particles

that had condensed from the solar nebula (the disc-shaped cloud of gas
and dust left over from the Sun's formation).

• The planet was heated by the impact of the colliding dust particles and
meteorites as they came together to form the earth, and by the energy
release from decay of the small amounts of several naturally radioactive
elements that the earth contains.

• The heat sources combined to raise the earth’s internal temperature

enough that parts of earth eventually melted and dense materials, like
metallic iron, would have tended to sink toward the middle of the earth.

• As cooling of earth progressed, lighter and low-density minerals

crystallized and floated out toward the surface.

• Earth differentiated into several major compositional zones: the central

core; the surrounding mantle ; and a thin crust at the surface.

Earth’s core is made up mostly of iron, with some nickel and a few minor
elements; the outer core is molten, the inner core solid.
The mantle consists mainly of iron, magnesium, silicon, and oxygen
combined in varying proportions in several different minerals.
The earth’s crust is much more varied in composition and very different
chemically from the average composition of the earth

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Most Common Chemical Elements in the Earth

Formation of oceans
• Many minerals that had contained water or gases in their crystals
released them during the heating and melting, and as the earth’s
surface cooled, the water could condense to form the oceans.
• Water was brought to earth by comets and asteroids condensed into
clouds and the oceans took shape.

Formation of atmosphere
• Volcanic outgassing likely created the atmosphere, It probably
consisted dominantly of nitrogen and carbon dioxide with minor
amounts of methane and ammonia but it contained almost no oxygen
and would have been toxic to humans and most modern life.

Moon
• One very large collision is thought to have been responsible for tilting
the Earth at an angle and forming the Moon.

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Structure of Earth

Lithosphere
• The lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a
rocky planet. On Earth, it comprises the crust and the
portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically.
• The lithosphere varies in thickness from place to place
on the earth. It is thinnest underneath the oceans,
where it extends to a depth of about 50 km. The
maximum thickness of lithosphere under the
continents is about 250 km.
• The lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates.
• The volcanoes and earthquakes are concentrated at
the boundaries of these lithospheric plates, where
plates jostle or scrape against each other

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Asthenosphere
• The layer below the lithosphere is the asthenosphere. It is the highly
viscous, mechanically weak and ductilely-deforming region of the
upper mantle of the Earth.
• The asthenosphere extends to an average depth of about 300
kilometers in the mantle.
• Its lack of strength or rigidity results from a combination of high
temperatures and moderate confining pressures that allows the rock
to flow plastically under stress
• Seismic waves pass relatively slowly through the asthenosphere
compared to rigid lithosphere

• Biological and geological change has been

constantly occurring on our planet since
the time of its formation.
• The process of plate tectonics has played
a major role in the shaping of Earth's
oceans and continents, as well as the life
they harbor.
• Organisms continuously evolve, taking on
new forms or going extinct in response to
an ever-changing planet.

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Reference

Carla W. Montgomery (2011) Environmental Geology, McGraw Hills

Inc., New York

Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth

Atmosphere, Hydrosphere,
Biosphere

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• Earth was finally hospitable to life, and the earliest forms arose that
enriched the atmosphere with oxygen (mainly single-celled blue
green algae)
• Life on Earth remained small and microscopic for at least one billion
years.
• about 550 million years ago, marine animals with shells had become
widespread.
• Early land plants developed, before 400 million years ago.
• Insects appeared approximately 300 million years ago.
• The dinosaurs appeared about 200 million years ago and the first
mammals at nearly the same time.
• by 100 million years ago, both birds and mammals were well
established.
• Around six million years ago, the primate lineage that would lead
to chimpanzees (our closest living relatives) diverged from the
lineage that would lead to modern humans.
• Modern, rational humans ( Homo sapiens ) developed only about
half a million years ago.