Geology for Engineers
Planet Earth
Organisation
• 30 Lectures: Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday 10-11am, M17
• 4 Practicals: Tuesday afternoon, Main Lab
Geology
• Field Trip: Killiney (date to be confirmed),
full afternoon
• See course website for full details!
Assessment
• 3 hour exam
• All the material taught in the course,
including practicals and field-trip, is
examinable!!!
• Answer 5 out of 7 questions
• 6 set by PB + QC, 1 by BM
• See past exam papers for examples!
Course Notes
Recommended Texts
• Course web-site
• Understanding Earth (2nd edition), Press &
Siever
• The Solid Earth (2nd Edition), Fowler
• Introducing Groundwater (2nd Edition),
Price
• Water wells and boreholes, Misstear, Bank
& Clark
Formation of the Solar System
• The stages of solar system formation start
with a protostar embedded in a gas cloud,
then to an early star with a circumstellar
disk, to a star surrounded by small
"planetesimals" that are starting to clump
together to a solar system like ours today.
Formation of the Solar System
protostar
planetesimals
www.jwst.nasa.gov/birth.html
circumstellar disk
home
Credit: Shu et al. 1987
Composition of the Solar System
• Jovian planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune
– Large masses & low densities.
– Mainly composed of gaseous H & He and
frozen C-H-N volatiles.
– Interiors may be similar to that of Earth
Composition of the Solar System
• The inner, terrestrial planets: Small
masses & high densities.
– Mercury: No atmosphere. Similar in
composition to Earth.
– Venus: Dense atmosphere of CO2 & N.
Similar in composition to Earth.
– Earth: More about “us” later.
– Mars: Polar ice caps in winter – water?
Uniform chemical composition – i.e. no iron
core and silicate mantle as in Earth.
The Asteroids
www.aerospaceweb.org/
Composition of the Solar System
• The asteroids: Located in a belt between
the terrestrial and Jovian planets.
• Meteorites: Most are probably fragments
from the asteroid belt of our solar system.
– Siderites, or “irons” (98% metal)
– Siderolites, or “stony irons” (50% metal, 50%
silicate)
– Aerolite, or “stones” (silicate > metal)