You will now create an outline for your final assignment.
You took notes on almost every page of the lesson, and now it’s time to use them as well as any other evidence presented. You’ll create a story, poem, comic strip, or slide presentation in which you describe and summarize your understanding of these processes that help us appreciate and protect Earth’s resources by imagining a journey as a mineral through the rock cycle into soil and even through living things. Describe your journey, detailing the processes of rock formation and destruction, the formation of soil, and ways to improve soil quality.
Use Organize It to outline your ideas. You can review your notes in “My Work” as well as any of the following videos and glossary terms.
Our lithosphere- the solid rock portion of our planet- is a pretty complicated system. But if you boil it down to its most basic component, it all starts with minerals.
Every rock in our lithosphere is made up of minerals which are naturally occurring, inorganic (non-living) , solid material, made of elements that have certain physical properties.
When minerals are mixed and bonded together, they form rock, but how these minerals are combined to form rocks is what defines the three main types we have on Earth: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
When melted and gooey magma cools and hardens it forms igneous rock. This can happen below ground, or above Either way, cooled magma and lava creates igneous rock.
When small bits of rock called sediment accumulate and are compressed over time, they form sedimentary rock.
And when any existing rock gets put into the pressure cooker that are the Earth’s plate boundaries, the rock is transformed- physically and chemically. This is metamorphic rock.
So, besides making great pets and houses, why are rocks important? Well, rocks, and what they are made of are literally and figuratively the building blocks of our world.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
As rocks on the crust of Earth weather into smaller pieces and mix with water, air, and living things, a new type of living material is created: soil.
Soil formation begins as rocks break down (weathering) into smaller rock particles called sediment.
But this sediment is only the “base layer” of soil that provides the mineral content. The thing that makes soil “soil” is all of the living and decomposing organisms in it: Plant material, animal material, fungus, bacteria. When the organic or living mixes with inorganic or non-living (mineral + air + water), you get soil.
Depending on the type of inorganic and organic components in it, the properties of the soil vary (pH, texture/particle size, moisture) and its ability to support life (fertility) varies. It may sound counterintuitive, but soil must contain life to support life.
So before you dismiss it as just plain “dirt” - you might want to take a second look at this complex interface of water, air, rock and life. Because without this living material,
earth wouldn’t be Earth at all.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
The rock of our lithosphere is being built up, broken down, and built up again through a process we call the rock cycle. But this “cycle” isn’t really a cycle at all. It’s more of a complex web of dynamic interactions powered by forces that keep it in a constant state of change.
Underground, heat and pressure run the show. Rock can be formed from cooling and crystallizing magma or lava (igneous). Rock can be transformed by heat & pressure (metamorphic). Rock is also moved by uplifting and subduction, the latter of which can also deconstruct rock by melting back into the mantle.
Once near the surface, wind, water and ice take up the reins. Rock breaks down by weathering. Sediments move by erosion. And rock is formed as it deposits and compacts over time (sedimentary). If it makes it back underground intact, heat & pressure can sweep our rock into another “choose your own” adventure.
There are many paths a rock can take. It is how the nonliving geosphere of our Earth is constantly reinventing itself. So set your watch to geological speed, sit back, and watch the rock show.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
The Earth’s crust sustains us. This little slice of our planet where living (plant/animal/fungus) meets non-living (mineral, air, water) is called the pedosphere also known as the soil layer.
As land animals, humans depend on the pedosphere. It is where we grow our food, where we get our water, where we breathe our air, and where we build our homes.
And because we love to do these things, human activity can fundamentally change the soil layer. We deforest, we plow, we build, we dump our waste. This can lead to loss of topsoil through erosion, contamination, and nutrient loss.
But we can also conserve and improve our soil using best management practices (aka BMP) - we can compost, we can add native plants, rotate our crops, slow down water flow and erosion, and use farming practices that rebuild our soil (regenerative agriculture).
It’s important for us to monitor, protect, and preserve this natural resource. Because in this critical human/soil relationship, healthy humans really do depend on a healthy pedosphere.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Organize It!: Your work has been submitted.