Where is the hydrosphere located
Earth's Systems And Their Interactions
in this video we're going to talk about
the earth
systems the goal is to identify the four
systems of the earth
and describe how they interact okay
earth is a very complex system although
it looks like
one large structure it actually got a
lot of things
going on a system is a set of
interconnected components that are
interacting
to form a unified whole so for example
an ecosystem so the organisms are
interconnected
and interacting so the concepts that you
need to recall here are
the food web food chain commensalism
mutualism etc
earth is defined as a closed system
so when we say a closed system there is
only an
exchange of heat or energy and no
exchange of matter for example the sun
gives energy
this energy reaches the earth but it
bounces back to the space
no exchange of matter means that nothing
or no
matter disappears it just spreads
out to other forms now earth has four
systems
number one is the lithosphere it came
from the greek word
lithos which means rocky the lithosphere
is the rocky portion of the earth next
we have hydrosphere came from the root
word
hydra or hydro meaning water third is
the atmosphere the atmosphere
came from the word atmos which means
steam
or vapor lastly we have the biosphere it
came from the root word
bio meaning life got it
so let's start with the lithosphere the
latest sphere includes the rod
the lithosphere includes the crust the
mantle and the core
that's why it's also called as the
crustal system
some books they call lithosphere as
geosphere
however there is a minor difference
between the lithosphere and the
geosphere so the lithosphere is rigid
and mechanically strong outer layer of
the earth
and it is divided into 12 major plates
on the other hand the geosphere is the
solid body of the earth so for this
class we're just going to use
lithosphere for the latest sphere
hydrosphere and atmosphere so we're
going to use lithosphere to avoid
confusion
one important process that happens in
the lithosphere
is the tectonic activity so the tectonic
activity
describes the interaction of huge slabs
of lithosphere
are commonly known as tectonic plates
these tectonic activities are the one
responsible
for some of the geologic events such as
earthquake volcanic eruption volcanic
formation
and it is driven by the earth's internal
heat it is said that the earth's
internal heat
flow to the surface is thought to be 80
due to mantle convection so mental
convection describes the movement of the
mantle
as it transfers heat from the inner core
to the lithosphere
next we have the hydrosphere this is the
total amount of solid
liquid and gaseous water on earth it
ranges
from 10 to 20 kilometers in thickness in
some books they have this other term or
other sphere
called cryosphere it is the frozen part
of water
but remember it still falls under
hydrosphere now the hydrosphere is about
seventy percent of the planet
and much of the water is in the form of
ocean water of this seventy percent
only three percent is fresh water and
ninety percent
is salty water one important process
that happens in the hydrosphere
is the water cycle so the water cycle
describes the continuous
movement of water on above and below the
surface of the earth so this is the
complete
water side so we're not going to focus
on this because that would be for
another lesson next we have the
atmosphere the atmosphere
is the body of gases that surrounds the
planet
so it is also called as the invisible
shield why because it simply protects
the earth from uv radiation the
atmosphere is located
close to the earth's surface where it is
most dense
so now let's talk about the composition
of the atmosphere the atmosphere is
composed of 78
nitrogen 21 oxygen and one percent
in active gases one example is
argon argon is just 0.9 percent
so what is the role of the atmosphere so
the atmosphere
supplies oxygen carbon dioxide
and nutrients to living organisms also
supplies water so remember water is
part of the hydrosphere this shows a
simple interaction
among the atmosphere and the hydrosphere
the atmosphere also protects the living
organisms
from extreme temperatures and excessive
uv radiation
so we have different kinds of uv
radiation we have the uvc
uvb and uva uvc has the shortest
wavelength
so it is easily reflected or deflected
by the atmospheric ozone uvb has the
largest effect
on the top layer of skin but don't worry
by staying at home
the exposure to uvb is less however
we have the uva so the uva
has the longest wavelength and therefore
it may penetrate
your house or any protection basically
that's why you use sunscreen
even at home so uva
is one of the source or the costs of
wrinkles
now let's go to the biosphere
now this biosphere includes all living
things
on planet okay animals humans
etc the earliest life form is about 3.5
to 3.7 billion years ago
and these are the microorganisms or
microbes
one type of microorganism that forms
are the prokaryotes these prokaryotes
survived
without oxygen and now we call them an
aerobic microorganisms in the biosphere
there are different ecological
communities or what we call
biomes some examples are the tropical
rainforests tundra
and the desert you can find some living
things on the desert
but you can't find them on tundras so
the biosphere
is considered as the carbon dioxide zinc
or the carbon sink of the earth so a
carbon sink is actually
aggressive wa that absorbs and stores
the atmosphere's carbon take note that
this
is not a carbon source it actually gets
the carbon now there are two types of
carbon zinc the natural and the
artificial so an example of natural
carbon zinc
is a tree okay or a forest they absorb
carbon dioxide from the air
artificial carbon sinks are of course
are of course
artificial carbon sinks are of course
man-made one example
is a process called artificial carbon
sequestration now this carbon sink
is important for the carbon cycle this
diagram
shows the carbon cycle again we're not
going to focus on this
the carbon cycle is the biogeochemical
cycle
by which carbon is exchanged among the
biosphere geosphere
hydrosphere and atmosphere of the earth
so basically
it's the natural way of reusing the
carbon atom so pause this video
and drink your water although the four
systems have their individual identities
there is important interaction between
them
there are 10 possible types of
interactions that could occur
within the earth system what so
four of these interactions are between
the events
and each of the earth's sphere this
could be represented by this figure
the double headed arrow indicates that
the cause and effect
relationships of these interactions go
in both directions
the event affects the hydrosphere but in
turn the hydrosphere
will give something so it's a mutual
relationship
between the event and the hydrosphere or
any other spheres
or any other systems okay so let's have
for example
an interaction between hydrosphere and
an event
on may 18 1980 mount saint helens
erupted so this is our event
this event altered the surrounding
environment in this case
the hydrosphere it could be the ocean
the river or
anything so maybe the water became
polluted i don't understand
i don't understand so you must remember
that one event
can affect many spheres at once the
eruption can affect the
atmosphere or the lithosphere so this
event
caused chemicals to form or to be
present in water this will provide
scientists the information that they
need to study
volcanic eruptions so that event
gave something new which is useful for
the people well at least
useful for the scientists
so this is important because volcanic
eruptions will continue to occur
and will have increasing impact on
humans
so you might get confused why is it not
event
than lithosphere or so why not event
than
biosphere because humans are part of the
biosphere
right yes in this scenario we're
describing the event
and the water so think of the sphere
that is directly
affected although both reasonings are
correct as i said
one event can affect many spheres at
once
my brain has completely turned to mush
there are six more interactions that
occur
among the spheres themselves the 10
types of interactions that can occur
within the earth system
often occur as a series of chain
reactions
so this means that one interaction leads
to another
interaction which leads to yet another
interaction
my computer was confused too just like
the example a while ago
the event hydrosphere that affects the
lithosphere or event hydrosphere
affects the biosphere it is like a
ripple effect or domino effect
so let's have for example volcano then
complex interaction so volcanoes
from the lithosphere may emit large of
quantities of sulfur dioxide which will
affect the atmosphere
air when these sulfur dioxide combined
with water
sulfuric and sulfurous acid form
okay so the rain may bring these acids
to the earth acidifying soils
lakes and rivers which are part of the
hydrosphere now the acidic water leeches
nutrients from the soil into the water
table
which makes the soil less fertile for
plants
the water supply would also be less
potable
in that one scenario three spheres
already
interacted but it's not yet done
this acid drain will soon fall to the
legs
and bodies of water which reduces the ph
of the water
so when the ph of water decreases making
it
more acidic some life forms might be
affected for example the fight of
plankton and zooplankton now if
photosynthesis
is reduced carbon dioxide can build up
and again
if carbon dioxide increases it will
result to
global warming which is the atmosphere
sir
this in turn may contribute to increased
melting of glaciers can you see how
one event affects the whole system
so humans can actually contribute
to this event that's what i have to say
