how does the earth's surface change?
341724
By erosion and quakes and volcanic activity and plate tectonics. that is the natural thing that change it. The unnatural things are construction like the Piramids and the California Aquaduct and power plants and buildings. And the distruction of the rain forests and exploration of the ocians. And so much more. The surface is in constant flux and always changing.
653187
The earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to its orbital plane, and remains fixed with respect to the background of stars.  Thus, the northern and southern hemispheres are alternately tilted away from the sun.  During these times, the sun's rays strike the earth's surface obliquely.  From a viewpoint on the surface, the sun appears lower in the sky and the length of daytime becomes shorter.  This effect becomes more noticeable towards the poles, and is practically nonexistent at the equator.\n\nThe earth has had this tilt since its formation.  Over time, this periodic variation in daylight gave rise to periodic weather patterns.  (The differences in distance from the sun -- perigee and apogee -- actually have little effect.)  Then, as life evolved on the planet, it adapted to the local changes in temperature.  Plants evolved to become dormant during the winter periods; or if they could not survive, their life cycles became synchronized to the yearly cycle, and their spores evolved into seeds that could withstand the colder temperatures until spring, when they could sprout.  Animals, too, evolved to adapt to the seasons, both because of the changes in temperature and the availability of plants for food.
153138
depends....it always changes.......seeing how the Earth's tilt on its axis changes the distance and the amount of direct and indirect rays from the Sun. You should research it on google or yahoo.
744042
Climate change refers to the variation in the Earth's global climate or in regional climates over time. It describes changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere—or average weather—over time scales ranging from decades to millions of years. These changes may come from processes internal to the Earth, be driven by external forces (e.g. variations in sunlight intensity) or, most recently, be caused by human activities.\n\nclick here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change
357294
The Earth is surrounded by atmosphere, which is made up of many greenhouse gases. The Earths temperature\n      depends on the solar constant.\n      The Earths surface absorbs heat from the sun and re-radiates it back out to space with the help of clouds, snow,\n      atmosphere dust and sea surfaces, the rest is absorbed by other gases and aerosols, examples of these is the\n      gases from power stations and volcanoes which can be liquid or dust, some solar radiation does not reach\n      space this remains trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases. \n      The temperature of the Earth has changed and is continuing to do so with the help of human activity in rising \n      Co2 levels, from 1850-1996 Co2 rose from 285 p.p.m to 360 p.p.m a 0.7ºc rise in surface temperature.\n      We know how trees and plants are vital to us as they convert Co2 into oxygen to help us breathe, but industry\n      will continue to cut and burn down forests allowing more Co2 into the air, with this decrease in vegetation this\n      means more Co2 will remain in the atmosphere and with the burning of fossil fuels we are also producing more \n      Co2, causing the Earths temperature to warm up.\n      Clouds also play a role in the surface temperature; they absorb radiation this increasing the amount of infrared\n      radiation that is emitted by the atmosphere depending on their altitude and thickness, a cloud is formed when\n      water vapor condenses.
459526
The surface of the Earth turns to molten lava.
976817
Actually, virtually the entire mass of the earth's surface has been through at least one cycle.\n \nMost scientists believe that the earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago. This is based on the dating of meteorites thought to have formed during the creation of solar system. \n\nThe oldest earth minerals that have been dated gives dates of about 4.4 billion years old--these are recycled zircons in some rocks from  Australia. The zircons are fragments of igneous rocks that were eroded and redeposited in sediments, which were cemented to form sedimentary rocks, (estimate 3.6-3.8 billion years ago) and then metamorphosed. (1) The Acasta Gneiss Complex near Great Slave Lake, Canada has been dated as  about 4.030 billion years.(2) Gneiss is a metamorphic rock (therefore--at least two/3 parts of the rock cycle represented here alone.\n\nIn fact, rocks as old as the earth do not cover the earth--they have been recycled:\nA. The ocean basins cover half the earth, and the basement rocks of the ocean basins are "relatively" young, not older than 180 million years old--formed as igneous rocks along spreading ridges--from recycled material. \nB. Continents cover the other half of the earth. If you look at geologic maps of the continents, you will see that only the cores of the continents are made of old Precambrian rocks. For example: here's a map that shows the location of Precambrian rocks in the conterminous United States. They make up only a small part of the States. All the rest of the rocks are younger. The Precambrian includes all the rocks older than about 544 million years--which includes mostly rocks way younger than the inferred 4.5 billion year age of the Earth. \n The following website shows a map of all the rocks-by-age at the surface of the conterminous United States: http://tapestry.usgs.gov/two/color.html. And the next url gives the legend for the map. http://tapestry.usgs.gov/ages/ages.html.
338480
That is a good & interesting question.\n\nIn all logical aspects, this should occur due to the fact that everything in nature trys to balance out. This includes things like air pressure; it travels from high to low areas of pressure. In the same manner, everything that is uphill or of higher elevation trys to balance w/ those that are of lower elevation; hence erosion & drainage basins in general.\n\nIn order for this to occur, a lot of sediment would have to be washed into the drainage basin's streams & rivers. That would take a very long time.\n\nAlthough I think the answer here has to do with the fact that the earth's crust rebounds in a process called isostatic adjustment.\n\nWhen material is removed from the crust to another location, weight is taken off of an area. The crust will readjust to the former height by rising slightly.\n\nIt's just like placing several blocks of wood in a container of water. As you take off one of the blocks, the rest of them will rise in response to the reduced load.\n\nThats my answer & I'm sticking to it.\n\n:)
1005522
The earth's magnetic poles move constantly, and on some days the North magnetic pole moves by as much as 80 km (50 miles). To see a map of this go here:\nhttp://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/nmp/daily_mvt_nmp_e.php\n\nThe short term wandering of the magnetic poles is caused by the Sun, which emits charged particles that disturb the Earth's magnetic field. Long term movement of the magnetic poles is due to changes within the Earth's molten core, which is thought to generate an electric field that in turn forms the magnetic field. At present the North Magnetic Pole is moving more than 40 km per year towards Siberia. To see the map:\nhttp://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/nmp/long_mvt_nmp_e.php\n\nThe magnetic field of the Earth has undergone many complete reversals. The most recent reversal was about 730,000 years before present. Here is a timescale:\nhttp://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/nmp/reversals_e.php\n\nIn addition to the reversals, the Earth's magnetic field has what are called excursions. These are wide variations in the strength of the field and in the direction of the magnetic force. On average, these excursions are less than 50,000 years in duration. \n\nThere have been many recorded episodes of climate change, both warming and cooling, over geologic time, and so far there has been no observed correlation between changes in the Earth's magnetic polarity or 'pole shift'  with any sort of climate change. There are some scientists that proposed that changes in the Sun's magnetic field might be causing an increase in Solar wind, which in turn would affect the Earth's atmosphere and might alter the cloud formation level. If this effect reduced lower level stratus clouds, it would cause global warming, but if it reduced high level cirrus clouds the effect would be cooling. However this possible climate effect caused by the Sun's magnetic field has nothing to do with Earth's magnetic field.
329455
It becomes rock on the surface of the ocean floor. It is eventually carried further & further away.\n\nSome older rock created by this process has already been "recycled" in the rock cycle; it became molten when it was subducted under continental plates.\n\nAn interesting fact is that as new rock is being created at the Mid Atlantic Ridge, the earth's magnetic field is being recorded right into the rocks. Any time there is a change in the direction of the earth's magnetic field it has been recorded.\n\n:)
696568
They are results of the centrifugal and centripetal forces of the earth crust. This results faulting and folding of the earth's surface.
1046831
The worst thing that'll hurt the Earth is getting melted by the Sun when it grows from a small yellow star into a red giant star in about seven billion years, as estimated by astrophysical calculations.\n\nThe Sun will  transform all the hydrogen it has into helium by fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei. The helium will accumulate in the Sun's nucleus, and the Sun's volume will increase. Its temperature will also increase. As a consequence, In about three billion years, water in the Earth's oceans will evaporate. In about seven billion years, the Sun will ultimately swallow Mercury, and its temperature will be so high that the Earth's rocks will melt.\n\nAfter that, the Sun will have burned all the helium in it and shrink into a white dwarf star, so the Solar System, including the Earth, will freeze.\n\nThat will mark the end of the Earth, and so it will be the thing that will hurt it most.
1177104
changes all the time. Matter is converted into energy via nuclear fission (matter can be converted in energy and energy into matter). . Everything meteorites hit the earth we get more. All these amounts in the big picture don't add up to a lot. Overall we should have more matter now than a million years ago. But, That increase is very very small
1069004
For the most part, the atmosphere moves along with the surface of the earth. On the other hand, winds going in any direction tend to grind down mountain peaks.\n\nHowever, if the Earth were not fairly close to round, then the molten lava inside the earth would rupture the crust and deform the earth into a round shape. The main reason the Earth is round is gravity, not wind.
1111576
The Earth is a balanced system. Changes within certain parameters may sway the system this way or that, but won't throw it out of balance completely. \nSo yes, the Earth can compensate for changes caused by global warming, but only to a certain extent.
360341
We have an atmosphere and weather.  That is always changing the surface of the earth.  Erosion takes place and over time things flaten out.\nIn other cases the craters are still there, they just happen to be so large the only way we see them is through pictures from satellites.  The vegitation also help mask the craters
1140436
The earth moves around the sun at a mean distance of 93,000,000 miles.\nAnother point of interest, the earth is more than 4500 million years old.