FUNDAMENTAL S

OF

ENVIRONMENT

Environment : Meaning

The word Environment has been derived from the French word ‘environner’ ; to encircle, or to surround.

The dictionary meaning of the word Environment is a surrounding, external conditions influencing development or growth of people, animals or plants; living or working

The Word "environment" is most commonly used describing "natural" environment and means the sum of all living and non-living things that surround an organism, .

DEFINITION :Environment refers to the sum total of conditions which surround man at a given point in space and time

C.C. Park 1980The Environment is the aggregate of all external factors or conditions that influence the activities and existence of living things including man.

The Universe

The universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all space, time, matter, energy, planets, stars, galaxies, intergalactic space,

Solar systemSolar system is comprised of one star (the

sun) and nine planets circling around it.  Planets, like stars, are basically chunks of matter. 

Our solar system includes the sun and nine planets.

The Solar System

THE PLANET EARTH

THE PLANET EARTH

Earth (or the Earth) is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World

Cont.d…

Earth formed 4.54 billion years ago, and life appeared on its surface within one billion years. The planet is home to millions of species, including humans. Earth's biosphere has significantly altered the atmosphere and other abiotic conditions on the planet.

Pangaea

Pangaea, Pangæa, or Pangea (pronounced /pænˈdʒiːə/ pan-JEE-ə,[1] from Ancient Greek πᾶν pan "entire", and Γαῖα Gaia "Earth", Latinized as Gæa) is hypothesized as a supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration

Panthalassa

The single enormous ocean which surrounded Pangaea was accordingly named Panthalassa

Panthalassa (Greek Πανθαλασσά, meaning 'all sea'), also known as the Panthalassic Ocean, was the vast global ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea, during the late Paleozoic and the early Mesozoic years. It included the Pacific Ocean to the west and north and the Tethys Ocean to the southeast.

It became the Pacific Ocean, following the closing of the Tethys basin and the breakup of Pangaea, which created the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian Ocean basins. The Panthalassic is often called the Paleo-Pacific ("old Pacific") because the Pacific Ocean evolved from it.

The World with lat/long.

Geographic coordinates

Coordinate values given as latitude and longitude.Latitude (shown as a horizontal line) is the

angular distance, in degrees, minutes, and seconds of a point north or south of the Equator. Lines of latitude are often referred to as parallels.

Longitude (shown as a vertical line) is the angular distance, in degrees, minutes, and seconds, of a point east or west of the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian. Lines of longitude are often referred to as meridians.

Distance between Lines If you divide the circumference of the earth (approximately 25,000 miles) by 360 degrees, the distance on the earth's surface for each one degree of latitude or longitude is just over 69 miles, or 111 km.

Minutes and Seconds For precision purposes, degrees of longitude and latitude have been divided into minutes (') and seconds ("). There are 60 minutes in each degree. Each minute is divided into 60 seconds.

Relative Location of a city or destination on the planet is its relationship to another place or nearby landmarks.

As an example, our U.S. office is on Galveston Island, located in southeastern Texas in the Gulf of Mexico, about 48 miles southeast of Houston. That's our relative location.

Absolute Location is the definitive location of a place using a recognized coordinate system

Meridian—An imaginary arc on the Earth's surface from the North Pole to the South Pole that associates all locations running along it with a given longitude. The position of a point on the meridian is given by its intersecting latitude. Each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude at the intersection points

Prime Meridian—The meridian of longitude 0 degrees, used as the origin for the measurement of longitude. The meridian of Greenwich, England, is the internationally accepted prime meridian in most cases

We can imagine the Earth as a sphere, with an axis around which it spins. The ends of the axis are the North and South Poles. The Equator is a line around the earth, an equal distance from both poles. The Equator is also the latitude line given the value of 0 degrees. This means it is the starting point for measuring latitude. Latitude values indicate the angular distance between the Equator and points north or south of it on the surface of the Earth

Equator

Equator

Parallel—A circle or approximation of a circle on the surface of the Earth, parallel to the Equator and connecting points of equal latitude

The structure of Earth can be defined in two ways: by mechanical properties such as rheology, or chemically. Mechanically, it can be divided into lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, and the inner core. The interior of the earth is divided into 5 important layers. Chemically, Earth can be divided into the crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, and inner core.

Earth Structure

Layer Depth

 

 

0–60 (Kms) Lithosphere (locally varies between 5 and 200 km)

0–35 Crust (locally varies between 5 and 70 km)

35–660 Upper mesosphere (upper mantle)

660–2,890 Lower mesosphere (lower mantle)

2,890–5,150 Outer core

5,150–6,360 Inner core

Earth's Crust:   There are two different types of crust: thin oceanic crust that underlies the ocean basins and thicker continental crust that underlies the continents. These two different types of crust are made up of different types of rock. The thin oceanic crust is composed of primarily of basalt and the thicker continental crust is composed primarily of granite. The low density of the thick continental crust allows it to "float" in high relief on the much higher density mantle below.

Earth's Mantle:   Earth's mantle is thought to be composed mainly of olivine-rich rock. It has different temperatures at different depths. The temperature is lowest immediately

beneath the crust and increases with depth. The highest temperatures occur where the

mantle material is in contact with the heat-producing core.

This steady increase of temperature with depth is known as the geothermal gradient.

The geothermal gradient is responsible for different rock behaviors and the different rock behaviors are used to divide the mantle into two different zones. Rocks in the upper mantle are cool and brittle, while rocks in the lower mantle are hot and soft (but not molten).

Rocks in the upper mantle are brittle enough to break under stress and produce earthquakes.

However, rocks in the lower mantle are soft and flow when subjected to forces instead of breaking.

The lower limit of brittle behavior is the boundary between the upper and lower mantle.

Earth's Core

The core is divided into two different zones. The outer core is a liquid because the temperatures there are adequate to melt the iron-nickel alloy. However, the inner core is a solid even though its temperature is higher than the outer core.

Types of Environment

Environment are two types:Natural or Physical EnvironmentMan made or Cultural Environment

Component of EnvironmentBiotic component: Living thing

including human being; Aquatic: animals , plants, microbesTerrestrial: animal, plants, microbes

Abiotic component: Physical attributes;

Water bodies AirTemperatureWeatherLatitude Longitude , etc.