Introduction to earth science video my
name is Jeremy Patrich,  I'm a professor
of geology and geography and I'm here to
introduce this course to you so really
what is earth science well I think it's
really really exciting because
especially at a lot of institutions that
I work with it's a required course for K
through 12 educators as they're working
towards their credential program and I
think a lot of individuals get nervous
or scared about it because they don't
want to take chemistry they don't one
takes geology you don't want to take
oceanography they don't want to take
meteorology or or climate science says
they don't want take a strong to me so
they think I'll earth science this would
be an easy one to jump into well
surprise surprise
earth science is all those things lumped
in together we learn about the geology
or study of the earth we learned about
oceanography and the study of our oceans
meteorology under understanding our
atmosphere and weather and we also learn
about the city of our universe and our
place within the universe so or the
science covers a lot of different pieces
each one of these is a normal 16 week
course at most institutions so we have
to somehow merge all four of these
topics into a palatable system so it's
going to be it's going to be exciting
you need to know that we get to talk
about so many different things we're
going to be able to talk about
everything from climate the clouds to
volcanoes earthquakes plate tectonics
solar nebula I mean pretty much
everything you can think of is probably
going to be brought up into this course
so it will be exciting and does cover a
lot of content but will make it
palatable will make it easier to
understand trust me so let's look at
each one of these a little closer so the
first one is geology the study of earth
so we break that usually into two pieces
we have historical geology and physical
geology so historical geology is really
how do we understand Earth history so as
an example you'll see there's a photo
down here
this is me and some colleagues we're
actually excavating a left leg of a
wooly mammoth that dated about 10,000
years ago in the Eastern Sierra so we
started looking at some of the
underlying geology the sedimentology
understanding you know
in which she would have died in because
he actually died on a beach Ridge made
of fine grain sands so we start warning
about the past again you gotta do your
cliche no Instagram photo of the Museum
of Natural History but we can't
understand the history in the fossil
record geologic time well why is that
important well because once we
understand that system that evolution we
then bring into physical geology how do
we understand the processes above and
below the surface and into the future
so we get to then look at this landscape
in the middle this is a photo I took of
you BEB crater in Death Valley National
Park it was a volcanic rig area there
craters themselves looking at steam
vents but looking at its past allows us
to understand geothermal activity in
other locations to learn about its
future the next one we'll look at is
oceanography this always excites me I
have a lot of friends we get to teach
this course and the first thing they say
is students become often discouraged
when they enroll in this course because
they think it's about marine life
well that's marine biology this is still
an exciting course because it teaches
you the coastal process composition of
the ocean we learn about oceanic
movement and seafloor topography we
learn about steam you know the vents
volcanic vents we learn about volcanic
ranges and arcs and so there's a lot
more in the city of oceanography than
just whales and dolphins so we get to
learn about the environment that they
live and we get to learn about how that
environment interacts with our planet
and well how do the oceans interact with
our greater source perhaps even looking
at astronomy in that sense well you know
we're learning about what ocean is able
to absorb looking at greenhouse gases
and things along that it's just it's a
really an exciting portion of this
course
moving into meteorology really it's
atmospheric sciences how do we look at
our planet's atmosphere we acknowledge
that we have four dominant layers that
we deal with troposphere is where all of
our weather occurs is where we live then
above that we have the stratosphere the
mesosphere and lastly the thermosphere
so learning to understand the atmosphere
the processes of weather incline
as well as what extreme weather might be
especially as affected by Earth's
motions looking at our interaction with
Sun and seasons looking at even
climactic change even human-induced
climactic elements you know greenhouse
gas contribution and what is the
long-term effects so really learning the
difference between day-to-day weather
and long-term climate we'll spend some
more time talking about that but you
know weather is the day-to-day it's hot
cold wet dry and climate is taking at
least 30 years of data and creating a
general statement and saying well the
climate in Las Vegas in July is U is
generally hot is it possible that it can
rain in July in Las Vegas of course it
is but that doesn't mean that it
generally it's going to be hot and dry
because we have this thirty-year value
of data that projects that and by
understanding that we're able to project
project and predict tomorrow's weather
and maybe even tomorrow's climate going
forward long term and the last one that
we introduced is astronomy the study of
our universe so learning about our
universe allows us to understand our
personal planetary evolution where the
earth come from where is it going you
know what are we starting to observe
about the future so it's kind of like
very philosophical you know to
understand yourself you have to
understand the environment around you
because that definitely is a reflection
of what you are so when we start to
learn about other locations of watching
the birth of stars and planets what does
that mean and you know for our future
here on earth why are we just you know
striving so hard to find planets that
can allow life to thrive you know we're
trying to see if there's anything else
out there but why does that intrigue us
why do we have so many television shows
and movies and sagas that are about the
space and what's out there and how far
and vast it is and how much more we
continue to learn about it and hopefully
we'll even get to cover is Pluto really
a planet or not you why do people think
it's not so nonetheless let us continue
so moving forward so we're going to
introduce the formation of our solar
system earth and the surrounding planets
formed around the same time Geely mean
long term
scheme you know the process was a large
what we have is the nebular hypothesis
the solar system evolved from an
enormous rotating cloud or a solar
nebula and that was about five billion
years ago when all the matter and mass
was available for this to occur well
after the formation of this nebular
hypothesis is that we bring us into we
can then talk about the formation of the
earth the earth planet itself is about
4.6 billion years old that's when our
story begins once all that particulate
matter was able to merge together and
make a planet so as the earth formed the
decay of radioactive elements and
isotopes from the center of the earth
produce heat that ends up creating and
then also the decay of the material
under surface when it was still a molten
planet and it caused the temperature to
increase this gaseous material escaped
and developed a basic atmosphere why our
atmosphere is important well atmosphere
keep out asteroids meteors particulate
matter from extraterrestrial matter in
that sense but also trap gases in when
that's important because we wanted to be
able to trap in oxygen because that
allows us the ability to survive and
we'll learn a little bit more about
where our planet where we got our oxygen
where we received most of our water and
we'll learn more about that in the
future but it's just to understand the
formation of our planet we're looking at
a very very long story it's almost in a
it's almost unbelievable for us to try
to imagine what 4.6 billion years is
we'll learn more about that when we
learn about geology but nonetheless big
big story we actually can divide or
plant it into quote-unquote spheres
meaning you know it realms if you will
so I like this diagram we often merge
the hydrosphere with the cryosphere but
I label them as separate things just so
we can talk about them that way so the
first one is the hydrosphere that's
water anywhere there's water in the
planet is involved in the hydrosphere so
think think back when you learned about
the hydrologic cycle as you know this is
we're talking way beyond just
evaporation condensation and
precipitation when we start looking at
the hydrosphere we're going to learn
about trance
operation how water works with plans how
it works with storage how it looks with
underground and looking at different
elements like that moving into the
cryosphere adding in the element device
where's a stored how much is there why
is it there is it getting bigger as it
getting smaller so thick is it thin so
understanding its process will also be
out discussing basic geomorphology
looking at how the hydrosphere in Christ
Reata and ice itself card and shape our
planet we also look at the atmosphere
again that's another one of our spheres
it's very thin it's only about three and
a half miles thick yet it's able to
protect us from everything which is
really really really important it blocks
out bad negative and bad UV radiation
but otherwise caused us to burn and
keeps us at a relative temperature
reverses fluctuation of very cold or too
hot we also will introduce the biosphere
which is all life that's everything from
plants to you and me and then bells of
the geosphere which is all rocks so we
have these spheres that we introduce to
kind of you know make it more of a realm
and I learned better when things were
kind of chunked together when I can see
that there's okay so these are all the
things within the biosphere these are
all the things within the geosphere
these are all the things within the
atmosphere so again I like this little
diagram it kind of gives an element
geosphere we can see is plate tectonics
of all there's layers of the earth we
can see there's volcanic Swee can see
within the atmosphere you've got all
your different layers and special zones
so I guess kind of like this type of
what I call putting it together how do
we put everything together well since we
mentioned it we'll talk about it you
know we understand that we live on a
dynamic planet constantly changing you
know understand that we have these
different layers of cores and I think of
the layers of the earth I also will talk
about this in atmospheres to think of
salad dressings like those homemade ones
where if they sit too long they separate
so they separate based off their
densities well what if we could observe
that idea here looking at both densities
and temperature that will allow us to
understand why we have these different
layers within our earth and moving from
the inner core to the outer core to the
mantle then looking at the asthenosphere
which is a plasticy zone that protects
us and allows us to move around the
lithosphere which is the
material that we live on and then we
have our crusts both Osten both Oceanic
and continental we'll also learn the
differences between these crusts oceanic
crust is predominantly basalt
continental crust is predominantly
granite very different types of
formations both igneous rocks but both
formed under very different environments
another thing we can talk about is well
how do we look at the earth's surface
well we've got global grid systems we
look at the value of latitude which is
the distance north or south of the
Equator when I think of latitude to
think of pizzas in the middle pan they
cook them on so you know all kinds of
different sizes yet they're all circles
well that's kind of what latitude is
latitude as the distance north or south
of the equator but drawn all the way
around so they're lines that kind of
work themselves as disks around the
earth well then you have longitude which
is the distance east or west of the
Prime Meridian
but longitude is like an orange so they
intersect at the North and South Poles
but create a meridian or a half-circle
so because you have these two different
lines that are out running in different
directions we can create intersecting
points which is going to be a part of
your grid system we'll talk more about
that later we also look at cartography
you know that is an art in its own it
represents an area of the earth by using
data and distortion we look at
topographic maps geologic maps how do we
view the landscape most of you probably
read an own amount or a Thomas guide or
anything like that but you you have
experience true cartography especially
if you play video games a friend of mine
works for the World of Warcraft world
and her job as a geologist is to help
them design their landscape and to
create a map that is believable to its
consumers you so if you're playing these
video games and they're in landscapes
that have volcanoes and trenches and you
know volcanic ranges and everything in
between you know that's because it's
been detailed by an earth scientist
because we've been able to represent a
landscape that is probably functioning
that's true so that we you believe it
because let me tell you if you played a
video game in a landscape that did not
make sense it is the game will not make
sense to you and you probably think
about that have you ever played a game
that you're looking at in cycle why is
this I give you an example I
to a student who was part of the video
game design program and they were trying
to build this video game where it was an
island a very small island then the
island was like a pie and it would be
divvied up like you know this is gonna
be the desert this is gonna be the
mountain this is gonna be the rainforest
and it's like well it looks good
on how you're trying to do it but
geologically and looking at it from as
an earth scientist that's the way they
had design was not gonna work in a real
environment and so therefore it doesn't
make it very believable so how do we
interpret that how do we make these
locations believable that's
understanding the process and
understanding the spheres and how they
interact with you know one another then
we'll look at systems well what is a
system you know an institution is a
system of the people that work together
to to make progress so system is any
size group of interacting parts that
form a complex whole so you as a student
are part of a system a bigger system
because you yes you're a student and I'm
an instructor but I'm still gonna learn
from you we're part of this system we
supposed to work together to you create
a bigger resolution and to create more
information and more data now there are
two types of systems there are closed
systems which means they're
self-contained which means they don't
take anything in and they don't take
they don't put anything out and we also
have open systems that allow energy both
in and out of all times so we have
closed systems and open systems now I
bring this up because what are some
earth systems what are some systems that
you think could be open or closed
in fact I'll give you a hint a lot of
people argue that there's no such thing
as a closed system right you know let's
think of an open system vegetation well
plants require sunlight they require
that shortwave radiation in order to go
through photosynthesis they also require
carbon dioxide because then they produce
oxygen so they are taking in and putting
out you are an open system you need food
so you can then gain the calories we
could then give you the ability to do
work to have energy so then by having
energy you are able to move around and
you produce heat so you are
so an open system often as an example
what about closed systems people think
that terrariums like this guy right here
this is a closed system you put the
plants you put everything in there
little bit of water you seal it put a
cork in it and then it's done forever
right you never have to deal about it
again well but it still requires some
light so that's the argument that well
it still requires some light but
everything else is trapped inside so
it's not able to be open but is it
really closed so just kind of like one
of those thought thought processes well
when you come up with other closed
systems how do you do that well we can
use what we consider the scientific
inquiry which is really a very important
method as anyone should be able to use
this system this is how we should think
we have an idea that idea can either
become hypothesis which is tentative or
untested or it will be a theory which is
tested confirmed and supported by the
majority so when people say well I have
a theory about this they're actually not
correct and saying that unless it's been
tested confirmed and agreed upon by the
majority of people who are also
specialists in that topic then we're
coming up with a hypothesis right well I
think that you know these are the
winning numbers with a lot less
hypothesis does they don't have a theory
for that so when we talk about the
theory of evolution or the theory of
plate tectonics a theory means that word
means it is it is plate tectonics it is
evolution because we have tested it we
have confirmed it and it is supported by
the larger group scientific knowledge
can only be gained by collecting data
developing research questions and
conducting experiments so that's very
very important because often we as a
society jump to conclusions we see
something on on social media and the
Pope we just believed it and asked me
this we don't question things and I
think it's so important that we get out
of that habit and learn to question it
well I don't understand please explain
to me you know think about with any
conversation people know they say con
first dates never bring up politics or
religion right but
I don't think it's a bad thing
especially if you want to learn I want
to learn about your politics I want to
learn about your religion I don't think
you're wrong and I'm not gonna argue if
you're right I want to learn and be able
to ask the right question so I can
understand what it is that you believe
or what you stand for or what your
methodologies are so let's use this as
an example this is your classic classic
scientific inquiry diagram you first ask
a question then you do research after
you've done research you construct a
hypothesis then you work through it then
when you get to the end then you can
state that it is a theory so let's ask a
question I think that people who are
really tall have to wear bigger shoes
that is my thought so I need to do some
background research well some basic
background research I could go to Nike
for the weekend and hang out at the
store kind of just kind of peruse people
go let's see based on their height what
type of site what shoes are they buying
good mine is really big you know size 12
or 13 shoes are they buying more like a
size 4 or 5 or 6 so then my out based on
that observation I can say you know I
think that I think I think I've got an
idea here I'm gonna construct a formal
hypothesis it's gonna require me to
collect data formal data and it's gonna
allow me to do some background research
for either new or future project and
then I need to start asking questions so
I can form it even better so I'm gonna
move down forward so I'm now here I'm
just gonna jump straight to here I want
to test it so what if I ask every
student I need how tall are you and what
size shoe you wear well I would need
that would probably work I don't think
people would have a hard time giving me
that information I think about asking
how tall you are and what you weigh I
don't think that procedure would work
but I think asking for shoe size would
be okay so I would get a lot of data I'm
not talking like 20 people I'm talking
about 300 at least then if that data is
working yes I'm gonna analyze that data
to try to come up with some solutions so
what I would do is take that data and I
put it in Excel and how to create a
trendline I plot it to see where
everyone is then I would create a
trendline and along that line
an idea that okay I'm starting to see
the taller people or the larger the shoe
that's great so that how would I test my
results well I would after I collect all
my data I would pick a random person and
I would use just half of their data I go
wow how tall are you and then they would
say well I'm you know I'm 511 well then
I would plot 511 on my trend line I
would say do you wear size 10 and a half
shoes and they go well I do how did you
know they don't say ah then I tested my
data and I think I can start thinking
that this could be a true hypothesis so
then I would start checking other people
against my trend line and then I would
either have to agree I'd have to accept
or reject my height my initial
hypothesis if I accept it then I can
communicate my results and then we can
decide if this is a hypothesis that is
going to work into a theory or if I
reject it I go back and let me tell you
there is nothing better than rejecting
your hypothesis I know that sounds weird
I think failure can be such a great
experience because hear me because then
it gives you learn something so you have
results okay I know that what I said was
wrong but I got some other results so
how can I use that those results to
solve something new or different failure
in science is so incredible because it
gives you the chance to do the work
again and to try over and test new
theories that being said failure can
also be negative if you don't move on
from it
so nonetheless it's really exciting and
earth sciences for us to be able to test
these these hypotheses and to them turn
them into theories and then to continue
to test the theories to make sure that
they're valid to make sure that it works
and to make sure that it's true and they
will cook as long as we constantly
question that you know our system with
thinking questions critical thing they
requested of thinking questions now we
get into a better location and situation
well I know it was a lot but again this
was just introduction to what everything
we're going to be talking about for the
rest of the term so I really appreciate
your patience and I look forward to
learning more with you
and we'll talk soon
