Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Geology for Baccalaureate

Al-Andalus: Islamic Iberia

Al-Andalus was the name given to the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule. Its history spans from the early 8th century to the end of the 15th century, and it left a profound mark on the political, social, economic and cultural life of the peninsula.

Background: Berbers, Emirate and Caliphate

Berbers were a people of the Maghreb mountains, with their own ethnicity, language, alphabet and culture. Many of them were later incorporated into the Islamic conquest of Hispania.

The emirate was the territorial unit of the Islamic state dependent on the caliphate. It was governed by an emir, a provincial governor who was not yet the supreme authority of the Islamic world. The caliph held the maximum religious, military and political...

Elevation and Relief

Elevation: Gradient of a point on the Earth's surface relative to sea level.

Close witnesses are residual reliefs formed by harder rocks such as limestone.

Countryside and Scale

Countryside: Gently rolling lowlands crisscrossed by rivers.

Scale: The average ratio between the map's length and the corresponding length in reality.

Geological Structures

Faults: A terrestrial crust rupture with fractured block separation.

Latitude and Longitude

Latitude: The angular distance from any point of land to the Equator.

Longitude: The angular distance from any point on Earth to the 0° meridian.

Plains and Meridians

Plain: A plain high above sea level.

Meridians: Semi-circles ranging from pole to pole. The most important is Greenwich.

Solids and

Environmental Foundations

Environment: The set of physical, chemical, biological, and social components that can cause direct or indirect effects, in the short or long term, on life and human activities.

Changes in the Atmosphere

Today, it is thought that the atmosphere originated from exhaust gases produced by volcanic activity during the first stages of planet formation, fundamentally composed of water vapor, CO2, and N2. Between 2,500 and 2,000 million years ago, free oxygen appeared in the atmosphere due to the emergence of the first organisms.

Properties of the Gaia Theory

• Complexity: An increase in ecosystems; this increase in complexity over time is called ecological succession.
• Stability: The ability of a system to react and counter outside

Earth's Spheres

Earth Subsystems

Atmosphere: The external layer of the planet in a gaseous state.

Hydrosphere: The discontinuous layer that surrounds the Earth's surface with water. Liquid water is fundamentally found under the surface, in continents and oceans. Although in small quantities, glacial ice is the first part of the atmosphere for living beings.

Geosphere: The rocky structure that makes up the Earth system's greatest volume. We will focus on its most external part, the lithosphere.

Biosphere: The system made up of living beings that inhabit the Earth. It occupies the lower part of the atmosphere, the upper part of the lithosphere, and the hydrosphere.

The Gaia Hypothesis

1. The biosphere is an entity whose main properties are the sum of the

Fossil Fuels: A Deep Dive

Most of the energy used worldwide today comes from fossil fuels. They are used in transportation, to generate electricity, to heat rooms, and for cooking.

Fossil fuels include oil, coal, and natural gas, formed millions of years ago from the organic remains of dead plants and animals. Over millennia, the remains of organisms were deposited at the bottom of seas, lakes, and other water bodies, covered by layers of sediment. Chemical reactions of decomposition and the pressure exerted by the weight of these layers transformed these organic remains into gas, oil, or coal.

The Non-Renewable Nature of Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels are nonrenewable resources; we cannot replace what we consume. They will eventually run out, and it...

Coal: Formation and Industrial History

Coal is a black, stratified sedimentary rock formed from the decomposition of plant remains. Its quality and calorific value depend on the duration of the formation process, ranging from hard coal (primary era) to brown coal.

During the First Industrial Revolution, coal production played a hegemonic role due to increased protectionism against cheaper foreign alternatives. The isolation following the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent period of autarky hampered the incorporation of new technologies. Eventually, the massive substitution of coal with oil led to a decline in consumption and the closure of many mines. The 1975 energy crisis briefly pushed consumption back up, but since 1984, production has...

Psychology:

Alexithymia

Alexithymia is a condition that consists of the inability to identify and describe one's own emotions and the difficulty in expressing them verbally.

In 1972, Sifneos coined the term alexithymia to designate the following characteristics:

• Difficulty identifying and describing feelings and emotions
• Difficulty distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations accompanying emotional activity
• Reduced symbolic thinking capacity
• Dreams and preoccupation with external events

Secondary characteristics of alexithymia

• A high degree of conformism, which can be confused with normal behavior, since the individual is rigid and follows conventional rules.
• Alexithymic people are well adapted and may appear normal on the surface, but their

Defining Natural Hazard Risk

Natural hazard risk is the probability of damage or catastrophe occurring to the population of an area or to their property. The value of a risk depends on three primary factors:

• Magnitude (or Danger): The size or intensity of a potentially catastrophic event, and the frequency with which it occurs.
• Exposure: The volume of population and assets that may be affected.
• Vulnerability: The susceptibility of a community to damage.

Reducing the Effects of Natural Events

To reduce the effects of a natural event, two main strategies are utilized:

• Prediction: Based on statistical data that indicate whether a particular phenomenon occurs frequently in a zone.
• Prevention: Proposes the adoption of necessary measures for the event to

Fixism and Creationism Before Evolution

Before the acceptance of the theory of evolution, the conviction was held that species remained invariable over time. The origin of species was attributed to a creator.

Lamarckism and the Inheritance of Acquired Traits

Lamarckism suggests that species transformed over the passage of time from one species to another through metamorphosis. The causes of these changes include:

• A trend towards complexity and adaptation to the environment.
• The appearance of organs due to use or disuse.
• The inheritance of acquired characters.

Lamarckism was eventually discarded because it does not explain how an acquired character can be inherited by descendants.

Darwinism and Natural Selection

Darwinism posits that species evolve according...

Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque art developed during the 11th and 12th centuries. Invasions and the former feudal regime, with absolute monarchies, a self-sufficient economy and a static society, shaped this period. Fortresses were built to defend against threats, and monasteries served as refuges.

Its origins lie in the Franks. As Christianity spread across Western Europe in the Middle Ages, pilgrimage routes to holy sepulchres, such as the Way of St. James in Spain, and the Cluniac monks of Cluny in Burgundy, France, and the Benedictine Order helped drive its expansion. Romanesque art was primarily religious, serving the Church, and reflected the spiritual fruit of the monastic era.

Romanesque architecture formed the basis of all Romanesque...