January 27th- Section 1 (Stress + Faults)

Questions Section: Forces in the Earth's Surface

What are the three main types of stress points in a rock?

Three main stress points in a rock are:

• Tension

Pulls the rock apart.  

• Compression

Pushes the rocks together.

• Shearing

When are rock shears together, they move in opposite directions.

 How does tension change the shape of the earths surface.
Tension it stretches the rock like warm bubble gum. It takes the earth and stretches, the tension pulls the earth apart.Just like this road, this is an example of tension, it pulls the road apart. 


Compare the way compression works, and the way tension works. 

They are opposite when it comes to what they do to the earth. Compression works by pushing the earth together, creating mountains and rolling hills. Tension does the opposite, by pulling the earth apart. 








What is a fault?

 A fault is the motion of the earths crust, being push or pulled creating a break in the surface of the earth. There is the normal fault, reverse fault and the Strike-Slip fault. 













Why do faults occur along plate boundaries?

Faults occur along the boundaries because of the large amount of tension being released between the two tectonic plates. Faults can occur not always around the boundaries, but sometimes around the area of the boundaries. 

What happens when the plates diverge, push together or move past each other?

Normal Fault: at and angle, above the hanging wall, this fault occurs when the plates diverge.

Reverse Faults: 

When the earths crust pushes together, the hanging wall and foot wall go up! Instead of sliding down, it slide up. 


Strike-Slip Faults 


These faults are when the plates move past each other. This type of fault has very little up/down motion. 


Where do the major earthquakes occur?

After analyzing the Earthquake map I noticed that there are only

This is a example of the worlds tectonic plates, just clumped together.

3 areas of shearing on earth, 5 areas with tension and 8 areas with compression. After reading I found that the earthquake region is found in the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Plate, also in the Nazca Plate. 

Some Shaking Earthquake Facts...

• The earliest reported earthquake in California was felt in 1769 by the exploring expedition of Gaspar de Portola while the group was camping about 48 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Los Angeles. 
• Scientists predict that Los Angeles and San Francisco will be adjacent to one another in approximately 15 million years. 
• Moonquakes (“earthquakes” on the moon) do occur, but they happen less frequently and have smaller magnitudes than earthquakes on the Earth.
• The interior of Antarctica has icequakes which, although they are much smaller, are perhaps more frequent than earthquakes in Antarctica. The icequakes are similar to earthquakes, but occur within the ice sheet itself instead of the land underneath the ice.

Sites Used:

"Earthquake Facts." U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program. Web. 27 Jan. 2011. .

Wave Simulator

Wave Simulator:

 

I noticed that when the way amplitude and the frequency reacted together, the more amplitude the higher the wave. More frequency of the drops of water, the more waves are produced and the faster they come.

When a barrier is added the waves have a continuously high frequency and amplitude. The wave bounces back from the barrier, interfering with the other waves and going around the barrier to make even more ripples.

  

When the barrier is placed at the end of the pan, the waves go around the barrier and create little ripples inside the place with the barrier. Some of the waves bounce back and interact with the waves coming. This creates a very cool pattern. 

 

The next test that I completed placing the barrier right up close to the faucet. My results was almost like the the last test. I found that when the barrier creates almost like a long stretched ripple. Then with the wave finally goes around the barrier it creates larger continuous wave. 

World's Biggest Extinction Event: Massive Volcanic Eruption, Burning Coal and Accelerated Greenhouse Gas Choked out Life

World's Biggest Extinction Event: Massive Volcanic Eruption, Burning Coal and Accelerated Greenhouse Gas Choked out Life

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2011.)

 

Did you know that almost all sea life was wiped out about 250,000,000 million years ago? Studies show that ninety-five percent of the aquatic life was wiped away, and thats is not all, seventy percent of animals, plants and other living things on land were also wiped away! These studies come from a team of people in the University of Calgary. They say that they might have found evidence that shows volcanic eruptions that destroyed everything in its path, and produced ash clouds that majorly impacted the earth’s waters. "This could literally be the smoking gun that explains the latest Permian extinction," says Dr. Steve Grasby, adjunct professor in the University of Calgary's Department of Geoscience and research scientist at Natural Resources Canada. About 250 million year ago, the Carboniferous period ended and the Permian period began. At this time the earth was grouped together called Pangaea. The climate got drier, and the first reptiles started living on land and in the water. This was a very environmentally important time in our history. At the end of the Permian period, a huge volcanic explosion happened, and the scientists from the University of Calgary think they know why. They have found layers of coal and ash in rocks, found at Canada’s high arctic. There are many theories why the volcanic explosion happened, so have to do with a significant amount of greenhouse gases and global warming. "Our research is the first to show direct evidence that massive volcanic eruptions -- the largest the world has ever witnessed -caused massive coal combustion thus supporting models for significant generation of greenhouse gases at this time," says Grasby. Scientists say that the volcanoes which produced the explosion are in Siberia, the ash plumes from the explosion have journeyed from northern Russia, to Canada’s arctic. "Our discovery provides the first direct confirmation for coal ash during this extinction as it may not have been recognized before." says Grasby. The clouds of moving ash could have caused a whole lot of trouble our earth. It could have heated up the waters and suffocated the animals because of the decreasing oxygen level.

Wow, I had no idea that there was such a period, where the earth was almost lifeless. It was also interesting to see how much ash can travel through the air. For example the most recent volcano eruption was in Iceland. There was footage of the volcano bursting through extremely thick ice layers. When the ash went in the air, planes were canceled because there so much ash in the air, my mom’s flight was canceled because there was too much ash in the air in Serbia. That is a long ways away from Iceland. That just goes to show us how powerful a volcanic eruption can be. This eruption must to have been tiny compared to one 250 million years ago. It is amazing how dangerous a volcanic eruption are, especially one that almost killed all the life on earth. I am extremely interested to find out more about volcanoes, and I have my fingers crossed that another huge volcano won’t destroy the living population on earth. But as they say, things happen for a reason. 

Sites Used:

ScienceDaily. "World's Biggest Extinction Event: Massive Volcanic Eruption, Burning Coal and Accelerated Greenhouse Gas Choked out Life." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. .

"YouTube - Live Footage Iceland Volcano 2010 April." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. .

Bill Nye: Earthquakes!

This is a Rector Scale

Rector Scale: A way of measuring the magnitude of an earthquake. Or how much energy is released when there is tension. 

This is a Seismograph

Seismograph: an instrument for recording the movement on the earth’s surface.

This is a Seismometer

Seismometer: This is the measurement of shaking (up and down) and back and forth. 

This is an example of a Seismic wave.

Seismic waves: Seismic waves are waves of force that travel through the Earth or other elastic bodies, for example as a result of an earthquake, explosion, or some other process that imparts forces.

Tectonic Plates

Tectonic Plates: Flexible plate, floating over molten lava. Like pieces of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, Earth's crust is broken into tectonic plates that move. Their slow yet rough-and-tumble jostling causes earthquakes and volcanoes, and forges mountains, valleys, seamounts and deep-sea trenches.

This is an example of a Epicenter

Epicenter: The center of the earthquake. It is the point where the stress breaks free, it then radiates like a ripple through the earth (seismic waves) creating different types of natural disasters. 

This is an example of a Fault

Fault: It is the border of where the tectonic plates piece together (Where they connect).

There are thousands of earthquakes every year. The tectonic plates go up and down creating energy. When the tectonic plates come together they can create mountains. When plates slip, earthquakes, lava make a party! The hot molecules need more space, magma is extremely hot. This is when it bubbles up and sprits out, because it has nowhere else to go.

To make islands, sometimes the hot magma goes into the ocean and creates a hard rock, eventually becoming an island. Also there are underwater volcanoes which over time build up hard magma, and create an island.

The earth and magma underneath can be compared to liquid chocolate hardening. When it is somewhat dry, it creates a hard top layer. Still the magma or chocolate underneath is not dry, so when you tilt the chocolate bowl the liquid chocolate or magma moves the top layer of dried chocolate. When the magma tilts towards the ocean, the molten magma moves the surface of the earth while moving.

Scientists can track where an earthquake is happening with two tools, the seismograph and seismometer. Each country has one of these stations so when someone from India can feel and earthquake, someone from Indonesia can feel the earthquake and someone from Cape Town, South Africa can feel the earthquake. The scientists connect the dots and find out where the epicenter is. Finding the epicenter is very important. The epicenter is where natural disasters come from.

Oil Spill Lab

Problem: The Oil Spill

Guiding Question: Did the oil spill affect the way waves travel on to the beach?

Hypotheses: The more force that is added to the waves/oil the farther it will travel on to the beach.

Materials

Water 2(water2:1oil)

• Olive oil
• Sand
• Clay
• Plastic Bucket

Procedure

1. Get a tub about 8 centimeters deep, fill the tub with base of clay and sand over the top creating a beach like presence?
2. Fill the tub with two cups water and one cups oil.
3. For the testing use four fingers to propel the oil/water, observe data record in notebook.
4. Then try more force by adding 8 fingers, observe data and record in notebook.
5. Add even more force with both hands, consistently move hands back and forth to create waves that continuously go on to the shore.

Testing

Slightly shifting the Bucket Back in Fourth:

I noticed that the water felt a lot thicker than just regular water, when just amount of force was added to the oil/water the waves did not travel very fast. When I was shifting the water the water and oil started mixing in with the sand, which creates a musty liquid color.

More Vigorously:

The water/oil glistened right at level one. When the wave contracted it left a very thick area where the oil was. When I sped up the one handed process I could see that the water was now at the level between 1 and 2. The base of the beach was completely covered in oil, and it looked like it was seeping into the sand.

Very Vigorously:

The more force added left a very large amount to oil between the 2 and 3 level of beach. As I ran my hand against the surface of the sand I picked up so much grease and oil is was crazy! And even10 minutes later the furthest distance away from the water is also streaked with grease.  When I first started this lab the clay that I used was rock hard. When I was poking the sand with a long tooth pick I found that it went all the way through, this means that the oil that seeped through caused the rock heard clay to soften.

Conclusion

When relating this lab back to the oil spill it is quite amazing how much oil sticks to the sand when there is a lot of force. In the Gulf of Mexico about 210,000 gallons of oil was spilled a day, and the only thing that was preventing it going to the shore were these surface barriers. In calm waters this is a great way for the spilled oil to stay in one area, but strong water the barriers are no use. When the water/oil goes over the barrier it is in free range to go anywhere it wants to... and usually that is towards the shore. My experiment showed that when the water/oil is calmly goes on to the shore, it leaves a lot of oil on the sand. My experiment was only with olive oil which didn’t leave any visual mark, although it left a very greasy shore. When I rubbed my finger along the sand I could feel the oil collecting on my finger. Remember that was only with olive oil, imagine with real fossil fuel. So much damage it has done to the environment, so many animals and plants it has left life less because of an oil spill. To conclude my experiment, I found that even though the water was a lot denser, the more vigorously I shook the bucket the more waves it created, leaving the sand and clay extremely greasy.

Further Inquiry

    If I were to do this experiment again I would probably create a barrier and see how much of the water goes over the barrier and on to the shore. I think that this I think that this would be a very interesting experiment because it would show if the barriers worked or not. If they did then great, if they didn’t... looks like we have to do some brain-storming! Next time I would also like to try a different type of oil, maybe the real fossil fuel! I think that would be extremely interesting to find out what the wave would look like then. It is amazing that one mistake in the water, it can disturb not only the environment but it also hurt the economy with the amount of money they are spending on cleaning up the oil spill. I would also really like to research some machines that clean up the oil spill, I wonder if they actually work. If they do, maybe they can clean up other rivers that are dirty-like the Nile. When I was living in Egypt, we weren’t allowed to touch the water because you could get this disease because it was so dirty. Maybe they could use some of the machines that they used to clean up the oil to help clean up the Nile.

Oil Spill on Prezi

Underwater Tidal Farms

        Underwater mechanics are the new generation’s energy producer, the new and improved Tidal Turbines (batteries not included).  This is an invention that could be producing the future’s power; this invention is so simple I bet you wish you could have invented it!  Only nine meters under the water of Manhattan’s East River stands the first actively used Tidal Turbine farm. This turbine farm includes six thirty-five kilowatt turbines that are able produce enough power for two companies or 4,000 homes. The turbines are placed on a rotating platform that faces the tide either coming in or going out. This farming is the equivalent to wind farming, just it underwater. "We don’t require that massive dam construction, we’re just using the natural flow of the stream," said Mark Stover, a vice president at Hydro Green Energy, the Houston-based company leading the project. "Its underwater wind power if you will, but we have 840 or 850 times the energy density of wind." The water in this world takes up seventy percent of the earth’s surface. Now because of new inventions and technologies we are able to control some of the usable power from the kinetic energy that is produced by the sun and the water. Another step forward in our journey to become green!

    Wow! That is an extreme over load of green technology! I had never known that there was such a thing as an underwater farm. I really like this type of green technology, because of so much power comes out of only 6 turbines, I wonder how much power we would receive if we had even more turbines. On the other hand does this affect the environment? When installing such a heavy machine does that affect the ecosystems in the water? When the turbine is sucking the water in, is it like a vacuumed? Does it suck up everything around it? Are the fish harmed in any way? There are so many questions to ask and so little information about this subject, I am craving to know more! I really hope that they are able to continue to build more of these turbines because they provide a reliable source of energy and they are predictable to use, unlike wind power. If we continue in the direction of renewable sources the prices of energy may go down and renewable sources provide less destruction to the earth. GO RENEWABLE ENERGY!

Sites Used:

Greenemeier, Larry. "It Came From the Sea--Renewable Energy, That Is: Scientific American." Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American. Web. 18 Jan. 2011. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tidal-wave-renewable-energy>.

Wave and Ball Barrier Interaction Lab

Guiding Question
What happens to a wave as it hits a surface it cannot pass through?
 When a wave hits a surface that it cannot pass through it simple bounces back creating a intersecting pattern between the waves. Aca and I did many tests where we both saw that the wave created a very interesting pattern when bouncing back from the barrier. When a wave meets a barrier and it reflects off the surface of the barrier, some of the wave’s energy is lost because of the pressure against the barrier. When a wave passes a barrier or moves through a hole in a barrier, it bends and spreads out. This is called a diffraction. We also saw interference which is when more waves meet, they have an effect on each other.

Does energy (density of the ball) affect the wave’s path?
 In our mini lab Ilija and I noticed that the density of the ball does affect the wave’s path. We used three different types of balls: a medium sized bouncy ball, a light Styrofoam ball, and a small orange light plastic ball. In our experiment the Styrofoam ball and the small orange plastic ball were both every light, the rubber bouncy ball was the heaviest. When we tested the bouncy ball we found that it made the widest triangle when bouncing off the wall.The bouncy ball had the biggest angle of incidence, and angle of reflection.The foam ball made the second biggest triangle when reflecting off of the wall. It had the second biggest angle of incidence and angle of reflection. The small light orange plastic ball made the smallest triangle when we were testing. The small light orange ball had the smallest angle of incidence and angle of reflection. I suppose that this was the lightest or the least dense ball that we had. I noticed that when the ball hit the wall refraction occurred, when it hit the wall the balls slowed down. 

How is the angle at which the ball (wave) hit the wall related to the angle at which it bounces back?
As we found in our testing our lab we found that the angle at which the ball hits the wall it comes back at about the same angle. When testing the lab 10 times each our results ended up to be the lightest and least dense the ball the smaller the triangle the ball would made after the ball reflected the barrier or the wall. We did a little experimenting with the angles we rolled the wall and found that it would reflect off the wall about the same place every time. We noticed that the incoming "wave" reflected off the wall at the same angle. This is because the law of reflection states that the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence. To conclude this lab, I would like to say that it was a very interesting and inventive was to learn how waves reflect of a barrier.

Properties of Waves | S-cool, the revision website

Properties of Waves | S-cool, the revision website

Waves Lab

Waves Lab Conclusion

                We learned a lot from our lab, it was very interesting to see the different tests we could do in order to figure out what waves were.

The first three tests that we did were with no barriers. Aca and found that when one person disturbed the water at a slower frequency it slowed down the waves with a higher frequency. We observed the waves again and saw that the slower wave almost went over the fast wave. In our testing we saw a lot of reflection. We also noticed that when the wave hit the the plastic wall the speed slowed down. When the the waves came together it created a destructive interference, which made the waves slow down. Although the waves did not cancel each other out, it did not cause a nodes.

Then we did sort of a different test, also with no barriers. We put our markers on their sides and disturbed the water at the same time and frequency, these causing waves towards each other. We noticed that when the water’s waves collided, it bounced against each other and went back where the force was coming from. When we increased the frequency, you could still see a slight collision, but the waves with more force went to the opposite side.

One Barrier

 Our first test we created a square with two sides with clay and two sides with the plastic wall. We put our markers in the square and repeatedly created waves. When we were observing this test we found that when a wave is condensed in a small area with barriers, the wave hardly gets out of the small condensed area.

Our next test was a lot like our first test with barriers, the only thing we changed was how far the barriers were away from the walls. As you can see in the picture the wave only gets through the open sides of the square. This test shows us that a wave can’t go through a barrier, it has to go around or under. As the wave slowly went across the pan we found that it got gradually slower, and when it hit the diagonal wall of the wave went so slow that it disappeared.

Our last test we built one clay barrier on each diagonal side with a little space from the wall. We applied the same force to each of the sides seeing if the waves can travel to the middle of the pan. We found that the wave was in such condensed area that the wave couldn’t travel far.This is an example of a refraction, this is when a wave moves from one medium into another medium at an angle, it changes speed as it enters the second medium, which causes it to bend.

Two Barriers

Our first test with two barriers we created a box in the middle of plastic pan and but our markers in corners diagonal from each other. We observed that the waves went to the square, but then immediately bounced back.  When observing the inside of the box, we did not notice any waves. This means, that a closed box hardly gets any waves in it because of the barriers. In this test we saw that the wave created diffraction, this is when a wave passes through a barrier or moves through a barrier it bends and spreads out. The incoming waves did not go through the barrier it went around and created a diffraction. 

The next test that we did was very unusual. We wanted to see if the waves take the shape of the barrier when passing through and around it. We turned our clay barrier into a wave like figure and on one side of the barrier we frequently disturbed the water carefully watching the other side of the barrier to see it the wave came out like the clay wave. We were right! The wave did come out like a real wave! This means that when a wave passes through a barrier it comes out like the shape the barrier is in.This is an example of reflection, when an object or a wave hits a surface through which it cannot pass, it bounces back.

For our last test we created a giant wave that covers about the whole with of the pan, we left just a bit of space from the wall so that we are sure the wave can travel. This test was to make sure that our conclusion was right; Waves take the shape of the barrier when passing. We completed the test with high results! We were right! Waves do take the shape of the barrier when passing! Over all this combination of many labs helped me understand the basics of interacting waves. This was an example of a refraction, when a wave moves from one medium into another medium at an angle, it changes speed as it enters the second medium, which causes it to bend.