Our Environment can be defined as "the Social, Cultural and Physical conditions that surrounds, effect and influence the survival, growth and development of people, animals and plants".
It also includes all factors (living and non-living) that affect an individual organism or population at any point in the life cycle; the set of circumstances of surrounding a particular occurrence and all the things that surrounds us.
Environment consists of four segments:
• Atmosphere : Blanket of gases surrounding the earth.
• Hydrosphere : Various water bodies present on the earth.
• Lithosphere : Contains various types of soils and rocks on the earth.
• Biosphere : Composed of all living organisms and their interactions with the environment.
1) Atmosphere
• Troposphere is the layer closest to the Earth's surface. It is 7 to 20 km thick, and it contains half of the Earth's Atmosphere.
• Stratosphere is the starts above Troposphere and ends about 50 km above ground. Planes fly in this layer to avoid turbulence and cover more distance using less fuel.
• Mesosphere starts at 50 km and extends to 85 km high. It is the coolest part of the atmosphere with temperature averaging minus 90 degree.
• Thermosphere extends from 90 km to between 500 and 1000 km. Temperature can Our Environment can be defined as "the Social, Cultural and Physical conditions that surrounds, effect and influence the survival, growth and development of people, animals and plants".
It also includes all factors (living and non-living) that affect an individual organism or population at any point in the life cycle; the set of circumstances of surrounding a particular occurrence and all the things that surrounds us.
Environment consists of four segments:
• Atmosphere : Blanket of gases surrounding the earth.
• Hydrosphere : Various water bodies present on the earth.
• Lithosphere : Contains various types of soils and rocks on the earth.
• Biosphere : Composed of all living organisms and their interactions with the environment.
• Exosphere is the highest layer, and widely contains particles of hydrogen and helium.
The Earth's Atmosphere is 480 km thick, and it is made of a mix of about 16 gases:
¹Nitrogen
²Oxygen
³ Argon
⁴Carbon dioxide
⁵Neon
⁶Helium
⁷Methane
⁸Krypton
⁹Nitrogen
¹⁰Hydrogen
¹¹Nitrous oxide
¹²Xenon
2) Lithosphere
The Oceanic Lithosphere is between is 5 to 10 miles thick.
The continental Lithosphere is approximately 22 miles thick, although it can reach 37 miles under certain mountain ranges.
The continental Lithosphere is billions of years old, while the oceanic Lithosphere is much younger and is constantly being created from mantle material at mid-ocean ridges.
The Lithosphere's main plates include the African Plate, the Antarctic Plate, the Eurasian Plate, the non-Australian Plate, the North American Plate, the South American Plate, and the Pacific Plate.
Smaller but important plates include the Arabian Plate, the Caribbean Plate, the Cocos Plate, the Indian Plate the Juan de Fuca Plate, the Nazca Plate, the Philippine Sea Plate, and the Scotia Plate.
When a Continental plate and an oceanic plate come together, the oceanic plate sinks below the continental plate.
It is from the Lithosphere that we are able to extract natural resources such as coal, various fuels and metals. It is also important for plants, providing the minerals required for their growth.
The continental Lithosphere consists of igneous rock called relic rock. This rock is rich in elements required to form quartz and feldspar.
The Oceanic Lithosphere comprised of magic crust and ultrasonic mantle. The magic crust is made up of silicate mineral that is rich in iron and magnesium. The ultrasonic crust is made up of Pyridoxine, which is made up of olivine and pyridoxine - contained less than 45% silica.
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