Week 11/23/12

Commented on Lorraina Paz-Geology Blog.

Week 10/19/12

This week in Geology we discussed many different things that i finally felt like i understood. For example, there are three different types of stress; compressive, tensional, and shear. Stress is force applied per unit area. This would be an example of each of those stresses:   
There is also multiple types of strains; elastic, yield point, plastic, and fracture.
My favorite topic of this week was folds. A part of a fold that i remember well is the fold nose or hinge fold, which is usually at the axis.  There was also two types of folds that we dicussed in full, anticline and syncline. Anticline concave downward and they are made up of older rocks. Synclines are made up of younger rocks and concave upward. Synclines make a smiley face while anticlines make an A if you draw a straight line across the downward fold.
The following picture shows an anticline to the left, a downward fold, and syncline to the right which is an upward fold.

Week 9/28/12

Man I thought Geology B10 was a waste and super boring! But.... Then... Yesterday!

Each year in one of the buildings at the Kern County Fair, rocks are up for display. I've always been interested and looked at each display because I think rocks are sort of interesting to look at and can be pretty. This year it was a completely different experience for me. While I was looking at rocks in each display I was like Oh My God, in my lab we studied this one and this one and in class we learned about this one and this one! I felt so smart! My boyfriend and sister were really impressed at first but then they got over it and ignored me because I would go up to each display and point the rocks out and talk about them like a little kid. Lol(:
In the displays I saw many rocks we studied and learned about.
I saw: Tuff, Marble, Schist, Slate, many different types of Quartz, Coal, Sandstone, Shale, Limestone, Diatomite, Diorite, Granite, Dacite, Andesite, Basalt, Bauxite, Sulphur, Galena, Kernite, Calcite, Biotite, Pyrite, and even more!
I regret not taking a picture to post in my blog.
There were older geologists in the museum that were extremely nice! They told me that they found most of the rocks in a certain display in deserts around Kern County. They had a table with a few rocks and a black light machine and they allowed you to put each rock under the light and watch the effects it had on the rock. Most of them turned a combination of green and orange while others turned a combination of pink, purple, and white.

I will never look at the display of rocks the same way I used to. I used to just admire them but now I can do that and have knowledge of what I'm looking at.

Next year I'm going to go back and hopefully I'll keep the knowledge of the rocks with me and shock myself again.

Everyone that is in Geology B10 right now should try to go to the fair before it's over to look at the rocks! You'll suprise yourself of how much knowledge you now have on rocks!(:

Week 9/21/12

Recently in August, a new study was posted under the Geology News website that proposed large methane reservoirs under Antarctic ice sheets. From researching Methane I discovered many traits that the compound has. Methane is a greenhouse gas and is tetrahedral.  I found that Methane is a parent group to Alkane. I also discovered that methane is a colorless gas that has a density of 655.6 mL.  Its melting point is -182 degrees Celsius and its boiling point is in between -164 and -160 degrees Celsius. It is considered an organic compound on Earth.

The study records that old organic matter in sedimentary landforms that are located under the Antarctic Ice Sheet may have been converted to methane. This is resulted by micro-organisms living beneath oxygen-deprived conditions. It is thought that the methane could expose old sediments if the ice sheets shrink.

Week 9/7/12

This week a small earthquake hit Beverly Hills and struck two dangerous faults that run right through Los Angeles. The faults could have triggered a magnitude 7 earth quake. Luckily it hit a magnitude of 3.5 .The quake ran underneath the Santa Monica Boulevard. The intersection of the faults was a T-shaped that could have been very dangerous.

This week in class and lab we learned how to identify rocks and minerals by preforming certain tests such as testing the hardness. By testing the hardness the tools you need is your fingernail, a penny, a class plate, and a steel file. The way it works it to scratch the rock on the tools to eventually see what it scratches and what it does not. If a rock was to only scratch your fingernail it has a hardness of 2.5. We also learned how to identify the cleavage, cleavage being the planar surfaces along which a mineral tends to break preferentially. These properties combined with color, streak, and luster tends to help identify minerals.

In class we began to discuss the types of rocks such as igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.

Week 8/29/12

This Wednesday Hurricane Isaac hit the Mississippi Coast. It had heavy rainfall and flooded most of the Gulf Coast regions. The Hurricane was a category one and had very high winds.

Another interesting part of news that has happened recently is NASA has landed the Mars Curiosity rover and is now headed a quarter-mile away from its first drill target, at a place called Glenelg Intrigue. This journey will take weeks but will be worth it because Curiosity will be used to investigate what brings different types of rocky material together. The rover has taken many photos of the terrain and craters. Scientists believe they have discovered some of Mars early history and even some aspects that make up life.

This week in class we went over the Earths internal structure, such as the mantle, crust, and core. We discussed what the core, mantle, and crust was also made of and how they help our planets gravity. We also went over the age of planet Earth and other planets as well. I learned the Big Bang theory of how chemical elements created systems prior to our own. I also learned that dust creates planets, particularly our own planet.