Earth's Resources : Overview
The Earth and its Resources
Our Planet is (as far as we know) unique in the Universe, as it is the only place to support Life.
The Earth orbits around a medium-sized yellow star which is commonly called the Sun. This star is approximately 5 billion years old and is about half-way through its life cycle. The Sun is the largest object in our Solar System (the Earth could fit within it, several thousand times over), but there are much larger stars within our own galaxy.
The Earth is joined in the Solar System by 7 other Planets, several Dwarf Planets, Hundreds of Moons and Millions of Asteroids and Comets in its orbit around the Sun.
The Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and formed from clouds of dust and gas left over from the formation of the Sun. This dust and gas collapsed under the effects of gravity to form the Earth (and the other planets).
The interactive animation below shows the stages of the formation of Planets, from clouds of dust and gas to the Planets present in our Solar System today:-
The video below shows a (condensed!) history of the Earth from its formation to today:-
Life has been present of Earth for approximately 4 billion years.
The diagram below shows the entire timeline of life on Earth, including the form that life took:-
As can be seen, the group of species that Humans are part of (the Hominins) have only existed on Earth for about 2 million years, or 0.04% of the time our planet has existed.
The Earth's Systems
There are 4 main systems (sometimes called 'spheres') that make up the Earth (and are the focus of this unit of the course):-
The Geosphere (Rocks, minerals etc.)
The Hydrosphere (Water in all its forms)
The Atmosphere (The gases the surround the Earth)
The Biosphere (The living organisms)
Origin of the Earth's Resources
All of the resources found on the Earth have been present since the Planet's formation (or in the case of water, very soon after). They were found within the clouds of dust and gas that the planet formed from, and apart from Hydrogen and Helium, the naturally occurring elements on Earth were originally formed in the core of a Star before it exploded, spreading the elements across space:-
