GEOS 1004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Complex System, Collective Behavior, Geosphere

• School: Virginia Tech
• Department: Geosciences
• Course: GEOS 1004
• Professor: James A. Spotila

Document Summary

Lecture 27: the earth"s surface as a complex system. A complex system consist of numerous interconnected components (parts or processes) that interact with each other, generating a collective behavior that also relates to the outside environment. 2)components are linked, inetconnected *affect each other: intricate, sensitive; *many things can go wrong; small failures can expand. 4)complex; hard to understand *hard to model in a forward, predictive sense. The parts are called (cid:498)spheres(cid:499): atmosphere, hydrosphere, solid earth (geosphere), and biosphere. Spheres interact with each other by exchanging matter and/or energy (e. g. h2o, sediment, carbon, heat). Examples: change in phase (e. g. water), chemical reaction (e. g. Examples: change in phase (e. g. water), chemical reaction (e. g. photosynthesis, weathering), heat transfer (e. g. solar radiation). open as far as energy (e. g. solar radiation). Spheres may be (cid:498)open(cid:499) or (cid:498)closed(cid:499) with respect to what"s outside the system (cid:523)e. g. outer space(cid:524). The earth"s surface is generally closed as far as matter exchange, but.