Online Earth Science Course
Earth Science BEN204
The study of Earth Science provides a foundation that underpins knowledge in many other sciences - atmospheric and weather changes, environmental issues, horticulture and agriculture, and more.
This fascinating course develops your an ability to identify and describe the Earth and its structure, and explain processes that effect change in the structure and its composition. An understanding of the Earth's processes is essential for anyone interested in environmental issues and management of natural resources as well ecotourism operators and those just interested in the world around them. Lessons include: rocks and minerals, meteorology, global weather patterns and atmospherics, the oceans, surface chances (eg. earthquakes and volcanoes), geological time, plate tectonics and more.
There are 9 lessons in this course:
- Structure and Forces
- Scope and Nature of the Earth and it's Structure
- Continental and Oceanic Crust
- Continental Drift
- Sea Floor Spreading
- Plate Tectonics
- Plate Boundaries; divergent boundaries, convergent boundaries
- Transform Faults
- Volcanoes; shield volcanoes, cinder cones, composite conesmagma, pyroclastic flow
- Rocks and Minerals
- Definitions
- Mineral Properties; crystaline form, luster, colour, streak, hardness, light transmissioncleavage, fracture, etc
- Mineral Groups
- Silicates
- Nonsilicate Minerals
- Rocks; formation, texture
- Sedimentary Rocks; derital, chemical and biochemical rocks
- Metamorphic Rocks
- Surface Changes
- Introduction
- Weathering
- Mass Wasting
- Erosion
- Glaciers
- Streams; birth of a stream, stream flow, deposited stream sediment
- Ground Water and Land Subsidence
- Aquifiers and Confining Beds
- Soil; parent materia, time, climate, life forms, slope
- Soil Profile, horizons
- The Oceans
- Scope and Nature of Oceans
- Sea Water
- Currents
- Coriolis Effect
- Geostrophic Flow
- Land Scale Currents
- Convergence and Divergence
- El Nino
- Waves
- Tides
- The Ocean Floor
- Shorelines
- The Marine Food Chain
- Air and Weather
- The Hydrological Cycle
- The Atmosphere
- Atmosphere and Circulation of Essential Elements
- Structure of the Atmosphere, Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Seasons
- Solar Radiation
- The Greenhouse Effect
- Weather
- Temperature Control
- Air Pressure
- Wind; Local Winds, Wind Erosion, Wind in Arid Climates
- Thunderstorms
- Tropical Cyclones
- Tornadoes
- The Greenhouse Effect
- Introduction
- Global Warming
- Anthropomorphic Changes to Global Climates
- Ozone Layer and Ozone Destruction
- Atmospheric Pollutants
- Global Weather Patterns
- Climate
- Climate Classification; Tropics, Dry Climates, Humid Mid Latitude and Mild Climates, Polar Climates, etc
- Geological Time
- Geological Time Scale
- Relative Dating
- Inclusion
- Correlation
- Types of Fossils
- Radiometric Dating; radiocarbon dating, radioactivity, half life
- Geological Time
- Modern Environmental Issues
- Balance of Nature
- Major Current Environmental Events
- Resource Depletion
- Conservation Issues
- Pollution and Waste
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims:
- Describe the major structural elements of Earth and the major internal forces which affect them.
- Classify rocks and minerals according to their characteristics and formation.
- Explain external processes that that cause topographic and soil changes on the earth’s surface.
- Describe the oceans of the earth and their role in global processes.
- Describe the earth’s atmosphere and the forces which create weather.
- Describe some well known effects of particular atmospheric conditions like the Greenhouse effect.
- Identify global weather patterns and their relationship to different climates.
- Describe the way in which the earth’s surface has changed over time.
- Identify environmental issues which are of current significance.
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