CABOLIS, JOHN ALEXIS A.

BS STATISTICS 3-1

Activity 3: Earth’s Subsystems

I. ESSAY. Answer the following questions.

1. Why is the Earth’s outer core important? (5 points)
The outer core is the site of violent convection. The churning metal of the outer core
creates and sustains Earth’s magnetic field. Nearly all of Earth’s magnetic field originates
in the fluid outer core. Like a boiling water on a stove, convection forces (which move
heat from one place to another, usually through air or water) constantly churn the molten
metals which also swirl in whirlpools driven by the Earth’s rotation.
Some geoscientists describe the outer core as Earth’s “geodynamo.” For a planet to have
a geodynamo, it must rotate it must have a fluid medium in its interior, the fluid must be
able to conduct electricity, and it must have an internal energy supply that drives
convection in the liquid. Variations in rotation, conductivity, and heat impact the magnetic
field of a geodynamo.
Earth is the “Goldilocks” geodynamo. It rotates steadily, at a brisk 1,657 km per hour at
the Equator. Coriolis forces, an artifact of Earth’s rotation, cause convection currents to
be spiral. The liquid iron in the outer core is an excellent electrical conductor, and creates
the electrical current that drives the magnetic field.
Earth’s magnetic field is crucial to life on our planet. It protects the planet from the charged
particles of the solar wind. Without the shield of the magnetic field, the solar wind would
strip Earth’s atmosphere of the ozone layer that protects life from harmful ultraviolet
radiation. Generated by the motion of molten iron in Earth’s core, the magnetic field
protects our planet from cosmic radiation and from the charged particles emitted by our
Sun. it also provides the basis for navigation with a compass.
Our magnetosphere plays a role of gatekeeper, repelling this unwanted energy that’s
harmful to life on Earth, trapping most of it a safe distance from Earth’s surface.
2. In the modern atmosphere, there is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other
gases. Hypothetically, what would happen if the percentage of nitrogen and
oxygen is exchanged, that is nitrogen becomes 21% and oxygen becomes
78%? (7 points)
It is hard to make assumptions about a hypothesis that is extremely difficult to test. We
can only make assumptions about the evidences that scientists have unraveled from the
past, but the certainties of this assumptions are yet (or worse, never) to be tested.
Anyway, instead of assuming a 71% oxygen, we will just assume that it is higher than it
should be.
If the proportion of oxygen were much greater, then it would be too reactive. Oxygen is a
very reactive nonmetallic element. The atmosphere would be explosive with the oxygen
reacting with the nitrogen to form poisonous nitrous oxides.
Effects on Animals
Spiders, roaches and many other insects will grow even larger in size. These tiny beings
breathe through tiny tubes called trachea, so with more oxygen entering these tubes, their
bodies will eventually expand and grow in size.
Due to the availability of more oxygen to the lungs, with every breath you take, your
stamina would increase tremendously. Oxygen-rich blood would pump through
your veins, fueling your muscles with energy, while better blood circulation will give
you greater agility and concentration.
Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that forms a critical part of our immune
system by using oxygen to fight disease. These cells will have an increased capacity to
fend off harmful viruses and bacteria, due to the higher availability of oxygen, leading to
fewer and less frequent diseases and sicknesses.
However, too much oxygen can lead to something called ‘oxygen toxicity’. The excess
oxygen at a higher partial pressure (concentration and partial pressure are directly
proportional) will cause rampant harmful oxidation in your cells causing them to die.
Increase in oxygen will also speed up metabolism. This could cause over-exertion of your
bodily organs and will lead to exhaustion and fatal consequences for your body, literally
dropping you in your tracks.
Effects on Plant Life
In the event of doubling the oxygen levels on Earth, the most significant changes would
be the speeding up of processes like respiration and combustion. With the presence of
more fuel, i.e., oxygen, forest fires would become more massive and devastating. Wet
vegetation would not provide protection either. Anything and everything would burn more
easily. At the same time, processes like photosynthesis would be sedated due to lower
concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Green vegetation would give way to
a more prehistoric landscape, thronged with mosses and mushrooms.
Effects on Earth’s Atmosphere
With increased oxygen levels, the air density in the atmosphere would also increase. This,
in turn, would enable aeroplanes, gliders, parachutes and birds to fly higher up in the sky
and stay in flight for longer periods. A higher oxygen concentration would lead to a thicker
atmosphere, which would scatter more sunlight, make the sky look bluer and lower the
air temperature.
Oxygen is a major component of the solid Earth, along with Si and elements such as Mg,
Ca, and Na. Nitrogen is not stable as a part of a crystal lattice, so it is not incorporated
into the solid Earth. This is one reason why nitrogen is so enriched in the atmosphere
relative to oxygen. The other primary reason is that, unlike oxygen, nitrogen is very stable
in the atmosphere and is not involved to a great extent in chemical reactions that occur
there. Thus, over geological time, it has built up in the atmosphere to a much greater
extent than oxygen. It is important to know that both nitrogen and oxygen are intimately
involved with the cycle of life on the planet, but that chemicals cycle through this material
on a short time scale relative to the geological processes that have, over time, made the
earth what it is today. N and O are found in the living biosphere and fossil organic matter.
But, only a small fraction (less than 1% for N and much less than 1% for O) of the total
for these elements on the planet are to be found in these places.
3. How did the atmosphere obtain significant oxygen composition? (3 points)
Before photosynthesis evolved, Earth’s atmosphere had no free oxygen. Small quantities
of oxygen were released by geological and biological processes, but did not build up in
the atmosphere due to reactions with reducing minerals.
Oxygen began building up in the atmosphere at approximately 1.85 Ga. At current rates
of primary production, today’s concentration of oxygen could be produced by
photosynthetic organisms in 2,000 years. In the absence of plants, the rate of oxygen
production by photosynthesis was slower in the Precambrian, and the concentrations of
oxygen gas attained were less than 10% of today’s and probably fluctuated greatly.
Since the start of the Cambrian period, atmospheric oxygen concentrations have
fluctuated between 15% and 35% of atmospheric volume. The maximum of 35% was
reached towards the end of the Carboniferous period, a peak which may have contributed
to the large size of various arthropods, including insects, millipedes, and scorpions.
The Great Oxidation Event (GOE), also called the Great Oxygenation Event, was a time
interval during the Early Earth’s Paleoproterozoic era when the Earth’s atmosphere and
the shallow ocean first experienced a rise in the concentration of oxygen. Geological,
isotopic, and chemical evidence suggests that biologically-produced molecular oxygen
started to accumulate in Earth’s atmosphere and changed it from a weakly reducing
atmosphere practically absent of oxygen into an oxidizing one containing abundant free
oxygen, with oxygen levels being as high as 10% of their present atmospheric level by
the end of the GOE.
The GOE is inferred to have been caused by cyanobacteria who evolved porphyrin-based
photosynthesis, which produces dioxygen as a byproduct. The increasing oxygen level
eventually depleted the reducing capacity of ferrous compounds, hydrogen sulfide and
atmospheric methane, and compounded by a global glaciation, devastated with microbial
mats around the Earth’s surface. The subsequent adaptation of surviving archaea via
symbiogenesis with aerobic proteobacteria may have led to the rise of eukaryotic
organisms and the subsequent evolution of multicellular life-forms.
Climate, volcanism, plate tectonics all played a key role in regulating the oxygen level
during various time periods. One thing clear—the origins of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere
derive from one thing: life.

II. Give five (5) examples of how the Earth’s subsystems can interact with each
other. (3 points each) (i.e, Animals (biosphere) obtains drinking water from
freshwater resources(hydrosphere).)
1. Wind (atmosphere) generates waves in the ocean (hydrosphere).
2. The ocean (hydrosphere) is habitat for microscopic life, plants, fish, birds and
animals (biosphere).
3. Waves (hydrosphere) undercut the cliffs causing upper portions of rock
(lithosphere) to collapse.
4. Vegetation (biosphere) adds nutrients and stabilizes the soil (lithosphere).
5. Plants (biosphere) takes up carbon dioxide and releases oxygen (atmosphere).

III. Study your surroundings. What are the subsystems that are present in your
area? How do they interact? Explain in detail. (10 points)
All the four subsystems are present in my area. I have an access to the hydrosphere as I
need it to live. The habitat I am living in lies in the lithosphere. The air I breathe is part of
the atmosphere. And, I belong to the diverse biosphere. All of us need every single
subsystem of Earth in order to live. Just one of them not around will definitely kill us.
The Earth subsystems complement each other. Without one of them, the Earth cannot
sustain life. Without one of them, the other will lose balance. The Earth systems are
interconnected; what affects one can affect another. When a parcel of air in the
atmosphere becomes saturated with water, precipitation, such as rain or snow, can fall to
Earth’s surface. That precipitation connects the hydrosphere with the lithosphere by
promoting erosion and weathering, surface processes that slowly break down large rocks
into smaller ones. Over time, erosion and weathering change large pieces of rocks—or
even mountains—into sediments, like sand or mud. the lithosphere includes all the rocks
that make up Earth, from the partially melted rocks under the crust, to ancient, towering
mountains, to grains of sand on a beach.
Both the lithosphere and hydrosphere provide the habitat for the biosphere, a global
ecosystem that encompasses all the living things on Earth. The atmosphere—a mix of
gases, mostly nitrogen and oxygen along with less abundant gases like water vapor,
ozone, carbon dioxide, and argon—is also essential to life in the biosphere. atmospheric
gases work together to keep the global temperatures within livable limits, shield the
surface of Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun, and allow living things to
thrive.
All the air humans and animals breathe and the plants absorb is part of the atmosphere.
The atmosphere is even part of our habitat. We cannot see it, but the space we are
moving at is part of the atmosphere. The rain, the weather, the climate, the temperature
we feel and experience is part of the atmosphere.
The solid surface we are moving at and where our houses stand is part of the lithosphere.
The establishments we go through, the roads different vehicles drive in, the places we go
to belong to the lithosphere. Aside from that, we also get a lot of what we need in the
lithosphere. We plant different species of plants, either for consumption, for conservation,
or for recreation, in the lithosphere.
It is a no brainer that we cannot live without water. In fact, a large proportion of our
physiological composition is made up of water. We need water to live. Different plants
and animals need water to survive. Lithosphere need water to be vegetative.
Finally, the biosphere is what is making the Earth stand out in our solar system. This huge
massive group of celestial bodies and only the Earth has the ability to sustain life. Anyway,
the different relationships between different species of the biosphere are what is
sustaining it from living. We need a community and ecosystem to live. We most of our
basic needs from other members of the biosphere.
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3105/earths-magnetosphere-protecting-our-planet-from-
harmful-space-
energy/#:~:text=Generated%20by%20the%20motion%20of,for%20navigation%20with%
20a%20compass.
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/core/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_outer_core
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/earth-core
https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/universe/oxygen-levels-doubled-earth-
atmosphere.html
https://www.toppr.com/ask/question/what-would-be-the-effect-on-burning-if-the-
proportions-of-nitrogen-and-oxygen-in/#
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2491/10-interesting-things-about-air/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_oxygen
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/11yve4/what_would_happen_if_the_at
mosphere_was_78_oxygen/
https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/atmo-
nitrogen.html#:~:text=Oxygen%20is%20a%20major%20component,the%20atmosphere
%20relative%20to%20oxygen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event
https://asm.org/Articles/2022/February/The-Great-Oxidation-Event-How-Cyanobacteria-
Change#:~:text=Gradually%2C%20the%20accumulated%20oxygen%20started,2.4%20
–%202.1%20billion%20years%20ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event