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The decomposed and disintegrated rock debris is the product of weathering processes
that require air (…) and water (…).Air and water also occupy the open spaces. Between
the solid particles and are considered important soil components.

Task 5. Discuss the following ideas:
1. The hydrosphere of the Earth.
2. The atmosphere of the Earth.
3. The geosphere of the Earth.
4. The biosphere of the Earth.

Individual work

Task 1. Read the text and translate it into Ukrainian (in written form).
Build up a list of key terms to the text.

The Earth system
Scientists have recognized that to more fully understand our planet they must
learn how its individual components (land, water, air, and life forms) are interconnected.
Earth system science aims to study Earth as a system composed of numerous interacting
parts, or subsystems.
The Earth system has a nearly endless array of subsystems in which matter is
recycled over and over again. One example traces the movements of carbon among
Earth’s four spheres. It shows us, for example, that the carbon dioxide in the air and the
carbon in living things and in certain sedimentary rocks are all part of a subsystem
described by the carbon cycle.
A more familiar subsystem is the hydrologic cycle. It represents the unending
circulation of Earth’s water among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and
geosphere. Water enters the atmosphere by evaporation from Earth’s surface and by
transpiration from plants. Water vapor condenses in the atmosphere to form clouds,
which in turn produce precipitation that falls back to Earth’s surface. Some of the rain
that falls onto the land sinks in to be taken up by plants or become groundwater, and
some flows across the surface toward the ocean.
The rocks of the geosphere are constantly forming, changing, and reforming.
The processes by which one rock changes to another is called the rock cycle. The cycles
of the Earth system, such as the hydrologic and rock cycles, are not independent of one
another. To the contrary, there are many places where they have an interface. An
interface is a common boundary where different parts of a system come in contact and
interact. For example weathering at the surface gradually disintegrates and decomposes
solid rock. The work of gravity and running water may eventually move this material to
another place and deposit it. Later, groundwater percolating through the debris may
leave behind mineral matter that cements the grains together into solid rock (a rock that
is often very different from the rock we started with). This changing of one rock into
another, which is part of the rock cycle, could not have occurred without the movement
of water through the hydrologic cycle.
The parts of the Earth system are linked so that ain one part can produce changes
in or all of the other parts. The Earth system is characterized by processes that vary on
spatial scales from fractions of millimeters to thousands of kilometers. Time scales for
Earth’s processes range from milliseconds to billions of years.
Humans are part of the Earth system, a system in which the living and nonliving
components are entwined and interconnected. Therefore, our actions produce changes in
all of the other parts. When we burn gasoline and coal, build breakwaters along the

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