Geosphere Interesting Facts:
The Earth is not a perfect sphere, though often pictures as such. It is actually an oblate spheroid. Long before spacecraft and advanced scientific instruments, Sir Isaac Newton actually predicted the Earth's shape based on the Earth's daily rotation and his study of other planets. The study of the Earth's shape is called Geodesy. The Earth's crust is comprised of many different rocks and minerals. The Earth's interior has many layers. The mantle makes up the largest volume of the Earth's interior. The Earth's core has two parts--a liquid outer core and a solid inner core--which consist most of iron and is the primary source of the Earth's magnetic field. The true magnetic north "pole" is actually located in northern Canada, and the true magnetic south "pole" is actually north of Antarctica and south of Australia. |
Interactions with other spheres:
The varied land elevations impact weather patterns, affecting the hydrosphere, cryosphere, and atmosphere. For example, as an air mass approaches a mountain, it is forced upward. At the higher elevation, it cools and condenses, causing clouds to form. Clouds lose their ability to hold moisture at lower temperatures, so the higher elevation forces the clouds to release the moisture as rain or snow. Drought conditions (related to the hydrosphere and atmosphere, can cause erosion, impacting the geosphere. |