Earth and Space Science
What to Know
Earth and Space Science includes Earth's structure, plate tectonics, rocks, water and weather, and the solar system. Earth has layers (crust, mantle, outer core, inner core). Plate tectonics explains earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building, and seafloor spreading at boundaries. The rock cycle shows igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks transforming through melting, cooling, weathering, erosion, deposition, compaction, and heat or pressure. The water cycle involves evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff. Weather is short-term atmospheric conditions; climate is long-term patterns. Seasons result from Earth's axial tilt, not distance from the Sun. Moon phases result from the Moon's position relative to Earth and Sun, not Earth's shadow; that causes eclipses. Understand that the Sun is a star, planets orbit the Sun, and gravity governs orbits.
Traps
- Explaining seasons by distance from the Sun.
- Confusing moon phases with eclipses.
- Mixing weathering (breakdown) with erosion (transport).
- Treating weather and climate as synonyms.
- Reversing the order of rock cycle processes.
- Thinking the Sun revolves around Earth.
Worked Example
When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, it receives more direct sunlight and longer days, so it is summer there while the Southern Hemisphere has winter. Rule of thumb: tilt, not distance, causes seasons.