Spheres of Earth: Reference Table Scavenger Hunt
Name_______________________________Class: _____________ Date: ___________
Objective: To be able to understand the differences, similarities and characteristics of the Atmosphere,
Hydrosphere, and Lithosphere! *Use your ESRT
The Atmosphere
1.
What is the average chemical composition of the Troposphere (by volume)? 21% O, 78% N, 1% other
2. In which layer of the atmosphere does most of the weather occur? How do you know this?
Troposphere, because this is the only layer that contains water vapor.
3. Based on your knowledge, in which season is the air dry, winter or summer? _Winter Based on this
where would you find moist air at high latitudes or low latitudes (poles or equator)? Equator
4. In which layer of the atmosphere is most of the water vapor? Troposphere
5. In which layers of the atmosphere does temperature increase with altitude? Stratosphere,
Thermosphere
6. In which layers of the atmosphere does temperature decrease with altitude? Troposhere, Mesophere
7. What phase of matter is the atmosphere? Gas
The Hydrosphere:

Earth’s thinnest layer- average depth= 4km

99% of Hydrosphere is made of up oceans

Salt Water- 96.5% water, 3.5% salt

1% of Hydrosphere- Freshwater

Groundwater is about 25x more abundant than surface Freshwater
1.
What is the average chemical composition of the hydrosphere by volume? 33% O, 66% Hydrogen 1%
other
2. What is the average density of the hydrosphere? 1.0 g/mL
3. At what temperature in degrees Celsius does water have its highest density? 3.98 degrees Celsius
The Lithosphere:

Earth’s Rigid outer layer (outer layer of Geosphere)

Only explored to 12 km depth!

Top 100 km of Geosphere (Geosphere-solid and molten rock from surface to center of earth more
than 6000km deep!)
1.
What is the average chemical composition of the lithosphere (crust) by volume? 94.04% O, .88% Si,
.48% Al, .49% Fe, 1.18% Ca, 1.11% Na, .33% Mg, 1.42% K, Other .07%
2. What is the average density of Continental Crust?2.7 g/cubic cm
3. What is the average density of Oceanic Crust? 3.0 g/cubic cm
Name:___________________________________ Class:______________ Date:___________
Longitude
Here lies the real, hard-core difference between latitude and longitude-beyond the
superficial difference in line direction that any child can see: The zero- degree parallel of latitude is
fixed by the laws of nature, while the zero-degree meridian of longitude shifts like the sands of
time. This difference makes finding latitude child's play, and turns the determination of longitude,
especially at sea, into an adult dilemma-one that stumped the wisest minds of the world for the
better part of human history.
Any sailor worth his salt can gauge his latitude well enough by the length of the day, or by
the height of the sun or known guide stars above the horizon. Christopher Columbus followed a
straight path across the Atlantic when he "sailed the parallel" on his 1492 journey, and the technique
would doubtless have carried him to the Indies had not the Americas intervened.
The measurement of longitude meridians, in comparison, is tempered by time. To learn one's
longitude at sea, one needs to know what time it is aboard ship and also the time at the home port or
another place of known longitude-at that very same moment. The two clock times enable the
navigator to convert the hour difference into a geographical separation. Since the Earth takes
twenty-four hours to complete one full rotation of three hundred sixty degrees, one hour marks one
twenty-fourth of a spin, or fifteen degrees. And so each hour's time difference between the ship
and the starting point marks a progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or west. Every
day at sea, when the navigator resets his ship's clock to local noon when the sun reaches its highest
point in the sky, and then consults the home-port clock, every hour's discrepancy between them
translates into another fifteen degrees of longitude.
Those same fifteen degrees of longitude also correspond to a distance traveled. At the
Equator, where the girth of the Earth is greatest, fifteen degrees stretch fully one thousand miles.
North or south of that line, however, the mileage value of each degree decreases. One degree of
longitude equals four minutes of time the world over, but in terms of distance, one degree shrinks
from sixty-eight miles at the Equator to virtually nothing at the poles.
1.
What is one rule that defines where the
The equator is “fixed by the laws of nature” because it is the center latitude that wraps
around the girth of earth half way between the north and south pole, perpendicular to Earth’s axis
2.
What is another name for the equator used in this passage?
The “zero-degree parallel”
3.
What two things must you know to calculate you longitude while at sea?
The solar time aboard ships and also the time at the home port.
4. How many degrees have you traveled if your "local time" is different by four minutes from your home
port's time?
1 degree
5.
If you travel one degree of longitude over the surface of the Earth, how many miles have you
traveled? Its depends on your latitude, on the equator you traveled 68 miles, but that shrinks as you
travel North or south.