I Can’t Sleep - Earth | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

Drift off with this calm bedtime reading on Earth, a peaceful way to ease insomnia and invite restful sleep. Benjamin’s soothing voice explores our planet’s geology, atmosphere, ecosystems, and place in the Solar System. His gentle cadence turns the story of our world into soft, fact-filled narration that helps calm the mind. This is not whispering or hypnosis—just relaxing storytelling and education designed to reduce stress, quiet anxiety, and ease sleepless nights. Press play, close your eyes, and let the story of Earth carry you gently into dreams. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Earth, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Earth. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Earth. Earth is the third planet from the sun and the only

astronomical object known to harbor life. According to radiometric dating estimation and other evidence, Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Earth's gravity interacts with other objects in space, especially the sun and the moon, which is Earth's only natural satellite. Earth orbits around the Sun in 365.256 solar days, a period known as an Earth's side-reel year. During this time, Earth rotates about its axis 36.266 times. That is, a side-reel year has 366.256 side-reel days. Earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to its orbital plane. producing seasons on Earth.

The gravitational interaction between Earth and the Moon causes tides, stabilizes Earth's orientation on its axis, and gradually slows its rotation. Earth is the densest planet in the solar system and the largest and most massive of the four rocky planets. Earth's outer layer, lithosphere, is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over many millions of years.

About 29% of Earth's surface is land consisting of continents and islands. The remaining 71% is covered with water, mostly by oceans, but also lakes, rivers, and other fresh water, which all together constitute the hydrosphere. The majority of Earth's polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic, ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack. Earth's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates Earth's magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earth's history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect Earth's atmosphere and surface, leading to the

proliferation of anaerobic and later aerobic organisms. Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as early as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earth's distance from the sun, physical properties, and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive. In the history of life on Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of experience. occasionally punctuated by mass extinctions. Over 99% of all species had ever lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely. Most species have not been described.

Over 7.7 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and natural resources for their survival. Etymology The modern English word earth developed via Middle English from an old English noun most often spelled erd. It has cognates in every German language, and their ancestral root has been reconstructed as Ertha. In its earliest attestation, the word Ertha was already being used to translate the many senses of Latin terra in Greek G, the ground. its soil, dry land, the human world, the surface of the world, including the sea, and the globe itself. As with Roman terra, talus, and Greek Gaia, Earth may have been a personified goddess in Germanic paganism.

Late Norse mythology included Juro, Earth, a giant is often given as the mother of Thor. Originally Earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the Earth. By early modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the Earth became, as often remained, the Earth, particularly when referenced along with other heavenly bodies. More recently, the name is sometimes simply given as Earth, by analogy with the name. of the other planets. House styles now vary. Oxford's spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, with the capitalized form an acceptable variant. Another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name, e.g. Earth's atmosphere, but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the, e.g. the atmosphere of the Earth. It almost always appears in lowercase and

colloquial expressions, such as what on earth are you doing? Occasionally the name Terra is used in scientific writing, and especially in science fiction, to distinguish our inhabited planet from others. While in poetry, Telus has been used to denote personification of the earth. The Greek poetic named Gia is rare, though the alternative spelling Jaya has become common due to the Jaya hypothesis, in which case its pronunciation is Gaia rather than the more classical Gia. The Greek poetic name Jaya is rare, though the alternative spelling Gaia has become common due to the Gaia hypothesis, in which case its pronunciation is Gaia rather than the more classical Gaia.

There are a number of adjectives for the planet Earth. from earth itself comes earthly from latin terra come terran terrestrial and by a french terran and from latin toulouse come tellurian and more rarely tulluric and tulloral from greek gaia and gaia comes guyan and gaian an inhabitant of the earth is an earthling a terran a terrestrial a tellurian or rarely in an earthian.

Chronology. Formation The oldest material found in the solar system is dated to 4.5672 plus or minus 0.006 billion years ago. By 4.54 plus or minus 0.04 billion years ago, the primordial Earth had formed. The bodies in the solar system formed and evolved with the sun. In theory, a solar nebula partitions a volume out of a molecular cloud by a gravitational collapse, which begins to spin and flatten into a circumstellar disk, and then the planets grow out of that disk with the sun.

A nebula contains gas, ice grains, and dust, including primordial nuclides. According to nebular theory, planetesimals formed by accretion with the primordial Earth taking 10 to 20 million years to form. A subject of research is the formation of the moon some 4.53 billion years ago. The leading hypothesis is that it was formed by accretion from material loose from Earth after a Mars-sized object named Thea hit Earth. In this view, the mass of Thayer was approximately 10% of Earth. It hit Earth with a glancing blow and some of its mass merged with Earth. Between approximately 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago, numerous asteroid impacts during the late heavy bombardment

caused significant changes to the greater surface environment of the Moon, and by inference to that of Earth. geological history Earth's atmosphere and oceans were formed by volcanic activity and outgassing. Water vapor from these sources condensed into the oceans, augmented by water and ice from asteroids, protoplanets and comets. In this model, atmospheric greenhouse gases kept the oceans from freezing when the newly forming sun had only 70% of its current luminosity.

By 3.5 billion years ago, Earth's magnetic field was established, which helped prevent the atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind. A crust formed when the molten outer layer of Earth cooled to form a solid. The two models that explain landmass propose either a steady growth to the present-day forms or, more likely, a rapid growth early in Earth's history, followed by a long-term steady continental area. Continants formed by plate tectonics, a process ultimately driven by the continuous loss of heat from Earth's interior.

Over the period of hundreds of millions of years, the supercontinants have assembled and broken apart. Roughly 750 million years ago, one of the earliest known supercontinents, Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later recombined to form Panotia, 600 to 540 million years ago. Then finally, Pangia, which also broke apart 180 million years ago. The present pattern of ice ages began about 40 million years ago,

and then intensified during the Pleistocene about 3 million years ago. High latitude regions have since undergone repeated cycles of glaciation and thaw, repeating about every 40,000 to 100,000 years. The last continental glaciation ended 10,000 years ago. Origin of life and evolution. Chemical reactions led to the first self-replicating molecules about 4 billion years ago. A half billion years ago,

the last common ancestor of all current life arose. The evolution of photosynthesis allowed the sun's energy to be harvested directly by light, forms. The resultant molecular oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere and due to interaction with ultraviolet solar radiation formed a protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. The incorporation of smaller cells within larger ones resulted in the development of complex cells called eukaryotes. True multicellular organisms formed as cells within colonies became increasingly specialized. aided by the absorption of harmful ultra-vital radiation by the ozone layer,

life colonized Earth's surface. Among the earliest fossil evidence for life is microbial mad fossils, found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone in Western Australia. Biogenic graphite found in 3.7 billion-year-old metacetimentary rocks in western Greenland, and remains of biotic material found in 4,000000. 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. The earliest direct evidence of life on Earth is contained in 3.45 billion-year-old Australian rocks, showing fossils of microorganisms. During the neo-proterozoic, 750 to 580 million years ago, much of Earth might have been covered in ice. This hypothesis

has been termed snowball Earth, and it is of particular interest because it preceded the Cambrian explosion, when multicellular life forms significantly increased in complexity. Following the Cambrian explosion, 535 million years ago, there have been five mass extinctions. The most recent such event was 66 million years ago, when an asteroid impact triggered the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and other large reptiles, but spared some small animals such as mammals, which at the time resembled shrews. Mammalian life has diversified over the past 66 million years, and several million years ago an African ape-like animal gained the ability to stand upright. This facilitated tool use

and encouraged communication that provided the nutrition and stimulation needed for a larger brain, which led to the evolution of humans. The development of agriculture and and civilization led to humans having an influence on Earth and the nature and quality of other life forms that continues to this day. Future. Earth's expected long-term future is tied to that of the sun. Over the next 1.1 billion years, solar luminosity will increase by 10% and over the next 3.5 billion years by 40%. Earth's increasing surface temperature will accelerate the inorganic carbon cycle reducing CO2 concentration to levels leasily low for plants in approximately 100 to 900 million years. The lack of vegetation will result in the loss of

oxygen in the atmosphere, making animal life impossible. About a billion years from now, all surface water will have disappeared, and the main global temperature will reach 70 degrees Celsius. Earth is expected to be habitable until the end of photosynthesis about 500 million years from now. But if nitrogen is removed from the atmosphere, life may continue until a runaway greenhouse effect occurs 2.3 billion years from now. Anthropogenic emissions are probably insufficient to cause a runaway greenhouse at current solar luminosity. Even if the sun were eternal and stable, 27% of the water in the modern oceans will descend to the mantle in 1 billion years, due to reduced steam venting from mid-ocean ridges.

The sun will evolve to become a red giant in about 5 billion years. Models predict that the sun will expand roughly 1AU, about 250 times its present radius. Earth's fate is less clear. As a red giant, the sun will lose roughly 30, percent of its mass, so without tidal effects, Earth will move to an orbit 1.7 AU from the Sun, when the star reaches its maximum radius. Most if not all remaining life will be destroyed with the Sun's increasing luminosity. A 2008 simulation indicates the Earth's orbit will

eventually decay due to tidal effects and drag, causing it to enter the Sun's atmosphere and be vaporized. physical characteristics. Shape The shape of the Earth is nearly spherical. There's a small flattening at the poles and bulging around the equator due to Earth's rotation. To second order, Earth is approximately an obloid spheroid, whose equator is 43 kilometers larger than the pole-to-pole diameter,

although the variation is less than 1% of the average radius of the Earth. The point on the surface farthest from the Earth's center of mass is the summit of the equatorial Chimborosso volcano in Ecuador. The average diameter of the reference spheroid is 12,742 kilometers. Local typography deviates from this idealized spheroid, although on a global scale these deviations are small compared to the Earth's radius. The maximum deviation is only 0.17% is at the Mariana Trench, whereas Mount Everest represents a deviation of 0.14%. In Geodicy, the exact shape that Earth's oceans would adopt in the absence of land and perturbations, such as tides and winds, is called the geoid.

Or precisely, the geoid is the surface of gravitational equipotential at main sea level. Chemical composition. Earth's mass is approximately 5.97 times 10 to the 24th kilograms. It is composed mostly of iron, 32.1%, oxygen, 30.1%, silicon, 15.1%. Magnesium, 13.9%. Sulphor, 2.9%. Nickel, 1.8%. Calcium, 1.5%. and aluminum, 1.4%. With the remaining 1.2%, consisting of trace amounts of other elements. Due to mass segregation, the core region is estimated to be primarily composed of iron, 88.8%. With smaller amounts of nickel, 5.8%, sulfur, 4.5%, and less than 1% trace elements.

The most common rock constituents of the crust are nearly all oxides. Chlorine, sulfur, and fluorine are the important exceptions to this, and their total amount in any rock is usually much less than 1%. Over 99% of the crust is composed of 11 oxides, principally silica, alumina, iron oxides, lime, magnesium, potash, and soda. internal structure Earth's interior like that of the other terrestrial planets is divided into layers by their chemical or physical properties

the outer layer is a chemically distinct silicate solid crust which is underlain by a highly viscous solid mantle the crust is separated from the mantle by the Mahorovicic discontinuity the thickness of the crust varies from about six kilometers under the oceans to 30 to 50 kilometers for the continents. A crust and a cold rigid top of the upper mantle are collectively known as the lithosphere, and it is of the lithosphere that the tectonic plates are composed.

Beneath the lithosphere is the asthenosphere, a relatively low viscosity layer on which the lithosphere rides. Important changes in crystal structure within the mantle occur at 410 and 660 kilometers below the surface, spanning a transition zone that separates the upper and lower mantle. Beneath the mantle, an extremely low viscosity liquid outer core lies above a solid inner core. Earth's inner core might rotate at a slightly higher angular velocity and the remainder of the planet, advancing by 0.1 to 0.5 degrees per year. The radius of the inner core is about one-fifth of that of Earth.

Heat. Earth's internal heat comes from a combination of residual heat from planetary accretion, about 20%, and heat produced through radioactivity decay, 80%. The major heat-producing isotopes within Earth are potassium 40, uranium-238, and thorium-232. At the center, the temperature may be up to 6,000 degrees Celsius, and the pressure could reach 360 GPA. Because much of the heat is provided by radioactive decay, scientists postulate that early in Earth's history, before isotopes with short half-lives were depleted, Earth's heat production was much higher. At approximately three-year, twice the present-day heat, would have been more. produced, increasing the rates of mantle convection and plate tectonics, and allowing the production

of uncommon igneous rocks such as comadiites that are rarely formed today. The mean heat loss from the earth is 87 MW, M to the negative 2, for a global heat loss of 4.42 times 10 to the 13th W. A portion of the coarse thermal energy is transported toward the crust by mantle plumes. a form of convection consisting of upwillings of higher temperature rock. These blooms can produce hot spots and flood basalts. More of the heat in the earth is lost through plate tectonics by mantle upwelling associated with mid-ocean ridges. The final major mode of heat loss is through conduction through the lithosphere,

the majority of which occurs under the oceans because a crust there is much thinner than that of the continents. Surface The total surface area of Earth is about 510 million kilometers squared. Of this, 70.8%, or 361.13 million kilometers squared, is below sea level and covered by ocean water. Below the ocean's surface are much of the continental shelf, mountains, volcanoes, oceanic trenches, submarine canyons, oceanic plateaus, abyssal plains,

and a globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system. The remaining 29.2% or 148.94 million kilometers squared, not covered by water, has terrain that varies greatly from place to place, and consists of mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, and other landforms. Tectonics and erosion, volcanic eruptions, flooding, weathering, glaciation, the growth of coral reefs, and meteorite impacts are among the processes that constantly reshape Earth's surface over geological time. The continental crust consists of lower density materials such as the igneous rocks granite and Andesite. Less common is basalt, a denser volcanic rock that is the primary constituent of the ocean floors.

Sedimentary rock is formed from the accumulation of sediment that becomes buried and compacted together. Nearly 75% of the continental surfaces are covered by sedimentary rocks, although they form about 5% of the crust. The third form of rock material found on Earth is metamorphic rock, which is created from the transformation of pre-existing rock types through high pressures, high temperatures, or both. The most abundant silicate minerals on Earth's surface include quartz,

feldspars, amphibolet, mica, pyroxene, and olivine. Common carbonate minerals include calcite, found in limestone, and dolomite. The elevation of the land surface varies from the low point of negative 418 meters at the dead sea to a maximum altitude of 8,848 meters at the top of Mount Everest. The mean height of land above sea level is about 797 meters. The petosphere is the outermost layer of Earth's continental surface and is composed of soil and subject to soil formation processes. The total arable land is 10.9% of the land surface, with 1.3% being permanent cropland. Close to 40% of Earth's land surface is used for agriculture or an estimated 16.7 million kilometers squared of cropland and 33.5 million kilometers squared of pasture land. Hydrosphere. The abundance of water on Earth's surface is a unique feature that

distinguishes the blue planet from other planets in the solar system. Earth's hydrosphere consists chiefly of the oceans, but technically includes all water surfaces in the world, including inland seas, lakes, rivers, and underground waters down to a depth of 2,000 meters. The deepest underwater location is Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, with a depth of 10,911.4 meters. The mass of the oceans is approximately 1.35 times 10 to the 18th metric tons, or about 1.44th of Earth's total mass. The oceans cover an area of 361.8 million kilometers squared, with a mean depth of 3,682 meters, resulting in an estimated volume of 1.332 billion kilometers cubed. If all of Earth's crustal surface were at the same elevation as a smooth sphere,

the depth of the resulting world ocean would be 2.7 to 2.8 kilometers. About 97.5% of the water is sailing. The remaining 2.5% is freshwater. Most fresh water, about 68.7%, is present as ice in ice caps and glaciers. The average salinity of Earth's oceans is about 35 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater. Most of this salt was released from volcanic activity or extracted from cool igneous rocks. The oceans are also a reservoir of dissolved atmospheric gases, which are essential for the survival of many aquatic life forms. Sea water has an important influence on the world's climate, with the oceans acting as a large heat reservoir. Shifts in the oceanic temperature distribution

can cause significant weather shifts such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation. Atmosphere The atmospheric pressure of Earth's sea level averages 101.325 KPA with a scale height of about 8.5 kilometers. A dry atmosphere is composed of 78.8.8. 084% nitrogen, 20.946% oxygen, 0.934% argon, and trace amounts of carbon dioxide and other gaseous

molecules. Water vapor content varies between 0.01% and 4%, but averages about 1%. The height of the troposphere varies with latitude, ranging between 8 kilometers at the poles to 17 kilometers at the equator, with some variation resulting from weather and seasonal factors. Earth's biosphere has significantly altered its atmosphere. Oxygenic photosynthesis evolved 2.7GYA, forming the primarily nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere of today. This change enabled the proliferation of aerobic organisms, and indirectly, the formation of the ozone layer, due to the subsequent conversion of atmospheric O2 into O3. The ozone layer blocks ultraviolet solar radiation, permitting life on land.

Other atmospheric functions important to life include transporting water vapor, providing useful gases, causing small meteors to burn up before they strike the surface, and moderating temperature. This last phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect. Trace molecules within the atmosphere serve to capture thermal energy emitted from the ground. thereby raising the average temperature. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone are the primary greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Without this heat retention effect, the average surface temperature would be negative 18 degrees Celsius, in contrast to the current 15 degrees Celsius, and life on Earth probably would not exist in its current form. In May 2017, glints of light seen as twinkling from an orbiting satellite a million miles away were found to be reflected light from ice crystals in the atmosphere.