Geology for Engineers

Planet Earth

Organisation

• 30 Lectures: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 10-11am, M17

• 4 Practicals: Tuesday afternoon, Main Lab Geology

• Field Trip: Killiney (date to be confirmed), full afternoon

• See course website for full details!

Assessment

• 3 hour exam

• All the material taught in the course, including practicals and field-trip, is examinable!!!

• Answer 5 out of 7 questions

• 6 set by PB + QC, 1 by BM

• See past exam papers for examples!

Course Notes

Recommended Texts

• Course web-site

• Understanding Earth (2nd edition), Press & Siever

• The Solid Earth (2nd Edition), Fowler

• Introducing Groundwater (2nd Edition), Price

• Water wells and boreholes, Misstear, Bank & Clark

Formation of the Solar System

• The stages of solar system formation start with a protostar embedded in a gas cloud, then to an early star with a circumstellar disk, to a star surrounded by small "planetesimals" that are starting to clump together to a solar system like ours today.

Formation of the Solar System

www.jwst.nasa.gov/birth.html Credit: Shu et al. 1987

protostar circumstellar disk

planetesimals home

Composition of the Solar System

• Jovian planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune– Large masses & low densities.– Mainly composed of gaseous H & He and

frozen C-H-N volatiles.– Interiors may be similar to that of Earth

Composition of the Solar System

• The inner, terrestrial planets: Small masses & high densities.– Mercury: No atmosphere. Similar in

composition to Earth.– Venus: Dense atmosphere of CO2 & N.

Similar in composition to Earth.– Earth: More about “us” later.– Mars: Polar ice caps in winter – water?

Uniform chemical composition – i.e. no iron core and silicate mantle as in Earth.

The Asteroids

www.aerospaceweb.org/

Composition of the Solar System

• The asteroids: Located in a belt between the terrestrial and Jovian planets.

• Meteorites: Most are probably fragments from the asteroid belt of our solar system.– Siderites, or “irons” (98% metal)– Siderolites, or “stony irons” (50% metal, 50%

silicate)– Aerolite, or “stones” (silicate > metal)