QUARTER 1

(EARTH and SPACE)

PLATE TECTONICS – CONTINENTAL CRUST AND OCEANIC CRUST

 The Earth’s lithosphere consists of layers, the crust and the upper mantle.
 The crust is made up of variety of solid rocks like sedimentary, metamorphic
and igneous. It is divided into continental crust and oceanic crust.
 The crust is made of a variety of solid rocks. It has an average density
of 2.8 g/cm3. and its thickness ranges from 5 to 50 km. The crust is thickest in
a part where a relatively young mountain is present and thinnest along the
ocean floor.
 There are two kinds of crust: the thicker but less dense continental
crust and the oceanic crust which is relatively thinner but denser that
continental crust.

 CONTINENTAL CRUST – the continental crust is mainly made up of silicon, oxygen and
aluminum, calcium, sodium and potassium. The thickness of the continental crust is mostly
35 - 40 kilometers. Continental crust found under land masses, is made of less dense rocks
called granite.
 OCEANIC CRUST – the oceanic crust is around 5-7 kilometers thick. It is found under the
ocean floor and is made of dene rocks which are basalt. The oceanic crust is heavier than
the continental crust.
The crust consists of two layers. The upper layers are composed of granite and is only
found in continental crust. Below the granite is a layer made mainly of basalt.
This is found on both under the continents and the oceans.

PLATE TECTONICS

 Earth’s plates are large pieces of the lithosphere made of solid rock. They
include oceanic and continental crust. The Earth’s crust is made of pieces of rock called
tectonic plates.
  Plate Tectonics is a theory that suggests that Earth’s crust made up of plates that
interact in various ways.
 There are seven relatively large plates and a number of smaller ones. The plate moves very
slowly and constantly.
 Plates move away from one another (apart), towards each other and sliding
each other.
 The moving lithospheric plates produce earthquakes, volcanoes and other
geologic events and features.
 Lithosphere - the rigid part of the earth; consisting of crust and mantle.
 Plates - a massive irregularly shaped solid rock generally composed of continental and
oceanic crust.
 Plate Tectonics - movement of the crust; a theory explaining the structure of the Earth’s
crust and associated with the movement of the plates.
 Tectonics - a process affecting the structure of the crust; movement

EARTHQUAKE EPICENTERS USING TRIANGULATION METHOD

 Earthquake releases three types of seismic waves; Primary (P-waves), Secondary (S-
waves), and Long Surface Waves (L-waves). The first two travel into the Earth’s interior
while the last one on the surface. These waves travel in different velocities; thus, does not
arrive at a seismic recording station at the same time.
 Earthquake – vibration of earth due to the rapid release of energy.
 Epicenter - is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the
point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
 Primary (P) Wave- the first type of seismic wave to be recorded in a seismic station.
 Secondary (S) Wave- second type of earthquake wave to be recorded in a seismic station.
 Seismic - of, subject to, or caused by an earthquake.
 Seismic Station-a station recording movements of the earth’s surface caused by
earthquakes.
 Seismograph -an apparatus to measure and record vibrations within the earth and of the
ground.
 Triangulation – it is a way of determining something's location using the locations of
other things. It is commonly used by geologists to find the locations of earthquakes.

MAP OF EARTHQUAKE DISTRIBUTION

 Earthquakes are the sudden shaking of the ground caused by the pressure between two
moving tectonic plates. Every day, millions of tiny earthquakes happen but we can only feel
those who are strong enough. Sometimes it can even destroy livelihoods and lives. A
seismograph is an instrument used to record even the tiniest earthquake. If we map
earthquake frequencies and instances, we can see how these are concentrated along
mainland coastlines.
 The shifting of the plates create pressure that is released in the lithosphere in the form of
earthquakes or volcanic activity.
 Areas such as the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean, covering the Southeast Asia, East Asia,
and the western parts of America, along the Indo-Australian plate boundaries, the eastern
side of the Eurasian plate, and the western side of the North American Plate.

 The Philippines located in one of the most active tectonic setting in Asia. Several numbers
of destructive earthquakes have occurred in every part of the country. The Central Luzon
earthquake in 1990 with a magnitude of MS7.6 was the largest seismic event for Philippines
people. Earthquakes in the Philippines could occur along the Philippines trench, the Manila
trench, the Philippine Fault Zone (PFZ), and the Valley Fault System (VFS). The Philippine
trench, built by subduction of the western edge of the Philippine Plate penetrating beneath
the Eurasia plate. This trench is the primary sources of the earthquakes. The very
seismically active Philippines trench extends from south of the Mindanao Island to the
Luzon Island in the north for a distance of about 1400. The Manila Trench is a 1200-km
long subduction zone between the South China Sea and the Northern Philippines plate
which produced several mega earthquakes developed the scenarios of the earthquakes for
tsunami modeling and the seismic event were divided into six fault zones (the earthquake
sources), and the worst case is the earthquake with magnitude of Mw 9.3.
 There are two land sources of the earthquakes for the Philippines which are the
Philippine Fault Zone (PFZ) and the Valley Fault System (VFS). The Philippine Fault
Zone (PFZ) formed because of oblique motion of the Philippines Sea plate relative to the
Eurasia plate.

LET’S MAKE BOUNDARIES - MAP OF ACTIVE VOLCANOES IN THE WORLD

 Many of the world’s active volcanoes are located around the edges of the Pacific Ocean:
West Coast of the Americas; East Coast of Siberia, Japan, the Philippines, and
Indonesia; and is Island chains from New Guinea to New Zealand -the-so-called “Ring
of Fire”.
 Volcano is a mountain where lava comes from magma chamber under the ground. You
also learned to classify volcanoes according to its structure and its activities. We can
classify volcanoes as Active, Dormant and … Though they are known to be
 destructive, there are some benefits that we get from volcanoes, like the existence of
Hawaii Islands and many more.
 The places on Earth where most of the volcanoes were formed mark the
boundaries of each lithospheric plate. Each plate is slowly moving relative to each
other, causing geologic events to happen along their boundaries. Studying plate
boundaries is important because along these boundaries deformation of the
lithosphere is happening. These geologic events have a great impact not only on the
environment but also on us.
 Most of the number of volcanoes can
be seen on the plate boundaries. This happens during collision of two plates. You
will learn more of this on the proceeding modules. If you are also going to notice,
most of the active volcanoes are located on the Ring of Fire. It traces boundaries
between plates like the Pacific, Philippine, Juan de Fuca, Cocos and the Nazca
Plates.

 Countries lying near the plate boundaries are prone to some geologic events
like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions caused by the continuous movement of the
plates. Philippines which lies on the Ring of Fire also has experienced volcanic
eruptions from different Regions and even earthquakes that causes destruction to
the lives of the people and even to its environment.
 One particular danger is pyroclastic flows, avalanches of hot rocks, ash, and
toxic gas that race down slopes at speeds as high as 450 miles an hour.
Similarly, volcanic mudflows called lahars can be very destructive. These fast-flowing
waves of mud and debris can race down a volcano's flanks, burying entire
towns.
 Ash is another volcanic danger. Unlike the soft, fluffy bits of charred wood left
after a campfire, volcanic ash is made of sharp fragments of rocks and volcanic
glass each less than two millimeters across. The ash forms as the gasses within
rising magma expand, shattering the cooling rocks as they burst from the volcano's
mouth. It's not only dangerous to inhale, it's heavy and builds up quickly. Volcanic
 ash can collapse weak structures, cause power outages, and is a challenge to
shovel away post-eruption
 PACIFIC RING OF FIRE - is an arc around the Pacific Ocean where many volcanoes
and the earthquakes formed.

PLATE TECTONICS – MOUNTAIN RANGES OF THE WORLD

 A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills ranged in a line and
connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain
ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arisen from the same
cause.
 Mountain ranges are formed by a variety of geological processes, but most of the
significant ones on Earth are the result of plate tectonics. Mountain ranges are also found
on many planetary mass objects in the solar system and are likely a feature of most
terrestrial planets.
 Most mountain ranges have been formed at convergent boundaries where
two plates move towards each other.
LIST OF MAJOR MOUNTAIN RANGES:
1. The Himalayan Mountain Range

The Himalayas or Himalaya is a form of a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of he
Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. It is a young fold mountain of the tertiary period
which was folded over Tethys Sea due to the intercontinental collision. It extends for about 2500
km between Indus and Brahmaputra gorges from west to east in an arc-shaped manner. It plays
an important role in the determination of the climate of Indian Sub-continent. It has enormous
potential for various metallic minerals like Cobalt, Nickel, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, and Bismuth.
Highest Peak: Mount Everest (8,848 m)

2. The Alps Mountain Range

The Alps Mountain Range is the highest and most extensive mountain range system of Europe,
stretching approximately 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) across eight Alpine countries (from west to
east): France, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia. It plays
an important role in the determination of the climate of Europe.
Highest Peak: Mont Blanc (4,808.73 m)

3. The Atlas Mountains Range

The Atlas Mountains Range stretches around 2,500 km (1,600 mi) through Morocco, Algeria and
Tunisia. It separates the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert and
inhabited by Berber populations. It was formed during the Precambrian period.
Highest Peak: Toubkal (4,167 m)

4. The Andes Mountain Range

The Andes or Andean Mountain Range is the longest continental mountain range in the world,
stretching approximately 7,000 km (4,300 mi). It is formed by a continuous highland along the
western edge of South America
Highest Peak: Aconcagua (6,961m)

5. The Rockies Mountain Range

The Rocky Mountain Range situated in western North America, stretches more than 3,000 miles
(4,800 km) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in
the Southwestern United States. It is protected by public parks and forest lands and is a popular
tourist destination, especially for hiking, camping, mountaineering, fishing, and hunting, mountain
biking, skiing, and snowboarding.
Highest Peak: Mount Elbert (4,401 m)
TYPES OF PLATE BOUNDARIES
 Earth’s surface is dramatically reshaping itself in an endless, slow-motion movement called
plate tectonics.
 Tectonic plates or huge slabs of solid rocks separate, collide, and slide past each other
causing earthquakes, feeding volcanic eruptions, and raising mountains.
 Scientists now have a fairly good understanding of how the plates move and how such
movements relate to earthquake activity.
 Most movement occurs along narrow zones between plates, plate boundaries, where the
results of plate-tectonic forces are most evident.

 Types of plate boundaries:

1. Divergent boundaries -- where new crust is generated as the plates pull away
or separate from each other. Examples: mid ocean ridge, rift valleys

 2. Convergent boundaries -- where crust come together. One crust is destroyed

as it dives under another, known as subduction.
Examples: Marianas trench mountains, volcanoes

 3. Transform boundaries -- where crust is neither produced nor destroyed as the

plates slide horizontally past each other. Example: San Andreas fault

 PLATES MOVE APART: DIVERGENT BOUNDARY

 In Atlantic Ocean, along a global system of mountain ridges, Earth’s plates are growing and
spreading apart. Each year these oceanic spreading ridges erupt more than three times as
much molten rock as do all the volcanoes on land. Magma rises from Earth’s mantle at
spreading ridges and cools on and beneath the ocean floor, adding to the plates on either
side. The growing plates inch away from the ridges—widening ocean basins and rafting
apart entire continents.

 PLATES COME TOGETHER: CONVERGENT BOUNDARY

Where plates come together, or converge, we see plate tectonics. At convergent
margins, continents grow as plates are consumed.

 Three Types of Convergent Boundaries

 1. Convergent boundary between
continental and oceanic crust results to
subduction, volcanoes, and trenches.

 2. Convergent boundary between two

oceanic crust results to subduction, and the
trenches formed are deeper like the
Marianas Trench, which can sink Mt. Everest.

 3. Convergent boundary between two

continental crust results to building up the
rocks forming mountains like the
Appalachian and Himalayas mountain
ranges.

 PLATES PASS BY: TRANSFORM BOUNDARY

Two plates that are moving past each other like trains on opposite tracks form
transform boundary. The plate boundary is marked by a zone of active faults—breaks in
the rock and ground surface caused by plate movements.
 The most famous of these is the 1200-km (750-mi) long San Andreas Fault. The San
Andreas Fault is a transform fault, a kind common on the sea floor but rarely
found on land.

EARTH’S INTERIOR:
Energy radiates in all directions from the focus in the form of waves called seismic waves, which
are recorded is seismographs.
TWO MAIN TYPES OF SEISMIC WAVES:

 Surface wave
 Body wave

SURFACE WAVE: (ONLY travel through the surface of the Earth)

 LOVE WAVE
- Named after A.E.H Love, a British mathematician who worked out the mathematical
model for this kind of wave in 1911;
- Faster than Rayleigh wave;
- Side-to-side horizontal motion like that of a snakes;
- Cause the most damage to structures during an earthquake
 RAYLEIGH WAVE
- Named after John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, who mathematically predicted the
existence of this kind of wave in 1885;
- It moves the ground either up and down or side-to-side similar to the direction of the
waves’ movement;
- Most of the shaking felt from an earthquake is due to this wave
BODY WAVE: (can travel through the Earth’s inner layers)

 PRIMARY WAVES (P-WAVES)

- travel through solids, liquids, and gases;
- travels faster than S-waves;
- reaches a detector first (reason why it is called primary);
- also called compressional waves;
- force the ground to move background and forward as they are compressed and
expanded

 SECONDARY WAVES (S-WAVES)

- Travels through solids;
- Travels slower than P-waves;
- Cannot travel through any liquid medium
MOHORIVIČIĆ DISCONTINUITY: (boundary between crust and mantle)
 - In 1909, Yugoslavian seismologist Andrija Mohorovičić found out that the velocity of
seismic wave changes and increases at a distance of about 50 km below the Earth’s
surface
GUTENBERG DISCONTINUITY: (boundary between mantle and core)
- Beno Gutenberg, German seismologist explained that the Earth’s core composed of a
material different from other part of the mantle causing the P-waves to bend.
INGE LEHMANN:
- In 1936, a Danish seismologist predicted innermost layer of the Earth;
- He discovered a reflection of seismic waves within the core so he concluded that there
is a core within a core;
- Outer part of the core is liquid and the inner part must be solid
Thickness of the Different Layers of the Earth:
- Crust (40 km) - Outer core (2, 200km)
- Mantle (2, 900km) - Inner core (1, 278)

THE COMPOSITION OF THE EARTH’S INTERIOR:

CRUST:
- Thinnest and the outermost layer of the Earth that extends from the surface to about 32
km below;
- Subdivided into: continental and the oceanic crust
Continental Crust:
- Made up of silicon, oxygen, aluminum, calcium, sodium, and potassium;
- Found under landmasses. Is made of less dense rocks such as granite;
- mostly 35-40 km thick
Oceanic Crust:
- found under the ocean floor; made of dense rocks such as basalt;
- around 7-10 km thick;
- heavier than continental crust

MANTLE:
- beneath the crust which extends to about 2,900 km from the surface;
- makes up about 80% of the Earth’s total volume and about 68% of total mass
- mainly made up of silicate rocks;
- solid; both S and P waves can pass through it;
- mostly made of the elements silicon, oxygen, iron, and magnesium;
- lower part of the mantle consists of more iron than the upper part;
- the temperature and the pressure increase with depth
CORE:
- subdivided into two layers; the inner and the outer core;
 - the outer core is 2,900 km. below surface;
- outer core: 2,250 km thick, made up of iron and nickel; 2,900 °C
- inner core: made of solid iron and nickel, 5, 000 °C, has a radius of 1,300 km.

THE EARTH’S MECHANISM:

THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT:
- in 1912, Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, proposed a theory that about 250
million years ago, the continents were once one large landmass; he called this as
Pangaea, a Greek word which means “All Earth”;
- Pangaea started to break into two smaller super continents called Laurasia and
Gondwanaland during Triassic Period up to Jurassic Period.
- These two supercontinents broke into smaller continents and these continents
separated and drifted apart since then.
- Wegener gathered evidences to support his claim about Continental Drift Theory;
these evidences includes the distribution of fossils in different continents, rock features,
and ancient climates.
EVIDENCE: CONTINENTAL JIGSAW PUZZLE:
- The most visible and fascinating evidence that these continents were once one is their
shapes.
- The edges of South America and Africa fit together, even India, Antarctica, and Australia
match together.
EVIDENCE FROM FOSSILS:
- Fossils are preserved remains or traces of organisms such plants and animal from the
past;
- There are fossils that were located in the continents of Southern Africa, India, and
Antarctica which are now separated from each other by wide oceans; hence, the seeds
of this plants could not possibly travel a long journey by wind or a rough ride through
ocean waves
EVIDENCE FROM ROCKS:
- Fossils found in rocks support the Continental Drift Theory; the rocks themselves also
provide evidence that continents drifted apart from each other
- Rocks formations in Africa line up with that in South America as if it was a long mountain
range.

COAL DEPOSITS:
- Coal beds were formed from the compaction and decomposition of swamp plants that
lived million years ago; these were discovered in South America, Africa, Indian
subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and even in Antarctica;
- The current location of Antarctica is not suitable to sustain amount of life;
- But since there is a substantial amount of coal in it, it means that Antarctica must have
been positioned in a part of the Earth where it once supported large amount of life;
 - This lead to the idea that Antarctica once located near the equator and experienced
tropical climate.
SEAFLOOR SPREADING:
- In the early 1960’s, scientists Harry Hess and Robert Dietz suggested an explanation
to the continental drift through the Seafloor Spreading Theory;
- According to this theory, hot, less dense material from below the earth’s crust rises
towards the surface at the mid-ocean ridge;
- This material flows sideways carrying the seafloor away from the ridge and creates a
crack in the crust;
- Overtime, the new oceanic crust pushed the old oceanic crust far from the ridge and
allows the creation of new bodies of water, thus, pulling continents such as Australia,
South America, and Antarctica from each other.