Natural Systems:

Paleozoic Era

Devonian

408-360 million years ago

Many types of fishes, early amphibians, ferns and cone plants

Devonian forest, shark, lung fish, bony fish

Permian

286-245 million years ago

Seed plants, insects, reptiles, most sea animals and amphibians become extinct

Largest mass extinction in geologic history

Carboniferous

360=286 million years ago

Tropical forests, insects and amphibians, earliest reptiles.

Cockroach, dragonfly, coal forest

Mesozoic Era

Cretaceous

144-66 million years ago

First flowering plants, end of the period mass extinction of dinosaurs and many other organisms

Triceratops, magnolia, tyrannosaurus rex

Cenozoic Era

Spans from 66 million years ago to the present

Tertiary

66-1.8 million years ago

First monkeys and apes, flowering plants most common, grasses

Uintatherium, plesiadapis, heractherium (mammals)

Volcanoes

Primary Impacts

Buildings destroyed

Roads damaged

People injured/killed

Pyroclastic flows

Lava flows

Falling Rocks

Plants damaged

Water supply contaminated

Carbon dioxide suffocation

People

Plants

Animals

Secondary Impacts

Mud-flows

Volcanic Material

Rain

Fires

Psychological Trauma

Death

Lost Homes

Shortage of Food

Shortage of clean-water

Lack of emergency aid

Roads blocked

Area unsafe

Businesses destroyed

Causing Unemployment

Lack of money

Acid rain

Acid Rain

Burning Coal/oil/turf

Releases Nitrusoxide and Sulphur dioxide (harmful toxins)

Mixes with the clouds

Rain that falls is slightly acidic

Effects:

Kills trees

Kills fish

Reduces crop yields

Tornadoes:

Before a tornado:

Have a disaster plan. Make sure everyone knows where to go in case a tornado threatens.

Make sure you know which country or town you live in.

Prepare a disaster kit for the car at home

During a tornado:

Go to a basement. If you do not have a basement, go to a room that does not have windows or the lowest floor.

Get out of cars. Do not try to out run a tornado in your car, leave it immediately.

If you are outside, go to a ditch or crouch down and cover your head.

After a tornado:

Stay indoors until it is safe to come out.

Check for injured or trapped people, without putting yourself in danger.

Watch out for downed power line.

Use a flashlight to inspect your home/area.

What caused a tornado?

When a cold wind high up meets warmer air and warmer winds lower down.

The winds swirl and the warmer air below rushes upwards at a terrific speed.

As the tornado moves forward, this warm wind rushing upwards can pickup any objects in its path.

Where do tornadoes happen?

In the US mostly tornadoes happen in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Florida.

Tornadoes happen in every continent of the world.

Main Ideas

Type of disaster

What happened?

Where it happened?

Why it happened?

Types of disasters

Hurricanes

Earthquakes

Volcanoes

Tsunami

What happened?

Damages/harms

To people

Animals

Plants

Buildings

Where?

Most likely takes place all around the world but mostly in:

Iran

Turkey

New Orleans

Oman

Indonesia

China

Hawaii

Causes:

They are caused from many different reasons . For example soil erosion, seismic activity, tectonic movements, air pressure, and ocean currents etc. Natural activities like disasters taking place in the earth's crust, as well as surface, are the main reasons for these disasters

Earth is composed of:

Inner core

A mass of iron with a temperature of about 7000 degrees F. Although such temperatures would normally melt iron, immense pressure on it keeps it in a solid form. The inner core is approximately 1,500 miles in diameter

Outer core

A mass of molten iron about 1,425 miles that surrounds the solid inner core. Electrical currents generates from this area produce the earth's magnetic

Mantle

A rock layer about 1,750 miles thick that reaches about half the distance to the center of the earth. parts of this layer become hot enough to liquify and become slow moving molten rock or magma

Crust

A layer from 4-25 miles thick consisting sand and rock.

Types:

Puzzle Piece

The continents fit together like a jigsaw puzzle

Fossils

Fossils of the same creatures were found on two continents that are very far away from each other and can not travel over large bodies of water

Mountain Ranges

The appalachain mountains in North America and the Caledonian Mountains in Europe seem to have been broken because they are the same AGE and type of rock.

Evidence of Ice sheets

Ice sheets developed in areas that we recognize as tropical today and too warm for show and ice. This suggests that one time the continents were located closer to the South Pole

Age of Ocean Floor

The age of the ocean floor suggests that the continents have been drifting apart for years. As you move away from the plate boundaries the age of the crust is older.

Iron and Magnetic Field

The iron inside the hardened magma that rises from within the Earth lines up with the current magnetic filed

When the rock hardens, the iron particles are aligned forever and show a record of changing magnetism and expanding oceanic crust.

Natural Disasters

Earthquakes and volcanoes tend to happen along plate boundaries.

Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Surface of the Earth is a thin layer of moving plates, and below these plates is material that is also in motion

Every year there are about 30,000 earthquakes (Seismologists study these) that are strong enough to be felt)

Earthquakes and volcanoes frequently occur where the edges of the earth's plates are colliding or moving away from one another.

Types of Rocks:

Igneous Rocks:

Is formed when magma cools and makes crystals.

Magma is a hot liquid made of melted minerals. The minerals can form crystals when they cool.

Examples:

Granite

Basalt

Obsidian

Can form underground, where the magma cools slowly or igneous rock can form above ground, where the magma cools quickly.

Sedimentary Rock:

form at or near the earth's surface at relatively low temperatures and pressures primarily by:

Examples:

Erosion by water, wind or ice

Deposition by water, wind or ice

Compaction by rock, ice or other sediments

Cementation (where the sediment becomes cemented into rock)

Metamorphic Rock:

Metamorphic Rock is formed when rocky material experiences intense heat and pressure in the crust of the earth.

Through the metamorphic process, both igneous rocks and sedimentary rocks can change into metamorphic rocks, and a metamorphic rocks, and a metamorphic rock can change into another type of metamorphic rock.

Heat and pressure do not change the chemical makeup of the parent rocks but they do change the mineral structure and physical properties of those rocks.

Examples:

Gneiss

Marble

Schist

Types:

Flow resource:

Neither renewable nor non-renewable, must be used when and where they occur or they are gone.

Renewable resource:

If managed wisely, can be replaced or used again. E.g. plants and animals

Non-renewable resource:

Formed so slowly in nature that they are considered gone forever after they have been used. E.g, minerals and soils.

Classifying Natural Resources:

Natural resources are classified as either biotic and abiotic

Types:

Biotic: Resources extracted from the earth or grown.

Examples:

Petroleum

Timber

Fruit

Natural gas

Antibiotic: Non-living materials including materials including minerals and metals.

Examples:

Gold

Diamonds

Silver

Nickel

Why care?

Are resources important enough to Canada that we should CARE about our relationship with the earth.