1. Warm Up #7
What materials are found in the geosphere?

2. Lesson 2: The Geosphere

3. Essential Questions How do materials in the geosphere differ?
Why does the geosphere have a layered structure?

4. What can you learn from a core sample? Activity
Layers of Earth’s crust can be studied easily when they are exposed on the side of a cliff. To learn about layers that are buried scientists often drill into the ground to get a core sample. A core sample is a sample of rock and soil taken from inside Earth’s upper crust.
Place thin and thick layers of different colored salt dough in a bowl.
Push a clear straw straight down into the clay with a slight twisting motion.
Slowly remove the straw.
Use scissors to snip off the end of the straw containing the sample. Place each sample separately on the paper squares.
What do you notice about each of the samples?

5. Minerals
What are the characteristics of a mineral?

6. Minerals What are the characteristics of a mineral?
Naturally occurring
Inorganic
Solid
Crystal structure
A definite chemical composition

7. Mineral Properties
What properties could you use to identify an unknown mineral?

8. Mineral Properties
What properties could you use to identify an unknown mineral?
Luster – the way a mineral’s surface reflects light
Streak – the color of a mineral’s powder
Hardness
How can you test the hardness of a mineral?
Cleavage – the tendency of minerals to break along smooth, flat surfaces
Fracture – the tendency of minerals to break along irregular surfaces

9. Rocks
What is a rock?
What are the 3 types of rocks?

10. Rocks What is a rock? What are the 3 types of rocks?
A naturally occurring solid composed of minerals
What are the 3 types of rocks?
Igneous
Metamorphic
sedimentary

11. Rock types How do igneous rocks form? How do metamorphic rocks form?
How do sedimentary rocks form?

12. Rock types How do igneous rocks form? How do metamorphic rocks form?
Molten rock material cools and hardens
How do metamorphic rocks form?
Sedimentary, igneous, or other metamorphic rocks are subjected to high temperatures and extreme pressure
How do sedimentary rocks form?
Sediment is eroded, deposited in layers, and over time the weight from the upper layers compress the lower layers causing it to compact and cement together
BrainPOP - Weathering

13. Warm Up #8
What is soil?

14. Soil Loose, weathered material in which plants grow
Plays a major part in phosphorus and carbon cycle
How does soil form?

15. Soil Loose, weathered material in which plants grow
How does soil form?
Rocks weather into sediment
Water takes minerals from sediment for soil
Waste from animals add nutrients
Nutrients also added from decaying bodies

16. Structure of the Geosphere
Why do you think the geosphere is layered?
Think of a hard boiled egg like the geosphere
Three main layers of geosphere
Crust
Mantle
Core
What is the composition of the upper and lower mantle?
Compare and contrast the outer core and the inner core?

17. Earth’s Crust Crust – the outer layer of the geosphere, made
of brittle rocks
2 types:
Oceanic – under the oceans
made of dense igneous rocks basalt and gabbro
Continental – makes up the continents that’s thicker than oceanic crust
Made of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks
How does the thickness of the oceanic crust and continental crust compare?
How would an increase in the height of the mountains affect the thickness of the crust in that area?

18. Earth’s Mantle Mantle – the thick, rocky middle layer of the geosphere
Uppermost mantle similar to rocks in crust
Lithosphere – the crust and the uppermost mantle form a brittle outer layer
Asthenosphere – this weak, partially melted layer of the mantle
Where is the lithosphere located in relationship to the asthenosphere?
What do you think the texture of the rock is in the asthenosphere?

19. Earth’s Core Core – the dense, metallic center of Earth 2 layers:
Outer Core - liquid
Inner Core – solid metal, extremely hot
In which layer of the geosphere does Earth’s magnetic
field originate?