Earth science
Hazards and resources
Volcanoes, slides, storms; fuels and ores.
Basics
Natural hazards
Volcanoes: viscous magma tends to explode. Tsunamis: seafloor faults or slides. Hurricanes/typhoons spin over warm water. Risk is hazard × exposure × vulnerability.
Resources
Fossil fuels are buried ancient organics. Metal ores concentrate by hydrothermal, magmatic, or weathering paths. Renewables tap flows (sun, wind, water). Extraction has water, soil, and carbon costs.
Formulas
Risk (idea)
The same quake hurts differently with buildings and preparedness.
In this field
Rocks and plate tectonics
Rock cycle, earthquakes, volcanoes, plate boundaries.
Atmosphere and weather
Layers, wind, clouds, fronts.
Oceans, climate, time
Currents, carbon, climate vs weather, relative and absolute age.
Minerals and water
Minerals and Mohs, water cycle, groundwater, soil.
Geologic time and carbon
Relative and absolute ages, the carbon cycle.
Weathering, soil, and the water cycle
Weathering, erosion, soil profiles, and the water cycle.
Earth’s magnetic field
The dynamo, the dipole, inclination and declination, paleomagnetism and seafloor stripes.
Glaciers and sea level
Glacier budget, isostasy, sea level, and glacial deposits.
Groundwater
Porosity, permeability, water table, Darcy, aquifers and aquitards.
Seismic waves
P, S, and surface waves, travel-time curves, magnitude, and Earth’s interior sketch.