GEOL 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Polonius, Photosynthesis, Gigantism

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering
• Course: GEOL 106
• Professor: John Hanes

Document Summary

The earth is a set of interacting subsystems. 5 reservoirs of earth system: atmosphere, hydrosphere (water & ice, solid earth (rocks & soil, life (biota, stars and planets. Cycles (e. g. carbon cycle)=a player moving from set to set. Earth system (a set of interacting sub-systems)=the players interacting with each other (the play) Let"s look at examples of the complex earth system by having a preliminary look at some causes of climate change: Look at kingston, on: over the past 2 million years: We look at what the rocks tell us (the rock-record ) To a great extent because of plate tectonics: joined north and south america. Which affected ocean currents: pushed up himalayan mountains which affected, air flow, rates of weathering. The increased weathering provided increased nutrients washed to the sea which dramatically increased the number of marine micro-organisms. The weathering also washes dissolved caco3 to the sea.