You are on page 1of 57

Concise notes related to Earth Sciences for CSIR-UGC JRF/NET Exam.

I complied this notes from various online tutorials and notes which are subject to
be copyright. So, it is not for any commercial use, it is for exam purpose only.

For successes in NET/JRF from Earth Sciences side please have focus on
Climatology and Oceanography (By- D.S. Lal) Oceanography (Sharma and Vatal)
Geodynamics (By- K. Siddhartha) Physical Geography (B- Savindra Singh).

In Geology concentrate on Petrology, Geochemistry, Structural Geology etc

Please let me know if any error, (BTW there are many errors :P )

For any discussion, suggestion and upgradation in notes feel free to mail me at
naiyarimam88@gmail.com or write

Naiyar Imam

Dept. of Applied Geology

National Institute of Technology Raipur

G.E Road-492010, Raipur, C.G. India.


Identification of Igneous Rocks

Chemical Sedimentary Rocks: These same ancient shallow seas sometimes allowed large areas
to become isolated and begin drying up. In that setting, as the seawater grows more concentrated,
minerals begin to come out of solution (precipitate), starting with calcite, then gypsum, then
halite. The resulting rocks are certain limestones or dolomites, gypsum rock, and rock salt
respectively. These rocks, called the evaporite sequence, are also part of the sedimentary clan. In
some cases chert can also form by precipitation. This usually happens below the sediment
surface, where different fluids can circulate and interact chemically.

Diagenesis: Underground Changes All kinds of sedimentary rocks are subject to further changes
during their stay underground. Fluids may penetrate them and change their chemistry; low
temperatures and moderate pressures may change some of the minerals into other minerals.
These processes, which are gentle and do not deform the rocks, are called diagenesis as opposed
to metamorphosis (although there is no well-defined boundary between the two). The most
important types of diagenesis involve the formation of dolomite mineralization in limestones, the
formation of petroleum and of higher grades of coal and the formation of many types of ore
bodies. The industrially important zeolite minerals also form by diagenetic processes.

Sedimentary Rocks Are Stories: The beauty of sedimentary rocks is that their strata are full of
clues to what the past world was like. Those clues might be fossils, marks left by water currents,
mudcracks or more subtle features seen under the microscope or in the lab. From these clues we
know that most sedimentary rocks are of marine origin, usually forming in shallow seas. But
some sedimentary rocks formed on land: Clastic rocks made on the bottoms of large freshwater
lakes or as accumulations of desert sand, organic rocks in peat bogs or lake beds, and evaporites
in playas. These are called continental or terrigenous (land-formed) sedimentary rocks.
Sedimentary rocks are rich in geologic history of a special kind. While igneous and metamorphic
rocks also have stories, they involve the deep Earth and require intensive work to decipher. But
in sedimentary rocks you can recognize, in very direct ways, what the world was like in the
geologic past.
Minerals

Geologists know about thousands of minerals locked in rocks, but when rocks are exposed at the
surface and weather away, less than 10 minerals remain. They are the ingredients of sediment,
which in turn becomes sedimentary rock. When the mountains crumble to the sea, all of their
rocks, whether igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic, break down. Physical or mechanical
weathering reduces the rocks to small particles. These break down further by chemical
weathering in water and oxygen. A very small number of minerals can resist indefinitely: Zircon
is one and native gold is another. Quartz resists for a very long time, which is why sand, being
nearly pure quartz, is so persistent, but given enough time even quartz dissolves into silicic acid,
H4SiO4. But most of the silicate minerals produce solid residues after chemical weathering.
Silicate residues are what make up the minerals of the Earth's land surface. The olivine,
pyroxenes and amphiboles of igneous or metamorphic rocks react with water and leave behind
rusty iron hydroxides. These are an important ingredient in soils but uncommon as solid
minerals. They also add brown and red colors to sedimentary rocks. Feldspar, the most common
silicate mineral group and the main home of aluminum in minerals, reacts with water too. Water
pulls out silicon and other major cations (positive ions) except for aluminum. The feldspar
minerals thus turn into hydrated aluminosilicates that is, clays.

Amazing Clays

Copyright www.examrace.com

Clay minerals are not much to look at, but life on Earth depends on them. At the microscopic
level, clays are tiny flakes, like mica but infinitely smaller. At the molecular level, clay is a
sandwich made of sheets of silica (SiO4) tetrahedra and sheets of magnesium or aluminum
hydroxide (Mg (OH) 2 and Al (OH) 3). Some clays are a proper three-layer sandwich, a Mg/Al
layer between two silica layers, while others are open-face sandwiches of two layers. What
makes clays so valuable for life is that with their tiny particle size and open-faced construction,
they have very large surface areas and can readily accept many substitute cations for their Si, Al
and Mg atoms. Oxygen and hydrogen are available in abundance. From the viewpoint of
microbes, clay minerals are like machine shops full of tools and power hookups. Indeed, even the
building blocks of life amino acids and other organic molecules are enlivened by the energetic,
catalytic environment of clays.

Copyright www.examrace.com

The Makings of Clastic Rocks Co

But back to sediments. With quartz and clay, the overwhelming majority of surface minerals, we
have the ingredients of mud. Mud is what geologists call a sediment that is a mixture of particle
sizes ranging from sand (visible) to clay (invisible), and the world's rivers steadily deliver mud to
the sea and to large lakes and inland basins. That is where the clastic sedimentary rocks are born,
sandstone and mudstone and shale in all their variety.

Copyright www.examrace.com

The Chemical Precipitates

Copyright www.examrace.com

When the mountains were crumbling, much of their mineral content dissolved. This material
reenters the rock cycle in other ways than clay, precipitating out of solution to form other surface
minerals. Calcium is an important cation in igneous rock minerals, but it plays little part in the
clay cycle. Instead calcium remains in water, where it affiliates with carbonate ion (CO3). When
it becomes concentrated enough in seawater, calcium carbonate comes out of solution as calcite.
Living organisms can extract it to build their calcite shells, which also become sediment. Where
sulfur is abundant, calcium combines with it as the mineral gypsum. In other settings, sulfur
captures dissolved iron and precipitates as pyrite. There is also sodium left over from the
breakdown of the silicate minerals. That lingers in the sea until circumstances dry up the brine to
a high concentration, when sodium joins chloride to yield solid salt, or halite. And what of the
dissolved silicic acid? That precipitates underground, from deeply buried fluids, as the silica
mineral chalcedony. Thus every part of the mountains finds a new place in the Earth.

Copyright www.examrace.com

What Is a Mineral?

A mineral is any substance with all of four specific qualities.


Minerals Are Natural: Substances that form without any human help.
Minerals Are Solid: Substances that don't droop or melt or evaporate.
Minerals Are Inorganic: Substances that aren't carbon compounds like those found in
living things.
Minerals Are Crystalline: Substances that have a distinct recipe and arrangement of
atoms.

Unnatural Minerals: Until the 1990S, mineralogists could propose names for chemical
compounds that formed during the breakdown of artificial substances, things found in places
like industrial sludge pits and rusting cars (although iron rust is the same as the natural
minerals hematite, magnetite and goethite). That loophole is now closed, but there are
minerals on the books that aren't truly natural.

Soft Minerals: Traditionally, native mercury is considered a mineral, even though the metal
is liquid at room temperature. At about 40 degrees below zero, mercury solidifies and forms
crystals like other metals. So there are parts of Antarctica where mercury is unimpeachably a
mineral. For a less extreme example, consider the mineral ikaite, a hydrated calcium
carbonate that forms only in cold water. It degrades into calcite and water above 8 degrees
Celsius. It is significant in the polar regions, the ocean floor and other cold places, but you
can't bring it into the lab except in a freezer. Ice is a mineral, even though it isn't listed in the
mineral field guide. But when ice collects in large enough bodies, it flows in its solid state,
that's what glaciers are. And salt (halite) behaves similarly, rising underground in broad
domes and sometimes spilling out in salt glaciers. Indeed, all minerals, and the rocks they are
part of, slowly deform given enough heat and pressure. That's what makes plate tectonics
possible. So in a sense, no mineral is really solid except maybe diamond. Other minerals that
aren't quite solid are instead flexible. The mica minerals are the best-known example, but
molybdenite is another. Its metallic flakes can be crumpled like aluminum foil. And of course
the asbestos mineral chrysotile is stringy enough to weave into cloth.

Organic Minerals: The rule that minerals must be inorganic may be the strictest one. The
substances that make up coal, for instance, are different kinds of hydrocarbon compounds
derived from cell walls, wood, pollen and so on. These are called macerals instead of
minerals (for more see Coal in a Nutshell). But if coal is squeezed hard enough for long
enough, the carbon sheds all its other elements and becomes graphite. Even though it is of
organic origin, graphite is a true mineral, carbon atoms arranged in sheets. Diamond,
similarly, is carbon atoms arranged in a rigid framework. After some 4 billion years of life on
Earth, it's safe to say that all the world's diamonds and graphite are of organic origin even if
they aren't strictly speaking organic.

Amorphous Minerals: A few things fall short in crystallinity, hard as we try. Many minerals
form crystals that are too small to see under the microscope. But even these can be shown to
be crystalline at the nano-scale using the technique of X-ray powder diffraction, though,
because X-rays are a super-short-wave type of light that can image extremely small things.
Having a crystal form means that the substance has a definite recipe, or chemical formula. It
might be as simple as halite's (NaCl) or complex like, say, epidote (Ca2Al2 (Fe3 +, Al)
(SiO4) (Si2O7) O (OH) ), but if you were shrunk to an atom's size, you could tell what
mineral you were seeing by its molecular makeup and arrangement. But a few substances fail
the X-ray test. They are truly glasses or colloids, with a fully random structure at the atomic
scale. They are amorphous, scientific Latin for formless. These get the honorary name
mineraloid. Mineraloids are a small club: Strictly speaking it includes only opal and
lechatelierite. Opal is a nearly random combination of silica (SiO2, the same as quartz) and
water formed under near-surface conditions, while lechatelierite is a quartz glass formed by
the shock of a meteorite impact or lightning striking the ground. Other substances considered
mineraloids include the gemstones jet and amber, which are respectively high-quality fossils
of coal and tree resin. Pearl goes here too, although I disagree because by that logic, seashells
should be included. The last mineraloid is rather like the rusty car I mentioned earlier:
Limonite is a mixture of iron oxides that, while it may assume the shape of a proper iron-
oxide mineral, has no structure or order whatever.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Introduction to Metamorphic Petrology

Copyright www.examrace.com

Metamorphic petrology is the study of rocks which have been changed (metamorphosed) by heat
and pressure. They are broadly categorized into regional and contact. Metamorphism is an
extension of the process which forms sedimentary rocks from sediment: Lithification. However,
all types of rocks; igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic, can all be metamorphosed. During
metamorphism no melting takes place. All the chemical reactions which take place occur in the
solid-state.

Factors Controlling Characteristics: The characteristics of a metamorphic rock depend on the


following factors:
Composition of parent rock
Temperature and Pressure of metamorphism
Fluid
Time

The composition of the parent rock does not usually change during metamorphism (if it does it is
then called metasomatism). The changes are the due to the minerals changing. A basalt which
has around 50% of silica will produce a metabasalt with 50% silica. Temperature and pressure
affect the rock in terms of the mineral assemblage which is stable at the pressure and temperature
obtained. The minerals stable at the pressure and temperatures that metamorphic rocks reach are
simulated in a lab. This allows geologists to look at a mineral assemblage and give a (good)
estimate of the pressure and temperature that the sample was exposed to. This gives tectonic
information which is useful in other branches of geology. Fluid changes the chemical
composition of the rock being metamorphosed and hence is called metasomatism. The addition
of fluid can radically change the rock. Time has an important role as a rock which is heated to an
extreme temperature for a short (years) period of time will not be altered too much. A rock
heated for a longer period of time (millions of years) will show changes.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Classification

Copyright www.examrace.com

The classification of metamorphic rocks is split into contact and regionally metamorphosed
rocks. After this it is divided according to the amount of metamorphism that has taken place
and/or on the mineral content.
Contact Metamorphism (based on mineral content)
1. Parent Rock-Metamorphic rock-Dominant Minerals-Characteristics
2. Limestone-Marble-Calcite-Interlocking grains. Fizzes in weak acid
3. Quartz-Sandstone-Quartzite-Quartz Sugary texture
4. Shale-Hornfels (Spotted Rock) -Micas-Dark colour

mRegional Metamorphism (name based on degree of metamorphism)

1. Texture-Rock Name-Characteristics
2. Slatey-Slate-Splits easily into sheets
3. Between slate and schistose-Phylitte-Silky lustre, splits into wavy sheets
4. Schistose-Schist-Pearly looking. Silky to touch
5. Gneissic-Gneiss-Wavy, white and dark layers

Copyright www.examrace.com

Causes of Metamorphism

Contact: Caused by heating from an external source. Contact metamorphism occurs next to an
igneous body. The degree of metamorphism decreases away from the body. This occurs at fairly
shallow depths, as temperature not pressure is the dominating factor.

Regional: Regional metamorphism is caused by high pressure and temperatures usually during
mountain building (oregenesis). The extremes of regionally metamorphic rocks are a high
pressure, low temperature rock (called a blueschist) and a high pressure and very high
temperature rock (called a granulite). If the rock is heated to the point of melting, but doesn't
actually melt, it is called a migmatite.

Copyright www.examrace.com

The Four Agents of Regional Metamorphism

Copyright www.examrace.com

Heat and pressure usually work together, because both rise as you go deeper in the Earth. The
clay minerals of sedimentary rocks, in particular, respond to high temperatures and pressures.
Clays are surface minerals, which form as feldspar and mica break down in the conditions at the
Earth's surface.
With heat and pressure they slowly return to mica and feldspar. Thus the sedimentary rock shale
metamorphoses first into slate, then into phyllite, then schist. The mineral quartz does not change
under high temperature and pressure, although it becomes more strongly cemented as the
sedimentary rock sandstone turns to quartzite. Intermediate rocks that mix sand and clay.
Mudstones. Metamorphose into gneiss. The sedimentary rock limestone recrystallizes and
becomes marble.

Fluids are the most important agent of metamorphism. Every rock contains some water, but
sedimentary rocks hold the most. First there is the water that was trapped in the sediment as it
became rock. Second is the water that is liberated by clay minerals as they change back to
feldspar and mica. This water can become so charged with dissolved materials that the resulting
fluid is no less than a liquid mineral. It may be acidic or alkaline, full of silica (forming
chalcedony) or full of sulfides or carbonates or metals, in endless variety. Fluids tend to wander
away from their birthplaces, interacting with rocks elsewhere. That process, the interaction of
rock with chemically active fluids, is called metasomatism.

Strain refers to any change in the shape of rocks due to the force of stress. As fluids form and
move in buried rocks, new minerals grow with their grains oriented according to the direction of
pressure. Where the strain makes the rock stretch (shear strain), these minerals form layers. In
most metamorphic rocks the layers are made of mica. The presence of mineral layers is called
foliation and is important to observe when identifying a metamorphic rock. As strain increases,
the foliation becomes more intense, and the mineral sort themselves into thicker layers. That's
what gives schist and gneiss their foliation.

Metamorphism can be so intense, with all four factors acting at their extreme range, that the
foliation can be warped and stirred like taffy, and the result is called migmatite. With further
metamorphism, rocks can be turned into something hard to tell from plutonic granites. These
kinds of rocks give joy to experts because of what they say about deep-seated conditions during
things like plate collisions. The rest of us can only admire the laboratory skills needed to make
sense of such rocks.
Contact or Local Metamorphism: A lesser type of metamorphism, important in specific
localities, is contact metamorphism. This usually occurs near igneous intrusions, where hot
magma forces itself into sedimentary strata. The rocks next to the lava invasion are baked into
hornfels, another subject for specialists. Lava can rip chunks of country rock off the channel wall
and turn them into exotic minerals, too. Underground coal fires can also cause mild contact
metamorphism of the same degree as occurs when baking bricks.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Introduction to Igneous Petrology

Copyright www.examrace.com

Igneous rocks are formed form the cooling of molten rock, magma. They are crystalline, which
means they are made up of crystals joined together. There are many different types of igneous
rocks but they fall into two (very) broad categories; intrusive and extrusive. Intrusive rocks are
igneous rocks which form at depth. They cool slowly, taking tens of thousand of years to cool.
They have large crystals, tens of millimetres in size. Extrusive rocks are those which have
erupted from volcanoes. They have very small crystals, not visible to the naked eye, as they
cooled quickly. Of course there is every grain size possible in between these two extremes.

Chemistry: The chemistry of igneous rocks is quite complicated. It depends on two things;
evolution and silica saturation. In this tutorial we will concern ourselves with the effect of
evolution only, the silica saturation will be assumed to be constant. Igneous rocks evolve as they
cool. This process is called differentiation. The mechanism for this process is as follows:

Liquid rich in minerals A, B and C.


Remove mineral A as it crystallises at a higher temperature than B and C. Liquid is
relatively enriched in minerals B and C.
Remove mineral B as it crystallises at a higher temperature than C. Liquid is now
completely mineral C. The minerals are removed in order of Bowen's Reaction Series.
As you can see, if you remove olivine, the magma will become more enriched in pyroxenes etc.
This process continues until only quartz is left. This leads us to the following, simple,
identification.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Textures & Names

Copyright www.examrace.com

Igneous rocks have many textures which tell us about their cooling histories and/or chemistry. In
general rocks which have cooled rapidly are fine grained, that is with grains which are not visible
to the naked eye. Rocks which have cooled slowly have large grains, sometimes as large as
several centimeters across:

Textures & Names: This size variation arises as grains grow around a nucleus of some sort, i.e.a
minute grain. The slower the cooling the more time grains have to grow and amalgamate. Grains
which show their true shape are said to be euhedral. Grains which show no shape are anhedral.
Using this information, the order of grain growth can be worked out. For example, a rock may
have large euhedral quartz grains, which are surrounded by anhedral feldspar. The quartz grew
first as it had space, the feldspar then grew around the quartz.
Other features seen are: Coyright www.examrace.co

Porphyritic texture-large grains (phenocrysts) surrounded by much finer grains


(groundamss). This implies that the large grains grew slowly at depth, the magma with
the grains in it, then rose up in the crust, cooling much more quickly forming the fine
grains (the matrix).
Exsolution-occurs within grains on certain minerals (pyroxenes and feldspars). This can
give an indication of pressure and hence depth.
Xenoliths-bits of the rock into which the magma intruded
Cumulate layer-when a mineral grows which is denser than the magma, it will sink to the
base of the chamber causing a cumulate layer. Minerals may form from liquid trapped
between the grains-interstitial minerals.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Igneous Rock Formations


Copyright www.examrace.com

Igneous rock bodies are either intrusive or extrusive. Extrusive bodies are lava flows. If these
occur under water they form pillow lavas. On land they can form lava tubes, aa (pronounced ah-
ah and looks blocky) or pahoehoe (which looks ropey).

Intrusive bodies form when magma is injected into existing rock layers. A dyke is a body which
cuts across the country (host) rock. A sill is parallel to the bedding layers. The baked margin is
an area in the country rock, in contact with the igneous body, which has been thermally
metamorphosed. The chilled margin is the area in an igneous body, in contact with the country
rock, which cooled quicker than the rest of the rock due to the temperature difference between
the magma and the country rock. These features are not always visible. The scale of these bodies
is from millimetres to tens or even hundreds of metres.

The largest of igneous bodies is a pluton or batholith. These are massive, hundreds of kilometres
in size. The moors of Cornwall and Devon are outcrops of a massive batholith.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Sedimentology

Copyright www.examrace.com

Sedimentary rocks are made by the accumulation of particles of older rocks, either as clasts
(chunks of rocks) or as mineral grains, chemically or biogenically precipitated. Clastic
sedimentary rocks are principally classified on the basis of grain size and then further divided in
terms of mineralogy. One of the most important things sedimentary rocks can tell us about is
palaeoenvironments-ancient environments. This is done by looking at the sedimentary structures
and the fossils contained within the rocks. They are also an important resource for oil, gas and
coal.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Classification:

Classification of sedimentary rocks is based principally on grain size. Grain size is measured in
millimetres and is the approximate diameter of a single grain. There are several aids for
estimating grain size in the field as well as more sophisticated aids when using thin secitons of
sedimentary rocks under a microscope. The table below gives the grain sizes and names of the
common sedimentary rocks.

NB: A conglomerate has rounded clasts, a breccia has angular clasts.

Classification of clastic sedimentary rocks based on grain size.


Diameter (mm) -Sediment Name-Rock Type

Greater than 256-Boulder-Rudaceous-Conglomerate or Breccia


Between 256 and 64-Cobble
Between 2 and 64-Pebble
Between 2 and 0.625-Sand-Arenaceous Sandstone
Between 0.625 and 0.0039-Silt-Argillaceous siltstone
Less than 0.0039-Clay-Claystone or mudstone

Textures: Textures in sedimentary rocks depend on the type of grains making up the rock.

Roundness-the degree of rounding of a grain. Not to be confused with sphericity. Grains


can be angular to well rounded. A well rounded grain has generally traveled further
before deposition.
Sphericity-degree to which grain is a perfect sphere. Does NOT depend on roundness.
Sorting-the amount of different sized grains in a rock. Ranges from very poor to well
sorted.
Matrix or cement-the finer grains in a rock (matrix) or a chemical precipitate (cement)
holding the rock together. Common cements are calcite or quartz.
Competence-the toughness of a rock.

Other properties of a sedimentary rock are porosity and permeability. The ability to store fluid (e.
g. Oil, gas or water) is the porosity. The porosity is expressed as a percentage and depends on the
amount of pore space in the rock. The ability to allow a fluid to pass through a rock is the
permeability. Fluid can pass through using cracks, fissures or space between grains. A high
porosity rock can have a low permeability if the pore space does not connect in three dimensions.

Structures: The structures in a rock tell us a great deal about the palaeoenvironment. This is
where one of the great sayings in geology comes in use:

o The present is the key to the past -the law of uniformatarianism


o This essentially means if we can understand what processes occur today, for example, the
forming of ripples in a tidal mud, then these principles can be applied to the geological
record. Below are some examples of sedimentary structures and what formed them.
o A way-up structure tells us which way up the bed was originally deposited. Graded
bedding usually occurs with the coarse grains at the bottom. If you find some graded
bedding with coarse grains at the top, then the bed has probably been tectonically turned
upside down (e. g. By folding).
o Cross Bedding (or stratification). The entire dune as around a metre in height. These
cross beds were formed in a shallow fluvial environment, which can determined using the
relatively poor sorting of the sandstone.
o Mudcracks formed from the drying out of mud and then preserved in the rock. The scale
on the left shows centimeters and inches.
Copyright www.examrace.c

Structural Geology

Copyright www.examrace.com

Structural geology is the study of the features formed by geological processes. Features include
faults, folds and dipping strata. Geologists can work out the order of events and see which events
are related by taking fairly simple measurements and using simple methods.

Measurements and Techniques: The most obvious thing to do when trying to decipher the
structural history of a formation is to describe it. One way of doing this is to measure the dip and
strike. The dip is the amount a bed of rock is tipped from the horizontal. The strike is the
direction which is ninety degrees from the dip, i.e.. Along the horizontal line on the bed.
The strike can be in two directions, hence the dip could be in one of two directions also. There is
a convention for the strike to be the in the direction you are facing if the rocks are dipping to
your right. Some geologists prefer to measure the dip direction, rather than strike, as it is slightly
simpler. However, all maps use dip and strike, not dip direction.

This is complicated slightly by apparent dip. This is due to the fact that you are not always
looking edge on (perpendicular) to the bed you are measuring. If you are looking at a bed at a
slight angle, then you see the apparent dip. The true dip will be greater than the apparent dip, as
it is the maximum amount of dip, so the apparent dip can appear to be anything from 0 to the
maximum (true) dip.

In this diagram, the dip is 30 with a strike north/south (0 /180 ), the dip direction is 270

On a geological map, symbols are used for the dip and strike. The strike is represented by a bar,
and the dip by a mark on the strike bar on the downdip direction with the dip written alongside,
as shown on the map below left. A geological cross section can be drawn from the map showing
the subsurface structure. Obviously, only features which can be seen on the surface can be
represented. The cross-section below right is drawn using the values in the map alongside.

A technique which is used often is to plot values of dip and dip direction on a stereogram. A
stereogram (or stereonet or hemispherical projection) is a way of representing 3-dimensional
directions on a2-dimensional surface. The net is a projection from the point onto the equator.

The points are placed all around the sphere representing 3d space. The points are projected down
onto the equatorial plane on a line which meets up at the south pole

Folds: Folding of rocks is caused by the compression of rocks. This occurs slowly, over a long
period of time. If this happened quickly, the rocks would break, and fault. This is due to the
mechanical properties of rocks, namely it's plastic nature. If a rock is stretched slowly, then it
will behave in a ductile fashion. If stretched quickly, the rock behaves in a brittle fashion.
Nomenclature used when describing folds Folds are classified by shape and the chronological
order of rocks in them. The shape of a fold is described by the angle between the limbs, which
are given the terms: Gentle (120 180 ), open (70 120 ), close (30 70 ), tight (5 30 ) or
isoclinal (0 5 ).

Hinge: Where curvature of the fold is at a maximum


Crest & Trough: Where fold surface reaches a minimum and maximum respectively
Limb: Beds between two hinges
Antiform & Synform: Convex upwards or convex downward folds respectively
Anticline & Syncline: Older or younger beds at the core respectively. Can be used in
conjunction with antiform and synform, i.e.. An antiformal syncline Copyright www.examrace.co

Copyright www.examrace.com

Ooid Formation

Copyright www.examrace.com

Introduction: Ooids are spherical or ellipsoid concretions of calcium carbonate, usually less
than 2mm in diameter (Donahue, 1969; Tucker and Wright, 1990). There have been examples in
the Neoprotozoic of ooids that are 16mm in diameter (Sumner, 1993), but all modern ooids are
2mm or less.

The interior of an ooid is usually composed of a nucleus, which is surrounded by a cortex of


calcite or aragonite crystals that are arranged radially, tangentially or randomly. These crystals
are arranged in concentric lamina. The nucleus can be a shell fragment, quartz grain or any other
small fragment (including an aragonite/calcite amalgamation).

The formation of these objects has been speculated from the early 19th Century and ideas for
their origin range from crinoid eggs, insect eggs to the present day explanation of precipitated
layers of CaCO3 (Simone, 1981).

Recent ooids are forming today in places such as the Bahamas (Tucker and Wright, 1990;
Newell et al. 1966) and Shark Bay, Australia and are all composed of aragonite.
Life Cycle: Ooids do not form continuously; instead they go through stages of growth and rest
(Davis et al. 1978). Davies et al (1978). Describe the typical life cycle of a Bahamian ooid:
Suspension Growth Phase Nuclei introduced into a suitable location, with enough
turbulence to keep them in suspension and water that is supersaturated in CaCO3, will
induce a short lived inorganic precipitation of calcium carbonate on their surfaces. The
precipitation is stopped by crystal poisoning, which is the addition of Mg2 + or H + onto
the surface. If the proto-ooids remain in this environment the outer coating will be lost
due to attrition. This means the suspension phase is short lived, but may be repeated
several times.
Temporary Resting Phase Coated nuclei resting in the marine environment will quickly
equilibrate with the surrounding fluid. Removal of the poisonous ions will reactivate the
coated surface in such conditions. However, not all poisonous ions are removed, so
after several growth and temporary resting stages have been completed a third stage is
required.
Sleeping Stage A new surface is required in order to form a new coating. This membrane
is probably organic in origin. Experiments show that this takes 1 3 weeks to form. The
membrane forms a new, stable substratum for new CaCO3 precipitation.
The timing of these stages means that an ooid spends only 5% of its time actually
growing; the rest is spent sleeping (Davis et al. 1978; Bathurst, 1967).

Formation: As can be seen from the life cycle, the following factors will have an affect ooid
growth: (Monoghan and Lytle, 1956; Newell, 1960; Bathurst, 1967; Davis et al. 1978; Deelman,
1978; Heller, 1980; Simone, 1981; Sumner and Grotzinger, 1993):

1. Supersaturation: The supersaturation of the seawater is of vital importance (Monoghan


and Lytle, 1956). Monoghan and Lytle (1956) investigated the effect of CO3
concentration on the formation of ooids. They found that the concentration needed to be
above 0.002 moles/litre and below 0.0167 moles/litre for ooids to form successfully.
Below 0.002 moles/litre only aragonite needles or poor ooids formed. Above 0.0167
moles/litre the ooids formed an amorphous mass. Other authors have stressed the
importance of supersaturation, but they give no quantitative information (Bathurst, 1967;
Davies et al. 1978; Simone, 1981).
2. Nuclei: The type of nuclei affects the rate of growth and the size of each lamination
(Davies et al. 1978). Organic coating on the nuclei give faster and longer precipitation,
while using oxidised quartz show much slower and shorter precipitation. Davies et al
(1978). Show their results as a change of pH (a negative pH change is assumed to
indicate precipitation), rather than growth or precipitation rates.
3. Agitation: The agitation an ooid undergoes must be enough to keep it in suspension for
the growing phase followed by removal to a non-supersaturated fluid (the rest phase)
(Newell, 1960; Davies et al. 1978; Heller, 1980). Davies et al (1978). Conducted a study
using two different speeds of water current to test this: 5Cm/s and 10 cm/s. The ooids
were kept in suspension by this water flow, and in other experiments involving horizontal
shaking and tumbling motion formed, the ooids were non-existent or more like those
formed in non-agitated water in the presence of organic compounds. In all cases of
different nuclei the larger water current increase precipitation rates, but the time that
precipitation changed depending on the nuclei type. Agitation may also control ooid size
(Sumner and Grotzinger, 1993). As the ooid grows the mass lost per impact with another
object increases as the cube of the radius. The mass gained from growth is proportional to
the square of the radius. Eventually, the mass loss will equal or exceed the mass gained,
limiting the size of the ooid. Sumner and Grotzinger (1993) performed numerical
modelling on ooid formation. Their model gave a higher ooid radius in higher velocity
flows, with a decrease that looks like an exponential or a power law with decreasing
velocity (Sumner and Grotzinger, 1993, their fig 6). They did not include the impact of
ooids to limit size. The agitation can come from waves or tidal movements. Storms
provide that mixing of ooids in the rest stage and those that can no longer precipitate.
There is some change in crystal orientation with the amount of agitation (Donahue,
1969). Ooids can form in quiet waters, but organic CaCO3 precipitation is needed for
them to form (Suess and Fatterer, 1972). These ooids will show radial crystals. Ooids
formed in agitated waters have crystals arranged tangentially. The change between
suspension to bedload transport may also initiate this change (Deelman, 1978).
4. Location: The location off ooid formation is important. They must be kept in the same
area throughout the formation, in order that their life cycle can be completed (Simone,
1981).
5. Water Depth: Most ooids form in water less than 2m deep (Simone, 1981), but this may
have more to do with wave agitation and tidal movements than water depth itself. Newell
et al (1960). Surveyed sediment at various depths and calculated the % fraction of ooids
in the sediment. All the sediments that are near 100% ooids are formed with 8m of the
surface.

Copyright www.examrace.com

The Use Of Diatoms As Palaeoenvironmental Indicators

Copyright www.examrace.com

Introduction: Diatoms are microscopic, photosynthetic algae (which due to the yellow-brown
chloroplasts they contain are sometimes referred to as golden algae). Comprising one of the most
common types of phytoplankton, they are found in a diverse range of environments from
freshwater to saline oceanic waters. It is estimated that 20 25% of the entire organic carbon
fixation on Earth; via photosynthesis, is attributable to diatoms-in large due to their great
abundance.

Characteristics: Photosynthetic, unicellular algae containing pigments, but possessing no


flagella or pseudopodia. Also capable of absorbing nutrients in addition to producing them.
Range in size from mm to 2 mm, but are generally ~40 mm.
Secrete a frustule or test, composed of silica, which under favourable conditions can be
preserved. Each frustule consists of two valves, which fit closely over the top of each
other-somewhat analogous to a petri-dish.
The valve surface is often, but not always, ornamented with any combination of pits,
pores, or striations (rib-like structures).
Always inhabit the photic zone. For this reason, benthic forms are never present on the
floor of very deep lakes, for example Loch Ness.
Reproduce primarily via asexual cell division.
Classification: Diatoms are differentiated between by forms that are centric, i.e.. Circular, and
pennate, i.e.. Having bilateral form. The word pennate usually pertains to feathers, wings, or
feather-like structures however; its use with diatoms denotes bilateral form.
In addition, diatoms can be divided into solitary and colonial forms. Diatoms can be further sub-
divided according to whether they possess a raphe (a median line or slot in the cell wall), a
pseudoraphe, or completely lack a raphe.

Ecology: As previously mentioned, diatoms are very abundant, largely existing wherever there is
water. The study of extant diatom species, and particularly their ecologies, can provide useful
information for the interpretation of palaeoenvironmental conditions. Diatoms exhibit three
major modes of existence:
a. Planktonic
b. Benthic (Lake/Sea/Ocean bed)
c. Macrophytic (Attached to plants)

Planktonic forms contain oil globules, which help to keep the diatom afloat in the water
column. As a result, it is often easier to identify dead diatoms, in which the internal oil
globules and chloroplasts have decayed away to reveal the valve ornamentation, than it is
to identify living diatoms to species level.
All diatom species are highly sensitive to environmental changes, giving rise to very
different assemblages under rather tight environmental constraints. For example, diatoms
display varying assemblages according to pH, trophic status, and pollution levels.
Diatoms bloom seasonally, with different species blooming at different times of the year.

Sampling: Where conditions are conducive, diatom remains will usually accumulate on lake/sea
beds, and will often exhibit mixed assemblages (i.e.. Consist of both benthic and planktonic
forms, in addition to those brought in from tributary river/stream systems, and from soil in-
wash), The best preservation conditions in terms of diatoms are those with any mixture of fine
grained, anaerobic, and slightly acidic sediments.
Sampling is most frequently carried out by random core samples of a given area, as this
preserves changes in the diatom assemblages over time. Where cores are sampled from beneath
existing lakes, care should be taken to disturb the sediment-water interface as little as possible.
Often a rich organic mud called gyttja (typical of interglacial periods), will have accumulated,
consisting of mainly faecal debris, animal and plant remains, along with some clastic component
(sand/silt/clay), Will retain a record of the most recent diatom activity.

Uses Of Diatoms: In general diatoms can be used to trace a variety of environmental


phenomena, from changes in sea level (whether brought about by climate change or tectonic
activity), breaches of coastal barriers (as a result of storms and/or sea-level rise), to the
evaporation of lakes (increasing salinity determining diatom assemblages), Below is an outline
of their most prevalent uses.

Indicators of Salinity:
Marine: Some species are restricted to a very narrow range of salinities and are know as
stenohaline species, others have no such restrictions and are known as cosmopolitan
species. As a result, this causes zonation, which is particularly evident in estuaries, where
a spectrum (and a gradient for such a spectrum) can be calculated from coastal to
offshore species. This has applications in determining palaeo-fluvial environments, and
sediment focusing.
Freshwater: Some freshwater species will tolerate a little salt, and are known as
halophilic, occurring in coastal lakes, or where the groundwater is rich in salts. However
most freshwater species are stenohaline and will not tolerate salt.
Indicators of Productivity (Trophic Status)
There are several ways of deducing palaeotrophic status using diatoms:
Total Diatom Count-This is relatively simple, the more diatoms there are in your sample,
the more productive a given body of water is:
Centric: Pennate Ratio-The more centrics there are in your sample, the more productive
the environment is (With the exception of a species called Cyclotella.).
Indicator Species-Certain species are typical of certain conditions, for example
Stephanodiscus is typical of eutrophic (abundant nutrient) conditions, and Tabellaria of
oligotrophic (very low nutrient) conditions.
Planktonic: Non-planktonic Ratio-Planktonic forms are more common in eutrophic lakes.
Diversity Indicators-A low overall diversity amongst diatoms indicates stressful
conditions, for example extreme trophic status (hyper-oligotrophic or hyper-eutrophic).
However this could also indicate a source of pollution etc.

Indicators of Palaeo-pH This perhaps the most important and most widely used application of
diatom studies.
Diatoms are highly sensitive to pH and can illustrate differences of as little as 0.1 pH units. To
accomplish this species are classified as either:
Acidobiontic (Acid Living) pH < 7
Acidophilous (Acid Preferring) pH 7
Circumneutral pH = 7 Alkaliphilous
(Alkali Preferring) pH 7
Alkalibiontic (Alkali Living) pH > 7

This method is highly dependent upon knowing the pH preference for all of the diatoms present,
as the percentage of each of the above groups is measured and the ratios used to calculate a log
index of the given population.

Indicators of Palaeo-temperature: Diatoms are not very useful in determining changes in


palaeo-temperature, due to the fact that the large majority of species will tolerate very wide
ranges of temperature, typically from 0OC to 20OC.
That said, different assemblages are present when comparing warm and cold waters.
However, this is almost certainly due to other overriding factors such as: Incident solar
radiation, water chemistry, pH, and nutrient availability.
Difficulties in Interpreting Diatom Samples
Not all diatoms present in a body of water may settle out, they can be lost via outflows,
dissolve, be crushed or eaten. In the best case scenario your assemblage is simply
incomplete, or comparatively low in overall abundance. In the worst case scenario the
ratios of different diatoms may be completely skewed (for example planktonic forms with
their oil-filled globules may be more prone to out-washing),
Samples may contain diatoms washed in from outside your sample area, from soils,
animal droppings, or tributaries. The sample becomes augmented, and in the worst case
scenario may include indicator species contrary to the actual palaeo-environmental
conditions.
There may be insufficient silica dissolved in the body of water for diatoms to produce
robust, preservable frustules, resulting in a complete absence in your sample.
Taxonomy, especially in poorly preserved specimens, can often be difficult resulting in
mis-identification and a chain of consequent errors.
The ecology is not well known for all species, causing problems and/or errors with
interpretation.
Copyright www.examrace.com

Copyright www.examrace.com

Planetary Science

Astronomy: It is the observational and theoretical study of celestial bodies of the interviewing
regions of space and the universe as a whole space. It is near-vaccum existing beyond the
atmosphere of all bodies in the universe. The extent of space; i.e.. whether it is finite to infinite is
as yet unresolved.

Astronomical Distances: A light year is an astronomical unit of measurement of distance; it is


the distance that light, moving at 300, 000 km/second, travels in a year. Astronomical unit is the
average distance between the earth and the sun. It is approximately one crore km.

Universe: It is the entire group of heavenly bodies that exist-all the planets, stars, galaxies and
anything else that can be thought of. On the scale of atoms, the universe has over 90 percent of
hydrogen. Most of these atoms arc collected into gaseous stars which like the sun, are
transforming hydrogen into helium by means of nulcear fusion reactions in their extremely hot
interiors. This hydrogen burning is therefore slowly changing the composition of the universe.
The observation that the universe is expanding implies that the universe is evolving. According
to Big Bang Theory all the matter in the universe was concentrated in a very dense and hot
primeval fine ball in the beginning. An explosion occurred about 20 billion years ago and since
then the matter in the universe is moving away in the form of galaxies. On account of continuous
expansion the galaxies will go beyond the boundary and will be lost. Therefore the number of
galaxies per unit volume will go on decreasing and ultimately we will have an empty universe. If
the total mass of the universe is more than a certain value the expansion may be stopped by its
gravitational pull and the universe may contract again. Thus there may be alternate expansions
and contractions giving rise to a pulsating universe. The third possibility is that new galaxies are
continuously being created out of empty space to fill up the gap caused by the galaxies which
leave the observable part of the universe. This is known as steady state theory.

Galaxy: Galaxies are giant assemblies of stars, gases and dust into which most of the visible
matter in the universe is concentrated. Each galaxy exists as a separate though not always
entirely independent system held together and organized largely by the gravitational interactions
between its various components. The galaxies can be divided into three broad categories
elliptical; spiral; irregular. Our milky way is the giant star to which the sun belongs. The galaxy
has a spiral structure and like other spiral galaxies, is highly flattened. It contains around (1011)
stars. The solar system is situated in the central plane of the milky way.

Stars: Stars are made up of self-luminous mass of hot gases held together by its own gravity. An
average star consists of 70 percent hydrogen, 28 percent helium, 15 percent carbon, nitrogen and
neon, and 0.5 percent iron group and heavier elements. The stars have the largest fraction of the
mass of the universe. Stars are born, produce nuclear energy, evolve and eventually die. At the
end of its I life the production of energy in the star is to large and rapid that the star explodes in
the form of nova or supernova, throwing out large portion of its envelope into interstellar space.
The core that remains behind may end up as one of the following three types of stellar remnants.

Dwarf Star: If the original mass of the star is between 2 and 5 solar masses, the back pick of the
supernova explosion will compress the core of the star to nuclear densities giving rise to a
neutron star. The mass of a neutron is less than 2 solar masses and its radius is about 10 kms.
Neutron Star: If the original mass of the star is between 2 and 5 solar masses, the back kick of
the supernova explosion will compress the core of the star to nuclear densities giving rise to a
neutron star. The mass of neutron star is less than 2 solar masses and its radius is about 10 kms.

Black Hole: If the original mass of the star is more than 5 solar masses, the back kick of the
supernova explosion becomes so violent that the core continues to contract indefinitely giving
rise to a black hole. As the contraction proceeds, the radius decreases continuously and
acceleration at the surface goes on increasing due to gravity. Finally a stage comes when the
value of the gravitational pull has become so high that even photons cannot escape from the
surface of the body. On the contrary any particle or photon approaching it will be immediately
swallowed.
Constellations: These are the groups of the stars forming special shapes, e. g. Ursa major or the
great bear, Ursa minor or the little bear.

Satellite (natural): Satellites are the natural bodies that orbit a planet. The nine major planets of
the solar system have a total of at least 49 known satellites between them. In addition the
numerous small bodies that comprise the rings of the Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus may be regarded
as natural satellites.

Sun: Sun is the central body of the solar system and is the nearest to earth. It looks brightest
because it is only 8 light minutes away from the earth. The outermost part of the sun's
atmosphere is called Corona Photosphere is the visible surface of the sun. The stratum of the
sun's atmosphere immediately above the photosphere and below the corona is chromospheres.
The temperature at the centre of the sun is about 14 million (14 106) Kelvin. The sun is made
up of gases. Hydrogen accounts for 70 percent of its mass, and the remainder is made up of 28
percent helium and 2 percent all other heavier elements. The controlled thermonuclear reactions
are responsible for the generation of solar energy.

Planet: A planet is a heavenly body. That moves in an orbit around a star, e. g. the sun. The
planets appear to be very bright stars that do not twinkle. There are nine planets in our solar
system. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are visible to the naked eye. Venus is the
brightest object in the night sky, leaving out the moon. Venus is visible only during the early
morning or evening and therefore it is called morning or evening star.

Asteroids: They are also called as minor planets which circle in a broad belt between the orbits
of mars and Jupiter. They are chunks of rocks covered in frozen gases.

Comet: Comet is a part of solar system. A comet travels on a regular path or orbits around the
sun. They are made up of solid matter combined with gases. A comet has a head and tail. As a
comet approaches the sun a tail usually appears behind it. A few comets appear periodically, e. g,
Halley's comet which comes after every 76 years.
Meteors or Shooting Stars: These are the r: Lcks that travel through space. Each day many
millions of them enter the earth's atmosphere from the outer space. Most of them are destroyed
by air friction of the atmosphere. A few are so large that they completely burn away. These strike
the earth and are called meteorites.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Motions of the Earth

Copyright www.examrace.com

The earth spins like a top on its axis, completing one rotation every 24 hours. This period is
called a day. More precisely, it is a day-and-night. The earth is a non-luminous sphere, emitting
no light of its own. That part of the earth's surface which is towards the sun at any time is lit up,
while the remaining part, on the other side of the globe, is dark. That is what gives us day and
night. As a result of the axial rotation of the earth, every part of the surface of the globe moves
from light into darkness and from darkness into light. We have day and night following each
other in turn, once every 24 hours. The earth rotates from west to east. That is why the. Sun, the
moon and the stars appear to us to be moving in the opposite direction, i.e.. from east to west,
every day.

Rotation
The daily axial rotation of the earth causes.
Formation of the day and the night
Difference in Longitude and Time
Deflection of winds and currents
Occurrence of Tides twice a day.

Change of Seasons The earth, while rotating about its axis once every 24 hours, revolves round
the sun in a vast elliptical orbit (path), keeping an average distance of some million kilometers
from that luminary. One such revolution takes about 365 114 days. We call this period a year.
For the sake of convenience, our ordinary year contains 365 days, and to make up for the
difference, every fourth year (called a Leap Year) is reckoned to contain 366 days. On June 21,
the sun shines vertically at the Tropic of Cancer; so it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere and
winter in the Southern Hemisphere. On the other hand on December 22, it is the Tropic of
Capricorn that receives the rays of the sun vertically, with the result that it is summer in the
Southern Hemisphere and winter in the Northern Hemisphere. On March 21 and September 23,
the sun is vertical at the equator and both the North and the South Poles are similarly situated
with respect to the sun.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Earth's Interior

Inner core: 1.7% of the Earth's mass; depth of 5, 150 6, 370 kilometers (3, 219 3,
C

981 miles). The inner core is solid and unattached to the mantle, suspended in the molten
outer core. It is believed to have solidified as a result of pressure-freezing which occurs to
most liquids when temperature decreases or pressure increases.

Outer core: 30.8% of Earth's mass; depth of 2, 890 5, 150 kilometers (1, 806 3, 219
miles). The outer core is a hot, electrically conducting liquid within which convective
motion occurs. This conductive layer combines with Earth's rotation to create a dynamo
effect that maintains a system of electrical currents known as the Earth's magnetic field. It
is also responsible for the subtle jerking of Earth's rotation. This layer is not as dense as
pure molten iron, which indicates the presence of lighter elements. Scientists suspect that
about 10% of the layer is composed of sulphur and/or oxygen because these elements are
abundant in the cosmos and dissolve readily in molten iron.
Discontunity: 3% of Earth's mass; depth of 2, 700 2, 890 kilometers (1, 688 1, 806
miles). This layer is 200 to 300 kilometers (125 to 188 miles) thick and represents about
4% of the mantle-crust mass. Although it is often identified as part of the lower mantle,
seismic discontinuities suggest the D layer might differ chemically from the lower mantle
lying above it. Scientists theorize that the material either dissolved in the core, or was
able to sink through the mantle but not into the core because of its density.

Lower mantle: 49.2% of Earth's mass; depth of 650 2, 890 kilometers (406 1, 806
miles). The lower mantle contains 72.9% of the mantle-crust mass and is probably
composed mainly of silicon, magnesium, and oxygen. It probably also contains some
iron, calcium, and aluminum. Scientists make these deductions by assuming the Earth has
a similar abundance and proportion of cosmic elements as found in the Sun and primitive
meteorites.

Transition region: 7.5% of Earth's mass; depth of 400 650 kilometers (250 406
miles). The transition region or mesosphere (for middle mantle), sometimes called the
fertile layer, contains 11.1% of the mantle-crust mass and is the source of basaltic
magmas. It also contains calcium, aluminum, and garnet, which is a complex aluminum-
bearing silicate mineral. This layer is dense when cold because of the garnet. It is buoyant
when hot because these minerals melt easily to form basalt which can then rise through
the upper layers as magma.

Upper mantle: 10.3% of Earth's mass; depth of 10 400 kilometers (6 250 miles). The
upper mantle contains 15.3% of the mantle-crust mass. Fragments have been excavated
for our observation by eroded mountain belts and volcanic eruptions. Olivine (Mg, Fe)
2SiO4 and pyroxene (Mg, Fe) SiO3 have been the primary minerals found in this way.
These and other minerals are refractory and crystalline at high temperatures; therefore,
most settle out of rising magma, either forming new crustal material or never leaving the
mantle. Part of the upper mantle called the asthenosphere might be partially molten.
Oceanic crust: 0.099% of Earth's mass; depth of 0 10 kilometers (0 6 miles). The
oceanic crust contains 0.147% of the mantle-crust mass. The majority of the Earth's crust
was made through volcanic activity. The oceanic ridge system, a 40, 000-kilometer (25,
000 mile) network of volcanoes, generates new oceanic crust at the rate of 17 km3 per
year, covering the ocean floor with basalt. Hawaii and Iceland are two examples of the
accumulation of basalt piles.

Continental crust: 0.374% of Earth's mass; depth of 0 50 kilometers (0 31 miles).


The continental crust contains 0.554% of the mantle-crust mass. This is the outer part of
the Earth composed essentially of crystalline rocks. These are low-density buoyant
minerals dominated mostly by quartz (SiO2) and feldspars (metal-poor silicates). The
crust (both oceanic and continental) is the surface of the Earth; as such, it is the coldest
part of our planet. Because cold rocks deform slowly, we refer to this rigid outer shell as
the lithosphere (the rocky or strong layer).

Copyright www.examrace.com

Atmospheric Science

Atmosphere
Copyright www.examrace.com

The thin gaseous envelope surrounding the earth is called atmosphere and it acts like an
insulating blanket protecting the earth. It softens the intense light and heat of the sun. Its ozonic
(03) layer absorbs most of tile very deleterious ultraviolet-rays from the sun and thus protects
living organism from extinction.

Atmosphere contains about 5.0 1015 tonnes of gases, a small amount of water vapour and
some dust particles. A column of air weighing about one tonne is pressing downwards on our
shoulders but we do not feel this pressure as it is counter balanced by the saline pressure from
within our bodies. The atmosphere is bound to the Earth by gravity. Satellites which have very
low gravitiational power, cannot and do not hold an atmosphere. Air has very little weight.

A litre of air weights around 1.3 103 mg. At the sea level the air pressure is 1033.6 gram per
square em and this pressure usually termed as one atmosphere. The dry air of the atmosphere is
composed of various gases and water vapour from. The Earth surface and upto about 50 km the
atmosphere comprises of about 78 percent nitrogen~ 21 percent oxygen and 0.93 percent of
argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium and methane in the above said order. The amount of carbon
dioxide varies from place to place being greatest around the cities and smallest in the village
area. Atmosphere also contains tiny particles of dust and some other substance. Water vapour
also varies from place-to-place.

Water vapour is present in the lower atmosphere, its amount ranging from 0.01 percent to 1
percent. Though the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere is very small but its importance is
very great. If there is no water in the atmosphere, there would be no weather on Earth.

Clouds. Are made of water vapour that has evaporated from the Earth. They are tiny droplets of
microscopic size and are light to fall down as rain. So they ride on the air waves until they
condense and then fall down as rain. Clouds are distinguished according to their shape. These are
the following:
1. Cirrus clouds-It is shaped like ringlets and goes upto 12 km in height.
2. Cumulus clouds-It is risen in heaps.
3. Stratus clouds-It is scattered.
4. Nimbus clouds-It is the menacing rain storm clouds.

And there are various kinds of clouds which is often found mixed together like the cirro-
cumulus, cirrostratus, cumulo-nimbus Etc. Clouds are the surge of electricity from the earth
that makes lightning. The lead, however is taken by the clouds which send down a rather weak
stroke called the leader stroke. Dry air is highly resistant to electricity. When the air is loaded
with water vapour it becomes an easier conductor. Enough power is required far the stroke to rip
through the air. This excessive discharge of electricity heats up the air around the passage of the
stroke to incandescent temperatures upto 1.0 104 C. It is this growing air that we see as
lightning flash. The heat also causes a sudden expansion of air which as the heat disappears,
contracts quickly again. This sudden expansion and contraction produce the familiar thunder
clap. Though both occur at the same time, we! lee the light first because light travels faster than
that of sound.
Atmospheric Layers: The character and composition of the atmosphere changes as we go
higher and higher and it comes in layer which is called atmospheric layers and are layers of air
into sub-sphere with 3 pauses. They are
Troposphere: It is the nearest to the earth's surface and extends to a distance of about 12
km. The temperature generally decreases as height increases in troposphere. It is the
densest of all layers and contains water vapour, moisture and dust. It also profoundly
influences earth's climate since 80 percent of the mass of air comprising the entire
atmosphere is concentrated in this zone.
Tropopause: It is the layer that joins troposphere, the lowest layer with the upper layer
stratosphere. The height of tropopause varies with latitude.
Stratosphere: It is the region above stropopause. It is about 30 km thick. It is free from
the violent weather changes which occur below. So, it is preferred by our jet liners. Jet
liners however face another means in stratosphere, namely Jet streams. Jet streams are
high velocity air currents.
Mesosphere: Its a very cold region above the ozone rich layer of stratosphere.
Ionosphere: It comes just above mesosphere, extends from about 60 km to 500 km above
the earth. It includes the thermosphere and exosphere. The region contains an electrically
charged air and reflects radio waves facilitating wireless communication between distant
places. The ionised air also protects those on earth from the falling meteorites most of
which are made to bum out at this region.
Thermosphere: It constitutes the middle layer of ionosphere and has a temperature of
212 F or 100 C.
Exosphere: It is the uppermost region of the atmosphere where the air-density is so low
that an air molecule moving rapidlly straight upward is more than 50 percent likely to
escape from the atmosphere instead of hitting other molecules.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Climate Copyright

The climate of India may be broadly described as tropical monsoon type. There are four seasons
in India:
1. Winter season (December-February)
2. Hot weather season, Summer (March-May)
3. Rainy season, south-western monsoon period (June-September)
4. Post monsoon period, known as northeast monsoon period in the south peninsula
(October-December). In India rainfall is irregular and un-uniform. It varies from place-to-
place and year-to-year. However, there are four broad climatic regions based on rainfall.
Practically the whole of Assam and its neighbourhood, the Western Ghats and the
adjoining coastal strip and parts of the Himalaya< are areas of very heavy rainfall with
more than 2000 mm of annual rainfall. Some places in the Khasi and Jaintia hills of
Meghalaya receive the heaviest rainfall in the world. Cherranpunji gets 11419 mm of
annual rainfall, the highest in the country. In contrast, Rajasthan, Kutch and the high
Ladakh plateau of Kashmir extending westward to Giligit are regions of low
precipitation. They get rainfall between 100 to 500 mm in a year. Between these areas at
the extreme ends of the rainfall range, are two areas of moderately high and low rainfall
ranging from 100 to 200 mm and 500 to 1000 mm. The former consists of a broad beIt in
the eastern part of the peninsula merging northward with the north Indian plains. The
latter run from the Punjab plains across the Vil1dhya mountains into the western part of
the Deccan, extending further to east Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Clouds
Copyright www.examrace.com

Clouds are huge collections of water vapour. They are formed by very minute suspended water
particles present in the air or in some cases, when there is very low temperature; they are formed
by huge collections of very small crystal-like structure of snow. Clouds are of different types.

Cumulus: These are huge white masses of clouds shaped like cauliflower or like great
billows of fluffy wool.
Cirrus: These are thin, feathery wisp-like clouds formed very high up in the sky. They do
not bring rain or snow. They are dry or rainless. These are formed usually at levels of 5,
000 to 14, 000 metres.
Nimbus: These are heavy, dark, grey or black, quite thick, and found at low heights.
Strata: These are low sheets of layer of clouds. They are spread horizontally from one
side of the horizon to the other. They cause drizzle or light rain.

Fog: It is a thin cloud-like formation at the surface of land or water. It spreads in the lower
layers of the atmosphere, when the temperature of these layers fall below the dew point.

Mist: Like fog, ii is also formed on account ot1the fall of the temperature of air. Here the
droplets of water formed on account of condensation are heavier than those of the fog;
therefore, mist is always seen close to the earth, and does not rise up so high as the fog.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Cyclones Cyclones arc of two types: Tropical Cyclones caused by unequal heating of land and
water within the hot regions. Temperate Cyclones (or Depressions) caused by the meeting or
warm sub-tropical air brought by the Westerlies with the cold polar air brought by the Polar
Winds.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Insolation

When the rays of the Sun fall on our earth, they have to pass through the atmosphere. The earth
intercepts in only a minute portion of the Sun's energy. This is known as Insolation. The
insolation or heat, of the Sun gives heat to the earth by radiation. Factors Affecting Temperature
The temperature of a place depends upon the following factors:

1. Latitude: The temperature decreases as we go farther away from the Equator to the Poles.
2. Distance from the Sea: Places near the sea enjoy the moderating influence of the water
moisture which keeps the day and night temperature almost the same.
3. Winds: The effect of prevailing winds in determining the temperature of a place depends
upon. The nature of region from which the wind blows. A wind coming from the sea
lowers the summer and raises the winter temperatures.

On the other hand, a wind coming from the land will lower the winter temperatures and raise the
slimmer temperatures. Condensation and Precipitation: Hot air can retain more water-vapour
than cold air. So when the temperature of the atmosphere falls, the saturation point is soon
reached. The extra amount of water-vapour which cannot be held by the air any longer is
converted into drops of water. The process is known as condensation. Condensation is, therefore,
cooling of the water-vapour into water. In such a case, drops of water will fall on nearby objects.
This is termed precipitation. Precipitation follows condensation. The precipitation might be in
the forms of small drops of water falling to the ground as rain

Structure of The Earth: Once beneath the sea; many others which are now below the sea were
once land masses. These vast The earth consists of three shells, one inside changes are being
brought about by the earth's the other, enclosing a very heavy solid centre which movements.
The movements are very slow and show we call the Barysphere or Centrosphere. It is still
perceptible results in thousands of years. Their slow and molten. Surrounding this is the solid
crust movements very often build great mountains out of rocks on which we live, called the
Lithosphere. The shallow sea beds or convert continental areas. The greater part of the surface is
filled with water, into seas and it is called the Hydrosphere.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Rainfall

Copyright www.examrace.com

When the rain-laden clouds rise up, they expand and become cooler: They also become cooler
because they are moving away from hotter regions. The coolings of the air resulting in the
precipitation of rains etc. may be due to three causes:

Relief: Temperature decreases as we ascend a hill or a mountain. If, then a wind blowing
from the sea and saturated with water-vapour comes to a mountain, it i, forced to rise. On
rising the clouds reach thinner layers of air and consequently it expands. Expansion
produces cooling. The moisture in the clouds is then condensed and falls as rain. Such
rains are called the Relief Rains. When rain laden winds blow over a high mountain, they
are forced to rise up, They are cooled, and lose some of their moisture in the form of rain.
The higher the mountain, the greater the rainfall.
Convection: When air is heated, it tends to rise up. As it rises, it is cooled and rain falls
even though there are no mountains nearby. The air at the Equator is intensely heated
almost each day and hence it rises each day, causing rain each afternoon. This rising of
the wind when heated, is called convection, and the rain that is so caused is. Called the
Convectional Rain.
Cyclones: Cyclones or depressions are large areas of low pressure. A cyclone has low
pressure at the centre, and it brings rainy or stormy weather. The rain brought about by
the a cyclone is called the Cyclonic Rain Trade Winds: These are the winds which blow
from the high pressure belts, lying north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic
of Capricorn, towards the Equatorial Low Pressure Belt. Anti-Trade or Westerly Winds:
These are again the low pressure belts over the cold region round the latitude of the
Arctic and Antarctic Circles. Therefore, a part of the air moves northwards from the
Calms of Cancer and southwards from the Calms or Capricorn. Because they blow in the
direction opposite to the Trade Winds, they are also called Westerlies, because they come
from the west. Polar Winds: There are high pressure regions on both the poles caused by
extreme cold.

Winds, therefore, blow from the North Pole to the Arctic Circle and from South Pole to the
Antarctic Circle. These winds are known as Polar Winds. Monsoon Winds: The word monsoon
is derived from an Arabic word mausim meaning season Monsoon may be regarded as land
and sea breezes on a seasonal scale. We c. An picture the air over a great mass of land which
becomes very hot during the summer. The monsoon system is associated with the lands of South-
East Asia, Eastern Africa and Northern Australia.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Himalayan Region

The Himalayas and other high mountains Muztagh, Ata, Aghil and KWllun mountains to the
north of Kashmir and Zaskar mountains to the east of Himachal Pradesh and north of Uttar
Pradesh form India's northern boundary, except in the Nepal region. India is adjoined in the north
by China, Nepal and Bhutan. A series of mountain ranges in the east separate India from Burma.
In the east, lies Bangladesh bounded by the Indian States of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya,
Tripura and Mizoram.

In the north-east. Afghanistan and Pakistan border on India. South of the Tropic of Cancer, it
tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea on the West and the Bay of Bengal on
the cast. The Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait separate India from Sri Lanka. The Andaman
and Nicobar Islands, in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea are parts of the
territory of India. The Mainland It comprises four well-defined regions, namely, the great
mountain zone, the Indo-Gangetic Plains, the desert region and the Southern Peninsula Plateau.

The Himalayan Range: The Himalayas radiating towards the east from the mountain junction
in the north-west of India called Pamir Knot comprise three almost parallel ranges. The length of
Himalayan range is about 2500 km from west to east with its width varying between 250 km and
300 km. Himaiayan range has the distinction of having within it, the world's highest mountain
peaks. The highest peaks are: Mount Everest Mt. K. 2 (Godwin Austin) Kanchanjunga 8, 848
metres 8, 611 metres 8, 598 metres Makalu Dhaulagiri 8, 481 metres 8, 172 metres The Indo
Gangetic Plains is about 2400 km long and 240 to 320 km broad are formed by the basins of
three distinct river systems-the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra. They are one of the
world's greatest stretches of flat alluvium and also one of the most densly populated area 011
earth. There is hardly any variation in relief. Between the Yamuna river in Delhi and the Bay of
Bengal nearly 1600 km away, there is a drop of only 200 metres in elevation.

The Desert Region: It can be divided into two parts-the Great Desert and the Little Desert. The
Great Desert extends from the edge of the Rann of Kutch beyond the Luni river northward. The
whole of Rajasthan upto Sind frontier runs through this. The Little Desert extends from the Luni
river between Jaislamer and Jodhpur up to the northern wastelands. Between the great and the
little desert lies a zone of less absolutely sterile country, consisting of rocky land cut up by
limestone ridges. Due to absence of surface water and very scanty rainfall the region is almost
absolutely sterile. The Southern Peninsular Plateau is marked off from the Indo-Gangetic plains,
by a mass of mountain and hill ranges varying from 460 to 1220 metres in height. Prominent
among these are the Aravalli, Vindhya, Satpura, Malikala and Ajanta. The Peninsula is flanked
on one side by the Eastern Ghats, where the average elevation is about 610 metres, and other by
the Western Ghats, there it is generally from 91 5 to 220 metres, rising 10 places to over 2440
metres. Between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea lies a narrow coastal strip. a broader
coastal area. The Southern point of the plateau is formed by the Nilgiri Hills'where the Eastern
and Western Ghats meet. The Cardamom Hills lying beyond may be regarded as a continuation
of the Western Ghats.
Copyright www.examrace.com

Cyclones
Copyright www.examrace.com

Cyclones arc of two types:

1. Tropical Cyclones caused by unequal heating of land and water within the hot regions.
2. Temperate Cyclones (or Depressions) caused by the meeting or warm sub-tropical air
brought by the Westerlies with the cold polar air brought by the Polar Winds.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Anti-Cyclones
Copyright www.examrace.com

These are the opposite of cyclones having a high pressure at centre, without blowing winds.
Anti-cyclones are associated with fine weather conditions. However, in winter the weather
associated with anti-cyclones is very cold and foggy.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Ocean Science

The oceans cover 70.8 percent of the Earth's total surface area and hold 1.5 106 cubic kill of.
Water. This water despite its abundance is not directly useful to human beings as it is not
potable. The ocean water contain about 3.5 percent of dissolved salts, chlorine, sodium,
magnesium, sulphur, calcium, potassium, bromine, strontium; and boron. A few quantities of
carbon, silicon, aluminium, flourine and iodine are also found. The oceanic waters are always in
motion owing to a variety of natural forces. The oceans, unlike the continents merge so naturally
into one another that it is hard to separate them. The geographers have divided the oceanic area
into four oceans namely:

1. The Pacific
2. The Atlantic
3. The Indian
4. The Arctic These oceans include the seas, bays, gulfs and other ocean inlets attached to
them, The oceans have an average depth of 3.5 km but their depth varies from place-to-
place. The deepest known point is the Challenger Deep, a part of the Mariana Trench in
the Pacific Ocean, which is 12 km deep. The ocean floor consists of three main zones,
i.e.. the continental shelf the continental slope and the abyss.

Pacific Ocean It is the largest and the oldest of the oceans. It occupies about 35 percent of the
earth's area. It is 17 km at broadest and 11.5 km at the deepest. It has the greatest conglomeration
of islands which fall into three broad groups viz.

1. Micronesia
2. Melanesia
3. Polynesia.

The Atlantic Ocean It is the second largest ocean covers 21 percent of the earth's area. Its
greatest deep is 8.3 km (Milwankee Deep)

The Indian Ocean It is the third largest ocean stretches from Cape Comorin in Indian to the
Antarctic at the south poie. It takes up 14.6 percent of the Earth's total surface area. It greatest
depth is 7.7 km (Planet Deep).

The Arctic Ocean It is assumed as glaciers but not as an ocean. It is not navigable. It winds
round the North Pole and is completely frozen in winter and covered with drifting ice from the
rest of the year. It has separate existence and its area of over J. 3 106 square km is said to b~
called an ocean. Although we have only four oceans, there are seven oceans.

Hydrosphere

The uppermost surface of our earth is constituted partly of land and partly of water. The water
mass or the envelope of water which covers, a great part to the surface of the earth is called the
Hydrosphere. It is made up of oceans and seas, which occupy nearly 71 per cent of the whole
surface of the world. The bigger ones are called oceans and the smaller ones seas.

Tides: Sea level rises and falls twice a day. This rising and falling of the surface of the sea water
is called the Tide. At high tide the water becomes much deeper and even very large vessels can
go far up, they are partly carried up by the strong tidal current. Even big ships often wait for the
tide to carry them up or down the harbour. On account of the force called gravitation, everything
in the universe attracts the earth, and, in its own tum, the earth attracts them. This mutual
attraction is gravitation. Since the moon is nearest to the earth, the earth is more affected by its
pull, but since the earth is very heavy in comparison to the moon; its effect is not felt so much on
land. The pull of the earth, however, exerts a greater effect on earth. It is the moon trying to draw
the water of the ocean towards itself which causes the tide. This pull is the greatest when the
moon is directly over the place, i.e.. when it is on the meridian.

Spring Tides and Neap Tides: When the sun, moon and the earth are nearly in the same line at
the full and the new moon, Spring Tides occur. Here the gravitational effects of the sun and the
moon combine to produce tides which 1m higher than usual. Contrary to this, when the pull of
the moon is at right angle to the pull of the solar and lunar effects. They neutralize each other.
Hence high tides and low tides occur lower than usual. Such tides are called Neap Tides
Spring tides and neap tides occurs every alternate week.

Copyright www.examrace.com
Indian Rivers

Himalayan rivers: The characteristic common to the Himalayan rivers is that being snow-fed
they are perennial. During rainy season they are generally flooded depending on the volume or
precipitation from Himalayan rivers comprise the following three systems:

Indus system: It comprises the Indus and its five tributaries-Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and
Jhelum. Indus is about 2900 km long. This helps transport and irrigation. In rainy season they
deposit new alluvial soil on the banks and increase productivity of agriculture. The rivers of the
south are active only in rainy season. Their beds being uneven, they are swift in flow, hence

Ganga system: Ganga which is 2500 useless for irrigation or navigation, km long is the main
river of this system. Its tributaries are Yamuna, Gomti, Ghaghra, Sharda, Gandak, Kosi and
Sone. Ganga issues from a geological regions broadly follow the Himalyan ice-cave called
Gaumukh, near Gangotri physical features and may be grouped into three glacier. Yamuna is the
next biggest river of the well-defined regions-the Himalyas and their system. It's tributaries are
Chambal, Sind, Betwa associated group of mountains, the Indo-Gangetic and Ken. Plains and the
ancient Peninsular Shield.
Brahmaputra: It is 2900 km, long. It The Himalayan mountain belt to the north and isssues
from near lake of Mansarovar in west Tibet the Naga-Lushai mountain in the east are regions and
flows eastwards in Tibet for about 1300 km of mountain building moment. Much of the area,
where it is called Tsangpo. On entering India in. Now presenting some of the most magnificent
Arunachal Pradesh (formerly NEFA) it is joined by two tributaries-Dibang and Lohit rivers. In
Bengal it meets the easternmost mouth of Ganga a series of mountain building moments
commencing called Padma and from there onward it is called the Meghna. Ganga and
Brahmapurta have together basements of rocks in various configurations rose created world's
largest delta of Sundarbans in West to great heights. The elements worked on these to Bengal.
Produce the relief seen today.

Deccan rivers: Deccan rivers are not The Indo-Gangetic Plains are a great alluvial snow fed like
Himalayan rivers. These become active tract that separate the Himalayan range from the in rainy
season. These are swift flowing rivers Peninsula to the south. The deposits of the tract because of
their uneven rocky bed and its steep belong to the latest chapter of earth's history and gradient.
According to the direction of their flow conceal beneath them the southern fringes of the Deccan
rivers may be classified into

East flowing rivers: The main east sedimentary cover in this tract exceeds 6000 metres
flowing rivers are Damodar, Mahanadi, Godavari, at places. Krishna and Kaveri, in order
from north to south. These flow into the Bay of Bengal and rare seismic disturbance.
West flowing rivers: Narmada and Tapti rocks of the earliest periods occur over more
than are west-flowing rivers which join the Arabian Sea. Half of its area, the res~ being
covered by the coal
North flowing rivers: Chambal, Sind, Betwa and Sone are the west-flowing rivers. The
and lava flows belonging to the Deccan trap first three meet the Yamuna and Sone joins
Ganga formation. near Patna.

Rivers of Inand drainage basin: These are small rivers of sandy areas of Rajasthan. None
Alluvial and black soils are the important soils of them except Luni reaches the sea. Found in
India. The rivers of Northern India are snow-fed.
Copyright www.examrace.com

Air Masses (AM)

An air mass may be defined as a large body of air whose physical properties, especially
temperature, moisture content, and lapse rate, are more or less uniform horizontally for hundreds
of kilometres. According to A N Strahler and A. H. Strahler: a body of air in which the upward
gradients of temperature and moisture are fairly uniform over a large area is known as an air
mass. An air mass may be so extensive that it may cover a large portion of a continent and it
may be so thick in vertical dimension that it may vertically extend through the troposphere.

An air mass is designated as cold air mass when its temperature is lower than the
underlying surface while an air mass is termed warm air mass when its temperature is
higher than the underlying surface.
The boundary between two different air masses is called front.

Source Regions

The extensive areas over which air masses originate or form are called surface regions whose
nature and properties largely determine the temperature and moisture characteristics of air
masses.

An ideal source region of air mass must possess the following essential conditions:
There must be extensive and homogenous earth's surface so that it may possess uniform
temperature and moisture conditions
There should not be convergence of air; rather there should be divergence of air flow so
that the air may attain the physical properties of the region.
Atmospheric conditions should be stable for considerably long period of time so that the
air may attain the characteristics of the surface.

Regions of Air Masses These six major source regions of air masses on the earth's surface:

1. Polar oceanic areas (North Atlantic Ocean between Eurasia and North America, and
Arctic region during winter season)
2. Tropical oceanic areas (anticyclonic areasthroughout the year)
3. Tropical continental areas (North AfricaSahara, Asia, Mississippi Valley zone of the
USA most developed in summers)
4. Equatorial regions (zone located between trade windsactive throughout the year)
5. Monsoon lands of SE Asia

Classification of AM

There are two approaches to the classification of air masses, e. g.

Geographical Classification
Thermodynamic classification.

Geographical Classification The geographical classification of air masses is based on the


characteristic features of the source regions.

Trewartha has classified air masses on the basis of their geographical locations into two
broad categories, viz.
Polar air mass (P), which originate in the polar areas. Arctic air masses are also included
in this category
Tropical air mass (T), which originate in tropical areas. Equatorial air masses are also
included in this category.
These two air masses have been further divided into two types on the basis of the nature
of the surface of the source regions:
Continental air masses (indicated by small letter V)
Maritime air masses ( m )
Thermodynamic Modifications and Classification of Air Masses Thermodynamic
modifications of an air mass involves its heating from below while passing through
different surfaces away from the source region.
The modification of air masses depend on 4 factors:
Initial characteristics of air mass in terms of temperature and moisture content:
Nature of land or water surface over which a particular air mass moves
Path followed by the air mass from the source region to the affected area
Time taken by the air mass to reach a particular destination.
A warm air mass (w) is that whose temperature is greater than the surface temperature of
the region visited while if the air mass is colder than the surface temperature it is called
cold air mass (k).
Such mechanical modifications are introduced due to cyclonic and anticyclonic
conditions, Based on the thermodynamic and mechanical (dynamic) modifications air
masses are divided into: Cold air mass and warm air mass.

Atmosphere Composition

Nitrogen (N2) 78.08%


Oxygen (O2) -20.9%
Argon (Ar) -0.9%
Carbon Dioxide (C02) -0.033%. These 4 constitute 99.997%.
Water vapour (H20) Trace Constituents: Neon (Ne) Helium (He) Krypton (Kr) Xenon
(Xe) Hydrogen (H2) ethane (CH4) Nitrous Oxide (N2O) Radon (Rn) Highly variable
constituents: Water vapour Ozone (03) Sulphur dioxide (S02) Nitrogen dioxide (N02)
Carbon Monoxide (CO) Particles (dust, salt)

Characteristics

Nitrogen: When the weathering of igneous rocks takes place, it adds nitrogen in the
atmosphere. It is found between 50 100 km. But dominates the lower 50 km.
Oxygen: It occurs up to 120 km. But up to 6 km. As 02, while above it occurs in
dissociated form or O.
Carbon dioxide: Absorbs heat radiation from the earth in the atmosphere. It is:
Transparent and keeps the earth temperature at high level. The rocks gradually remove
away the C02 from the atmosphere. It dissolves in water to form carbonic acid, a
compound i.e.. C02 + H20 = H2C03. The ocean contains 60 times more C02 than the
atmosphere.
Argon, Neon, Krypton, Xenon: Chemically inactive; present in tiny proportion; known as
noble gases. Water Vapour: Most variable in proportion and largely concentrated in the
lowest Kms. recycles in evaporation-condensation. It is mainly found in lowest region: 6
km of atmosphere. Therefore it becomes less with height. Neon: Bright Red. Used in
Neon sign, tubelights and advertisement boards.
Helium: Chemically inert. It is added in the atmosphere by the oil fields. The amount of
helium has increased 10 times. Since it is chemically inert hence it can only be lost by
escape in the space. Hydrogen: It is negligible in low atmosphere but present above 1500
km. Protons and electrons are found in hydrogen.
Ozone (03) -Absorbs ultraviolet and infrared radiation and therefore increases the.
Temperature above stratosphere. Maximum production of ozone occurs at 30 40 km
above the earth's surface but its maximum concentration occurs at 20 30 km above the
earth. Ozone hole was first sighted above Antarctica. Ozone immediately reacts with
chlorine.

Variations in Atmospheric Composition

Variation with height

Water Vapour comprises up to 4% of the atmosphere by volume near surface but non
existent above 10 km. Of the atmosphere
Ozone is mainly concentrated between 15 35 km.
100 200 km. Is the nitrogen layer
200 1, 100 km. Is the oxygen layer 1, 100 3, 500 km. Is helium layer
Above 3, 500 km. Is the oxygen layer again.

Variations with latitude and seasons

Above 30 latitude north, C02 is least


Ozone content is low over the equator and high over 50 degree north latitude, particularly
in spring.

Atmosphere can be divided into following layers:

Troposphere; Stratosphere; Mesosphere; Ionosphere; Thermosphere; Exosphere; Magnetosphere


Troposphere

It is the most important zone for weather phenomenon, because of: Gradual decrease of
temperature with height i.e.. 6.5 degree C per km. Temperature decreases except at winter
pole; lowest part of troposphere up to 1.5 2 km. Is called friction layer, where
topography greatly influences wind speed and circulation
It contains all the major atmosphere pollutants. This is also called Connective layer where
the clouds are formed
It roughly extends to a height of 8 kms near the poles and about 18 kms. At the equator
The thickness at the equator is greatest
It contains dust particles and over 90% of the earth's water vapour
Aviators of jet aeroplanes often avoid this layer due to presence of bumpy air pockets.
The upper limit of the troposphere is called Tropo-pause, literally means zone or region
of mixing. Its height is 17 km during January and July over the equator and the
temperature of this height is 700 C

Stratosphere

From Tropopause to about 50 Km


It is an Isothermal region and extremely dry free with clouds, water vapour and dust; here
air is at rest and movement is almost horizontal
Some clouds found are called Mother of Pearls or Nacreous.
Contains much of Ozone (03); therefore called Ozono-sphere, especially between 15 kms
to 35 km from the sea level. The combining of atmosphere oxygen 02 with individual
oxygen results in the creation of ozone.
In the lower stratosphere (up to 25 km.) temperature remains constant, temperature
increase gradually with height up to 50 Kms; and at 50 kms becomes 0 C or 32 F.
The upper limit of the Stratosphere is called Stratopause.
Winds decrease with height in the lower stratosphere and then increase with height in the
upper stratosphere.
Feable winds and Cirrus Clouds are found in the lower stratosphere

Chemosphere
Chemosphere extends from troposphere to an altitude of 50 kms. Overlapping both
homosphere and heterosphere.
In this air glove occurs at night especially green and red. It is a part of Stratosphere.
In this air glow occurs at night, especially green and red.

Mesosphere

Height from 50 Km to 80 Km.


The temperature decreases fairly with the height with the minimum temperature of about-
90 degree.
Mesopause (the top of the layer); above Mesopause temperature increases with increasing
height
The presence is because of meteoric dust particles.

Thermosphere

The part of the atmosphere beyond Mesopause is known as thermosphere wherein


temperature increases rapidly with increasing height.
It is above 200 km. And N02 and 02 are found.
Its lower portion is composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen in molecular and atomic
forms
Rapid temperature increase approaching 1700 degree C, at 350 kms.
Thermosphere is divided into two layers: (1) Ionosphere and (2) Exosphere Ionosphere:
80 kms. To 640 kms. And above
Radio waves found; it is a region of electrically charged or ionized air lying next to
Mesosphere
High electron density
150 kms. 380 kms. Known as Appleton
Absorbs deadly X-rays
The northern lights or aurora borealis are found.
This layer is called Kennelly Heaviside Layer (99 130 kms) here interaction takes place
between solar-ultra-violet photons with nitrogen
Sporadic Layer is associated with high velocity winds. The bulk of the atmosphere
consists of electrically neutral atoms and molecules. At high altitudes, however, a
significant fraction of the atmosphere is electrically charged. This region is generally
called the Ionosphere.
It extends throughout the mesosphere and thermosphere but is most important and
distinct at altitudes above about 80 kilometres.
Most of the ionization in the ionosphere is effected by pho-toionization. Photons of short
wavelength (i.e.. high energy) are absorbed by atmospheric gases. A portion of the
energy is used to eject an electron, converting a neutral atom or molecule to a pair of
charged species: An electron, which is negatively charged, and a com-panion positive
ion. Ionization in the Fl region is produced mainly by ejection of electrons from 02, 0,
and N2. The threshold for ionization of 02-corresponds to a wavelength of 102.7
nanometres. Thresholds for 02 and N2 are at 91.1 and 79.6 nanometres, respectively.

Exosphere:

640 kms and above


The atoms of oxygen, hydrogen and helium form the tenuous atmosphere
The density becomes extremely low and the atmosphere resembles a nebula because it is
highly rarefied. Aurora Australis and Aurora Borealis are produced-magnetic storms on
the sun discharge electrified particles in the space. The earth's magnetic poles attract
these particles. Aurora Australis (the southern dawn). Aurora Borealis (the northern
dawn).

Chemical Composition

It is basically divided into two parts:

Homosphere
Heterosphere

Homosphere
It represents the lower portion of the atmosphere and extends upto the height of 90 km
from the sea-level.
The main constituent gases are Oxygen (20.946%), Nitrogen (78.084%). Others are
Argon, Carbon-dioxide, Neon, Helium, Krypton, Xenon, Hydrogen, etc.
The proportion of different gases is uniform at different levels in this zone.

Heterosphere

This zone extends from 90 km to 10, 000 km.


There are four parts of it:

Molecular nitrogen layer-it is dominated by molecular nitrogen and extends upward up to


the height of 200 km (90 to 200 km)
Atomic oxygen layer: Extends from 200 to 100 km
Further upward there is helium layer which extends up to the height of 3500m
Atomic hydrogen layer-it is the top most layer of the atmosphere and extends up to the
outer most limit of the atmosphere.

Copyright www.examrace.com

Cyclones

Cyclone is a system of low atmospheric pressure in which the barometric gradient is steep.
Winds circulate, blowing inwards in an anticlockwise direction in the Northern hemisphere and
clockwise direction in the Southern hemisphere. Cyclones are classified into:

Tropical Cyclone A system of low pressure occurring in tropical latitudes, characterized by its
very strong winds; found mainly in Indian Ocean, Indonesia, and Australia. Tropical
Disturbances are classified into three parts:

A Tropical Depression is a system with low pressure enclosed within few isobars and the
wind speed is. 33 knot or 61 tens and it lacks a marked circulation.
A Tropical Storm is a system with several closed isobars and a wind circulation of 115
Kms.
A Tropical Cyclones is a warm core vortex circulation of tropical origin with a small
diameter often of an approximately circular shape; they occur only in oceanic areas
where the sea temperatures exceed 27 degree C.

Different Names of Tropical Cyclones

Hurricanes-N. America & Caribbean


Typhoons-Western North Pacific
Willywillies-Australia
Bagulo-Philippine Islands
Taifu-Japan
Cyclones-Indian Ocean

Structure of the Tropical Cyclones Eye the innermost or central portion of the mature cyclone
is the eye It is about 10 to 30 km in diameter, depending upon the size of the. Storm and is a
more. Or less calm region with little or no clouds and some subsidence. The eye or the calm
centre can be described variously as the: Pressure eye (where mean sea level pressure is lowest),
Wind eye (light or calm wind conditions), Radar eye (the eye seen in radar echoes) and the
Satellite eye (clear or dark spot seen in the cloud mass in satellite imagery).

Eye Wall or Inner Ring Surrounding the eye is a tight inner ring of hurricane winds. This core
of maximum winds is at the centre of a solid thick wall of towering Cumulonimbus clouds and is
called the eye wall

Outer Ring An outer ring of cyclonic circulation lies beyond the eye wall, where the speed
decreases steeply and clouds and rain diminish rapidly outwards.

It is essentially radially symmetrical


It has six regions
The eye is the centre of the storm which is characterised by more or less circular with
comparatively clear skies, lowest pressure, the highest temperature and highest relative
humidities
The eye is surrounded by a wall of cumulonimbus known as eyeball. Strongest wind is
found
Spiral bands or Rainbands or Feeder bands contain many individual thunderstorms which
produce heavy rainfall
Annular zone is characterized by cloudiness and high temperatures and low humidities
Outer Convective band
Main cloudmass Horizontal structure of tropical cyclone

Anticyclone

Temperate Cyclone

It is also called Depressions It has low pressure at the centre and increasing pressure
outward. It has varying shapes such as near circular, elliptical or wedge, therefore, it is
also called Low or Troughs or Mid Latitude Depressions.
Secondly, they are formed in the regions extending between 35 degree to 65 degree
latitudes in both the hemispheres.
Thirdly, Tropical Cyclone is confined strictly over sea, whereas Temperate Cyclone form
over both land and sea.
Fourthly, Tropical cyclone is produced in summer and autumn and Temperate cyclone
largely in winter.
Fifthly, Temperate cyclone has low pressure gradient, whereas tropical cyclone has steep
pressure gradient; and
finally, rainfall in temperate cyclones is slow and continuous, whereas in tropical cyclone
the rainfall is violent and torrential.

Anticyclone A system of atmospheric pressure in which the isobars on a synoptic chart indicate
a relatively, highpressure in the centre and decreasingly low pressures outwards to the periphery
of the system. The isobars are generally widely spaced, indicating light winds which may be
absent near the centre. Air movement is clockwise in the Northern hemisphere and anticlockwise
in the Southern hemisphere. The term anticyclone was coined by Galton in 1861 Anticyclones do
notexperience any precipitation and tend to be dry. It is characterized by larger, slow moving and
more persistent with a high pressure at the centre but with a weaker pressure gradient and light
variable winds diverging from the centre.

They are usually circular in shape but sometimes also assume V shape.
They are much larger in size and area than temperate cyclones as their diameter is 75%
larger than that of the latter.
Anticyclones do not have fronts.
Winds descend from above at the centre and thus weather becomes clear and rainless.

There are four principal climate regions:

Tropical (hot)
Subtropical (warm)
Temperate (cool)
Polar Regions (cold)

Copyright www.examrace.com
Salinity

It is defined as the ratio between the weight of the dissolved material and the weight of sample
sea water.

Generally salinity is defined as the total amount of solid material in gm. Contained in one
kg. Of sea water and is expressed at part 1000 means 30 gm.
The average salinity of 35% is recorded between 10 30 latitude in the southern
hemisphere.
The zone between 40 60 latitude in both the hemisphere records lowest salinity where it
is 31%-33%

Pacific Ocean
Near the equator, salinity is 34.85%
It increases to 35% between 15 20 latitude in the north hemisphere; But in the southern
hemisphere, it increases to 36% i.e.. More than sea
Besides salt, silver, gold and radium also occur but in minute proportion in sea water.
These elements are 0.3 (silver), 0.006 (gold) and 0.0000002 mg/metric tonne or part/
1000 million.

Atlantic Ocean

Average salinity is 35.67%


Highest is between 15 20 latitude
In 5 North latitude, salinity is 34.98% and
In 15 North, it is 36% in 15 South, salinity is 37.77%.

Indian Ocean

From 0 10 North latitude, salinity is 35%


10 30 North, the salinity is 33.5%
Near Persian Gulf, 40%; highest is in Red sea, 3641% (In the landlocked sea, lowest
salinity js in Caspian sea, i.e.. 14% in the northern part. But in the Kara Bnpa? bav
salinity is highest i.e.. 170%).
Near Salt Lake (US), salinity is 220%. In Red sea, salinity is 240%, in Lake Van
(Turkey) is 330%, in Dead sea, it is 238%.

Distribution of Salinity

The average salinity in the oceans and the sea is 35%.

Horizontal Distribution: On an average, salinity decreases from equator towards tne poles. The
equator accounts only 35% of salinity.

The highest salinity is observed between 20 40 N. Because this zone has high
temperature, high evaporation, but low rainlall least i.e.. 31%, near Manchurian, it is
34%, this salinity in Manchuria is severe because of Oyashio current coming from
Berring Strait.
In the Southern hemisphere, lowest is near the Peruvian and Chilean coast i.e.. 33%.

Copyright www.examrace.com
Oceanography Relief

Distribution of Sea

Hydro sphere is 36, 10, 60, 000 sq. Km about 71% of the lithosphere (3/4th of the globe).
Total surface area of the globe is 5, 09, 950, 000 sq. Km (Lithosphere).
Important oceans are Pacific Ocean (16, 50, 00, 000 sq. Km); Atlantic ocean (8, 20, 00,
000 sq. Km); Indian Ocean (7, 30, 00, 000 sq. Km).
Average depth of the ocean (hydrosphere) 3800 m and average height of lithosphere is
840 m from the sea level. The height and depth of lithosphere and hydrosphere are
represented by HYPSOGRAPHIC or HYPSOMETRIC CURVE.
The ocean basins have 4 relief zones: Continental shelves, Continental slopes, Deep Sea
plains and Oceanic Trenches

Continental Shelf

It is partly submerged in water while partly exposed


Its average depth is 100 fathoms
Its slope is gentle i.e.. From 1 to 3 towards the sea; It is 8.6% of total area of ocean
basins, but the highest area is in Atlantic i.e.. 13.3%, 5.7% in Pacific and 4.2% in Indian
ocean
The shelves are narrow where high mountains are close and parallel to the coast
The narrowest shelf is in western coast of South America i.e.. 16 km. Because of Andes
mountain
The shelves are wider where the coast lands are wide plains. The average width is 48 km.
The widest is in North America i.e.. From 96 to 120 km.
It is mainly created by marine erosion and fluvial deposits

Continental Slope

Slope is 5 60
40 near St. Helena; 30 at the Spanish Coast; 62 near St. Paul; 5 15 near Calicut.
It constitutes 8.5% of total area of the ocean basin: Atlantic ocean 12.4%, Pacific ocean
7% and Indian ocean 6.5%.
Most extensive continental slope are found between 20 50 N latitude and on 80 N and
70 S. Most important continental slope is the SubMarine Canyons.
Due to steep slope, marine deposits doesnttake place; Deep Sea Plains:
Found in the depth of 3000 m. To 6000 m. And constitutes 75.9% of total ocean basin
80.3% in Pacific, 80.1% in Indian Ocean, 54.9% in Atlantic Ocean. Ocean Deep or
Trenches:
There are 57 deeps in the world
Highest in Pacific i.e.. 32, 19 in Atlantic and 6 in Indian Ocean

Trenches

Mariana or Challenger Trench North Pacific 11, 022 m.


Aldrich or Tonga Central South Pacific i0, 882 m.
Swire or Philippine Trench N. West Pacific 10, 475 m.
Nares or Puerto Rico Trench West Indian Island 8, 385 m.
Kurile Trench Kamchatka 10, 498 m.
Tizard or Romanche Trench S. Atlantic 7, 631m.
Java Trench Indian Ocean 7, 450 m.
Karmadee Pacific Ocean 10, 447 m.
PeruChile Trench Pacific 8, 025 m.
Aleutian Trench Pacific 7, 679 m.
Middle America Pacific 6, 562 m.

Submarine Canyons

It has originated because of various types of earth movement


Are long narrow and very deep valleys or trenches located on the continental shelves and
slopes with vertical walls resembling flurried continental Canyon?
Submarine Canyon

It is similar lot the youthful river valleys on the land but are deeper
The course is generally straight
The gradient of are steeper near islands i.e.13 8%
They have coarser materials which includes clays, silts, gravels and pebbles.

Distribution of Submarine Canyons

There are as many as 102 submarine canyons.


Generally they are more abundantly found along the straight coast than highly indented
and crenulated coastline.
They are more commonly found Off the east mm of US from Canada to Cape Hatteras.
They are also found off the Californian and Mexican coast, Mediterranean, east coast of
India, Aleutian lands, Japan, Philippines.

Tides

Ocean Tides

The rise and fall of sea water due to gravitational forces, centripetal of the Sun and Moon
are called tides. The sea waves generated by the tides are called Tidal Waves.
The earth rotates from west to east and revolves around the sun following an elliptical
orbit. Similarly, the moon rotates from west to east and revolves around the earth
following an elliptical orbit. The period of the farthest distance between the moon and the
earth (4, 07, 000 km) is called Apogee While the period of the nearest distance (3, 56,
000 km) is called Perigee
The surface of the earth with its diameter of 12, 800 km (8000 miles) is 6400 km nearer
to the moon then its centre
The centre of the moon is 3, 84, 800 km (2, 40, 000 miles) away from the centre of the
Earth. The earth's outer surface is 3, 77, 600 km away from the outer surface of the moon.
Therefore the gravitational force of the moon will be maximum at the earth's surface
facing the moon, while it will be minimum at the opposite side of the earth. Consequently
the water of the earth's surface facing the moon is attracted and pulled and high tides
occur. At the same time low tide is formed at the opposite side of the Earth. Therefore,
two tides and Ebbs are experienced twice at every place on earth's water surface within
24 hours.
The moon, Thus the tide centre takes 24 hours 52 min. To come under the moon.
The average difference in water level between high and low tides at any place is called
AMPLITUDE of the tide.
The tidal range is generally 13 m. In the Mediterranean and Baltic, the range is very small
but highest tide is experienced in the Bay of Fundy (East Canada), the tide may rise
1520m

Types Of Tides

Spring Tides: The spring tides are the highest when the moon, earth and the sun are in the
straight line. They occur at new and full moon; especially on 1 Jan it is highest. The
straight line is called Syzygy and this position is called Conjuction When the position
of earth is in between sun and moon it is called Opposition
Neap Tides: The position is quadrature i.e.. Sun, earth and moon are in a position of right
angle. They occur at the moon's first and third quarter i.e.. On the 7th and 8th day of
every fortnight and the direct force is produced by the sun and the Working in opposite
direction and thus low tide is formed. The height neap tide is 20% lower than general
tides.
Tropical and Equatorial Tides: Like the sun, there is also northward and southward
position of the moon in relation to the equator of the earth. If the sun completes its
northward and southward position in one year (nearly 365 days), the moon completes it
in 29.5 days (1 synodic month). When there is maximum declination of the moon to the
north of the equator, the moon's rays fall vertically on the tide centres (near the Tropic of
Cancer) hence spring tides are caused. Such tropical tides move westward along the
Tropic of Cancer and also occur along the Tropic of Capricorn which is opposite to the
Tropic of Cancer. The tides occurring along the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are
called the Tropical Tides
Apogean and Perigean tides.
Daily and Semidiurnal Tides.
Equinocital tide.

You might also like