Plate Tectonics

The breakup of Pangea was 225 million years ago. The continental breakup that almost happened in Michigan occurred 1.1 billion years ago. The kind of rock that now fills the Keweenawan Rift is basalt. During the Early Carboniferous period, 356 million years ago, Michigan was on the Equator. The Mediterranean Mountains will be north of Africa in the Future World. In 250 million years, North America will be joined with South America and Africa.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072402466/student_view0/chapter19/animations_and_movies.html
2003 Physical Geography
http://www.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/rift_zone.html
Mid-Continental Rift Zone
http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm
Paleomap Project, Christopher R. Scotese 2002

Earthquakes

Today, Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010, there were so far 8 earthquakes. In the United States, the latest earthquake was on February 1st in Baja, California. According to past earthquakes in the United States, they occur mostly in the state of California. In South America, earthquakes usually occur on the western coast. As you travel from East to West across South America, the earthquakes become deeper.

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/
http://www.iris.washington.edu/servlet/eventserver/map.do
2009 IRIS - Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology.
Sponsered by the National Science Foundation

Severe Weather

I find tornados very interesting. There was once a tornado on June 8th, 1953, in Flint, Michigan. This tornado was called the Beecher tornado. There were 115 deaths, and 844 serious injuries. The tornado that was one half mile destroyed 300 homes, and a high school. It is the 9th most deadly tornado in United States history!

http://www.flint.lib.mi.us/gallery/beechertornado/index.shtml

Grace Tucker, Flint Public Library

10-8-09

Cloud Blog

Mammatus clouds are clouds that carry air filled with ice crystals and rain to the top of the cloud. The cloud then spreads horizontally. The air filled with precipitation is heavier than the surrounding air, so the cloud sinks. Another type of cloud is a Lenticular cloud. Lenticular clouds are clouds that form right angles at high altitudes. When moist air collects around places with high altitude, the side with less wind creates waves of air, making the cloud. Roll clouds form when a downdraft rushes cold air, lifting warm air at a high velocity. Another type of cloud is a Noctilucent cloud. Noctilucent clouds form from water vapor and dust. They form mainly from the contents given off during volcanic activity.

My favorite type of cloud would be the Roll clouds. I think they are quite simple to understand.

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/cldtyp/oth/mm.rxml

http://www.crystalinks.com/lenticular.html

http://www.weatherscapes.com/album.php?cat=clouds&subcat=roll_cloud

Harald Edens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud

Snow Blog

Thundersnow is a thunderstorm that storms snow instead of rain. This happens because the Earth's troposphere has dryer, colder air. The dry air forms a storm, but the cold air freezes the rain into snow. Rime is frozen fog, forming ice on an object. This happens when fog freezes onto the side of an object that is hit by wind. Firn is snow that lasts throughout the summer season. When it snows, the snow gets compacted and air leaves. This compacts snow so greatly that it forms a block of ice. Watermelon snow is snow that has a red or pink color. This happens because snow has a pigment in it called carotenoid pigment. This pigment dies the algae in snow to protect it from U.V. radiation and the cold.

http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/334/

Jeff Haby

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_rime

January 4, 2010

http://www.answers.com/topic/firn

Susan Mayhew 2004

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-watermelon-snow.htm

S.E. Smith 2003-2010

The UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol

The goal of this week's conference was to have solutions made to the intentions that the COP 15 set up. The Kyoto Protocol is different from the UNFCC (United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference) because the Convention encouraged countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol made them to do so. Three steps that can help prevent climate change would be to limit the amount of electricity we use in our homes, limit the waste we produce, and monitor the transportation we choose to use. One thing that I can do to help in this effort would be to change a light bulb in my house to a compact fluorescent light bulb. This would prevent emitting carbon dioxide into the air.

http://unfccc.int/2860.php
http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php
http://earth911.com/blog/2007/04/02/what-can-i-do-to-help-prevent-climate-change/
by Earth911

What Killed The Dinosaurs?

I believe an asteroid killed the dinosaurs. There is more evidence supporting this argument, than the other theory of drastic temperatures, due to greenhouse gasses, killing the dinosaurs. We discovered that the time a massive asteroid hit the earth was the same time that the dinosaurs became extinct. Also, melted rock that is only found in asteroids was discovered to have exploded on the earths biosphere, after moving through the atmosphere, and spread more than 100 miles from its origin. We also found fractured crystals which are only caused by an explosion, at the origin of the explosion. Also, dinosaurs seemed to have disappeared abruptly. If there were drastic temperature changes, then there would be more fossils.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/extinction/dinosaurs/asteroid.html
2001, WGBH Educational Foundation, and Clear Blue Sky Productions, Inc.
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/ESS/ESSspheres.html
2004, Wheeling Jesuit University