During the past 40 years, a new model has emerged and revolutionized earth sciences like perhaps no other before. The theory of Plate Tectonics is now well-established and forms the basis of our current understanding of the structure and dynamics of our earth. In particular, plate tectonics explains geologic features on the crust over a wide scale, such as the distribution of land and sea, the formation of mountains, earthquakes, and volcanism. Tectonic plates are composed of the rigid outer portion of the earth, called lithosphere. With a thickness of about 100 km, the lithosphere is composed of an upper layer of crust (~7 km thick under the oceans, and ~50 km thick under the continents) and a lower, denser layer of the earth's upper mantle. The rest of the mantle underlying the plates is sufficiently hot to be mobile, although by far the largest part of it is solid. Despite the high temperature, the effect of pressure inside the mantle usually prevents melting. The rigid lithosphere plates are driven by convection within the mobile asthenosphere. Hot mantle rises beneath mid-oceanic ridges, and cold, denser mantle descends at oceanic trenches. Lateral motion of the lithosphere plates above these circular convection cells is analogous to rigid blocks riding above a rotating conveyor belt. Subduction zones, or convergent margins, are one of the three types of plate boundaries. The others are divergent and transform margins. At a divergent margin, two plates are spreading apart, as at seafloor-spreading ridges or continental rift zones such as the East Africa Rift. Transform margins mark slip-sliding plates, such as California's San Andreas Fault, where the North America and Pacific plates grind past each other with a mostly horizontal motion. The driving force behind plate tectonics is convection in the mantle. Hot material near the earth's core rises, and colder mantle rock sinks. The convection drive plates tectonics through a combination of pushing and spreading apart at mid-ocean ridges and pulling and sinking downward at subduction zones. Scientists continue to study and debate the mechanisms that move the plates. From the deepest ocean trench to the tallest mountain, plate tectonics explains the features and movement of Earth's surface in the present and the past.

Theory of Plate Tectonics

Judith Rosales

Delve Publishing

Oceanography is the branch of science which deals with the physical and biological properties of the ocean and the various phenomena related to it. It covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics; plate tectonics and the geology of the sea floor; and fluxes of various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its boundaries. Oceanography studies the naturally happening, large-scale drifts on the Earth, the mobility of fluids in the ocean known as geophysical fluid dynamics; plate tectonics or the movements of the large sections that form the ocean floor and the processes of land formation or geology of the sea bed. The ocean experiences numerous variabilities of various chemical substances present in its water-body. The physical properties within the ocean and beyond its boundaries also affect the ocean. These changes are the subject matter of oceanography. Oceanography is an amalgamation of diverse topics and oceanographers reflect multiple disciplines like biology, chemistry, geology and physics that interrelate to expand knowledge of the world oceans and the processes within. The areas which Oceanography brings under its focus is the deep sea and the shallow coastal regions. The oceans of the world are not isolated from the rest of the physical features of the world. They are influenced by and influence the atmosphere, the continents and the frozen water part of the Earth system called the cryosphere. Together they form a harmonious whole, absorbing the sun's rays for energy. It also receives energy from tides caused by the pull of the moon, the sun and planets. The Earth's interior also radiates heat. Oceanography is inclusive of the disciplines that analyze the workings of marine life, ecosystems and ocean circulation. Oceanography is a very important discipline for understanding the oceans, which are essential for all life on Earth and cover the majority of the Earth's surface.

Principles of Oceanography

Meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting. Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events which illuminate and are explained by the science of meteorology. It is a study that dates back to ancient times, when ancient civilizations made observations and kept records of weather conditions, both for agricultural purposes and out of a general curiosity about the world around them. Over the centuries, the atmosphere has been studied for a variety of reasons, including agricultural knowledge, military defense and planning, and developing better warnings for severe weather systems like tornadoes and hurricanes. Technological advances, such as the development of scientific computing and an increase in the total number of meteorological observations being taken daily across the globe, have allowed for better forecasts (or at least the meteorological community likes to think they are better forecasts) and a much better overall understanding of our atmosphere. Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events that are explained by the science of meteorology. Meteorological phenomena are described and quantified by the variables of Earth's atmosphere: temperature, air pressure, water vapor, mass flow, and the variations and interactions of those variables, and how they change over time. Different spatial scales are used to describe and predict weather on local, regional, and global levels. There are many specialized branches, or subfields, of meteorology, each defined by both the spatial scale of the phenomena they study and by the other branches of science they involve. In terms of spatial scale, all meteorological study is conducted on either the micro-, meso-, synoptic, or global scale. Microscale meteorology deals with any problems that are on the order of 1 kilometer in size or smaller, things like individual clouds or heat transfers. Mesoscale meterology includes phenomena in the size range from the upper end of the microscale to several hundred kilometers. Lake effect snowstorms, severe thunderstorms, and mesoscale convective complexes.

Fundamentals of Meteorology

Management of Natural Hazards and Disasters

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Books by Judith Rosales

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Judith Rosales. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Theory of Plate Tectonics

Principles of Oceanography

Fundamentals of Meteorology

Management of Natural Hazards and Disasters