Exam 3

Plate Boundaries

Divergent- occur along spreading centers where plates are moving apart and new crust is created by magma pushing up from the mantle. divergence along the mid-Atlantic ridge causes the Atlantic Ocean to widen about 2 centimeters per year.



Convergent- Convergent plate boundaries are locations where lithospheric plates are moving towards one another. The plate collisions that occur in these areas can produce earthquakes, volcanic activity and crustal deformation. When a convergent boundary occurs between two oceanic plates one of those plates will subduct beneath the other.







Transform- Transform Plate Boundaries are locations where two plates slide past one another. The fracture zone that forms a transform plate boundary is known as a transform fault. Most transform faults are found in the ocean basin and connect offsets in the mid-ocean ridges. A smaller number connect mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones.

Shield volcanoes are almost exclusively basalt, a type of lava that is very fluid when erupted. For this reason these volcanoes are not steep. Eruptions at shield volcanoes are only explosive if water somehow gets into the vent. Shield volcanoes may be produced by hot spots which lay far away from the edges of tectonic plates. Shields also occur along the mid-oceanic ridge, where sea floor spreading is in progress and along subduction related volcanic arcs.

A stratovolcano also has steep sides with a distinguishing cone shape and is frequently composed of several different vents that erupt lava, sometimes in different ways. Pyroclastic flows*, lava domes**,and cinder cones sometimes characterize stratovolcanoes. Usually, these types of volcanoes erupt explosively and violently, sometimes completely blowing their tops!

A cinder cone is a steep, conical hill of volcanic fragments that accumulate around and downwind from a vent. Cinder cones range in size from tens to hundreds of meters tall.

The Pacific Ring of Fire is an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions encircling the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.

www.extremescience.com/stratovolcanoes.htm

http://www.mrsciguy.com/sciimages/convergent

www.geography.vt.edu/.../preread/getis.htm

Final Exam 2 solar system

The Solar System

The age of the Universe is at least 15 billion years old, but probably not more than 20 billion years old.

Most of the bodies in the solar system travel around the Sun along nearly circular paths or orbits, and all the planets travel about the Sun in the anticlockwise direction (when viewed from above).

The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what happened at the very beginning of our universe.

It was soon discovered that it could be the remains of the radiation produced after the explosion that originated the Universe, according to the Big Bang theory. The background radiation was therefore studied in order to verify the various cosmological models within the Big Bang theory.

Within the solar nebula, dust and ice particles embedded in the gas moved, occasionally colliding and merging. Through this process, called “accretion,” these microscopic particles formed larger bodies that eventually became planetesimals with sizes up to a few kilometers across. This is how the solar system formed.

Stars begin life as a large, relatively cool mass of gas in a nebula, an example of which is Orion (left). As gravity causes the gas to contract, its temperature rises, eventually becoming hot enough to trigger a nuclear reaction in its atoms. The shining of a main sequence star (middle) is caused by the massive, fairly steady output of energy from the fusion of hydrogen nuclei to form helium.

Our worl is an amazing thing and people always argue what is going on in the universe. many people believe we never went to the moon but their wrong we have because how would we know so much and have videos of it. People also say that we cant ever live on other planets when really we can because all we need to do is reasearch and study how to do things right. I would use the info i found today when I study science and when I learn more on the universe.

http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/bigbang.htm

http://www.galaxymaine.com/SA/SA6a.htm

http://www.sentex.net/~ajy/facts/universe.html

Final Exam 1 *1*

Geo-sphere, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, and Biosphere

*Geo-sphere*
Is the solid earth that includes continental and oceanic crusts well as the various layers of earths interior. The surface is in constant motion which gives us our lands shapes. Every day people are creating erosion which is a very important thing to know. The earth as we know it is wearing away and it's all because of human life.


*Atmosphere*
when volcanoes erupt a huge amount of sulfur dioxide is released into the atmosphere which cools the climate in time. This effects the air pollution and makes it harder for people to live. The air becomes much more dense and is hard for plants to survive sense the sun is blocked and there is not much sun. Industrial and agricultural activities have also changed the composition of the atmosphere.


*Hydrosphere*
Water is the main reason for chemical and mechanical erosion of the earths surface. When water moves it breaks down rocks that will eventually break down to minerals and will be carried to the ocean. Pollution is ruining our water and pretty soon it will be to late to save it. water is a main source of every ones life and without it we would be tragic.



*Biosphere*
The biosphere is the life zone of the Earth and includes all living organisms, including man, and all organic matter. If we did not have a biosphere our planet would be just like the others and no life. Keeping our planet clean is very important but if we let go and just didn't care life would start to die off. To live we need plants, water, and air but we also need to keep organisms and all life to stay alive.


I will use this information in the future when I want to figure out the weather and what our earth really is. People say to keep our earth clean we dont need fuel efficient cars and we just need to clean up more but their wrong the fuel efficient cars help the air and help our health. People also say that our air is fine when really people die every day because our air is getting worse over the years.

http://ess.geology.ufl.edu/ess/Introduction/Geosphere.html
www.sws.uiuc.edu/nitro/biggraph.asp