Final ? 5

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the Earth, Planet Earth, the World, and Terra.
Home to millions of species, including humans, Earth is the only place in the universe where life is known to exist. Scientific evidence indicates that the planet formed 4.54 billion year’s ago, and life appeared on its surface within a billion years. Since then, Earth's biosphere has significantly altered the atmosphere and other abiotic conditions on the planet, enabling the proliferation of aerobic organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer which, together with Earth's magnetic field, blocks harmful radiation, permitting life on land.
The orbit of the Earth relative to the Sun is slightly different each year, mostly because the gravity of the other planets pulls the Earth a bit closer to themselves, and the locations of the planets are different each year. Even with these perturbations, the shape of the orbit of the Earth looks very much like an ellipse, and next year's ellipse is very close to this year's ellipse. The exact orbit that the Earth follows is not any well known geometrical shape, and it is not possible to describe that exact orbit in just a few words.
The Big Bang Theory is a cosmological model of the universe originally conceived to describe the origins of the universe that has become well supported by several independent observations. After Edwin Hubble discovered that galactic distances were generally proportional to their red shifts in 1929, this observation was taken to indicate that the universe is expanding. If the universe is seen to be expanding today, then it must have been smaller, denser, and hotter in the past. This idea has been considered in detail all the way back to extreme densities and temperatures, and the resulting conclusions have been found to conform very closely to what is observed.


In cosmology, the cosmic microwave background radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation discovered in 1965 that fills the entire universe. It has a thermal black body spectrum at a temperature of 2.725 kelvin. Even thou the spectrum peaks in the microwave range at a frequency of 160.2 GHz, corresponding to a wavelength of 1.9 mm. Most cosmologists consider this radiation to be the best evidence for the Big Bang model of the universe. This helps us determine the age and the size of the earth even thou no one was around at the begging of the earth’s time.
The solar system started as a huge cloud of dust and gas called a nebula. This nebula was very cold. However, something caused this nebula to start collapsing under its own gravity. As it collapsed, 99% of the material collected into the center where the Sun would eventually form. The rest of the material collapsed down into a disk of material that swirled around the forming Sun. As the Sun began form, the temperature at the center of our forming solar system rose. This controlled what materials were available to for the formation of planets. Here in the inner solar system, the temperatures we too high for anything but rocky materials, iron, and nickel to form solids. As a result of this, these are the materials from which the inner planets were built. In the outer solar system, it was cold enough for water, methane, and ammonia to form solids. So, the planets of the outer solar system were built from these materials as were as the rocky and metallic solids. With the addition of these ices to the mix, the planets of the outer solar system were able to grow big enough to grab and hold onto even the hydrogen and helium gas that was present in the solar nebula. Thus these planets grew into the gas giants. Comets from this part of the nebula also came into the inner solar system. It is from these comets that the inner planets (Earth included) got what volatiles they did. In Earth's case, it was enough to produce our rather thin atmosphere and our oceans.


The Earth is a one of a kind planet, it is the only planet so far that have living things found on it. There is human life on earth and not even another living thing on any other planet. Because of the cloud of dust call nebula the earth was created and can not be destroyed.

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

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

Final ? 6

In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary or divergent plate boundary is a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other. These areas can form in the middle of continents but eventually form ocean basins. Divergent boundaries within continents initially produce rifts which produce rift valleys. If the rifting process stops, a failed rift results. Therefore, most active divergent plate boundaries exist between oceanic plates and are often called oceanic rifts.


A convergent boundary also known as a convergent plate boundary or a destructive plate boundary is an actively deforming region where two or more tectonic plates or fragments of lithosphere move toward one another and collide. When two plates move toward one another, they form either a subduction zone or a continental collision. This depends on the nature of the plates involved. In a subduction zone, the subducting plate, which is normally a plate with oceanic crust, moves beneath the other plate, which can be made of either oceanic or continental crust. During collisions between two continental plates, large mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas are formed.
Becuase of the plate tectonics there is many different things that happen on the earth. When the plates shift it moves the whole earth making earthquakes volcanos vallys and many other things.
A shield volcano is a large volcano with shallow sloping sides. Shield volcanoes are formed by lava flows of low viscosity, lava that flows easily. Consequently, a volcanic mountain having a broad profile is built up over time by a flow after flow of relatively fluid basaltic lava issuing from vents or fissures on the surface of the volcano. Many of the largest volcanoes on Earth are shield volcanoes. The largest in terms of area covered is Mauna Loa of Hawaii; the tallest measured from its base under the ocean, however, is Mauna Kea of Hawaii. All the volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands are shield volcanoes. Shield volcanoes can be so large that they are sometimes considered to be a mountain range. These shield volcanoes formed when the North American Plate moved over a hotspot similar to the one feeding the Hawaiian Islands, called the Anahim hotspot. Shield volcanoes can be found in many places around the world, including Australia, Ethiopia, and the Galapagos Islands.

A cinder cone or scoria cone is a steep conical hill of volcanic fragments that accumulate around and downwind from a volcanic vent. The rock fragments, often called cinders or scoria, are glassy and contain numerous gas bubbles "frozen" into place as magma exploded into the air and then cooled quickly. Cinder cones range in size from tens to hundreds of meters tall. Cinder cones are made of pyroclastic material.
Many cinder cones have a bowl-shaped crater at the summit. Lava flows are usually erupted by cinder cones, either through a breach on one side of the crater or from a vent located on a flank. If the crater is fully breached, the remaining walls form an amphitheatre or horseshoe shape around the vent. Lava rarely issues from the top because the loose, uncemented cinders are too weak to support the pressure exerted by molten rock as it rises toward the surface through the central vent.
These are all thing that help shape the earths surfes and is the only thing that can change how the earth is formed. We have learned that there isnt any way to stop the tectonoc plates from moving so we will have to deal with it. By understanding valconos people will know when to evacuate and this will help to save a lot of lives.


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

http://bsgf.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/

FINAL ? 1

There are four major systems that work to run the earth. These systems consist of the Geosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the biosphere.
The term Geosphere is often used to refer to the densest parts of Earth, which consist mostly of rock and regolith. The term originally applies to the four nested geospheres identified since Meteorology with the states of terrestrial matter: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), and plasma (fire). The nested geospheres then include the asthenosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the ionosphere or plasmasphere.
The Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, trace amounts of other gases, and a variable amount of water vapor. This mixture of gases is commonly known as air. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation and reducing temperature extremes between day and night.
The Earth's hydrosphere consists of water in all forms: the ocean, other surface waters including inland seas, lakes, and rivers; rain; underground water; ice; and atmospheric water vapor. The average depth of the oceans is 3,794 m (12,447 ft), more than five times the average height of the continents. This means it is the thing that takes up the most space on earth.
The biosphere is the part of the Earth, including air, land, surface rocks, and water, within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. From the broadest biophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. This biosphere is postulated to have evolved, beginning through a process of biogenesis or biopoesis, at least some 3.5 billion years ago.
These systems change all the time because of human and what they do on earth. People pollute the earth everyday by doing many different things. I would have to say that the worst of these pollutants are cars they put the most toxins in the air and make the atmosphere unhealthy and very unsafe to all living things. The thing that people do effects peoples LIFE because what people do can kill others in the long run. It would be better if people did pollute so much because it would really help are environment and would help support common good. But everyone knows we cant just polluting in just one day so we should start improving it one day at a time.


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

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa

Weather record

During the month of April there was many changes in the weather. The high of the month was on April 11 and the coldest day was April 2. The average high for the month was 53.2 and the average low was 32.8. There was six days of precipitation during this period of time over 3 inches. Michigan wouldn't be in a drought stage because we got plenty of rain this month. Drought doesn't ever affect Michigan except for a few month out of the year during the summer.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-wrath-of-2007-americas-great-drought-452611.html


http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/achesandpains/local/48827?lswe=48827&lwsa=Weather36HourAchesAndPainsCommand&from=whatwhere

West D

There are many wind belts all over the world. They are always changing in direction. When the wind wind belts change it shifts it makes the ocean water shift 90 degrees to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and shifts 90 degrees to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. There are many changes in the wind belts each year, this always chages the ocean waters.

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/wwhlpr/global_winds.rxml

http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/climate/Older/Wind_Belts.html

Activity 4

In this experiment we had six bottles filled with six different dirts/sands. In this Bottles A and B dirt from all over the place was placed in the bottles. In bottles C and D sand from a desert was placed. Then in bottles E and F dirt from a body of water was place. After finishing the experiment I found out that the sand from the deserts warmed up the fasted and held more heat. The dirt from a body of water warmed up second fastest then the dirt from all over warmed up the slowest. The sand would be the worst if we had a drought because it is the hottest and and holdes less water. The dirt from all over would help during a drought because it stayes cooler and holdes more water.


http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A168902

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/VBOL-6GGGSP?OpenDocument

Changing Weather on April 1

The la nina was a reason the temp. droped so rapidly on the day of April 1st. The ocean curent made a change making the temp drop .5 degrees celisus in spots all over the world. The poler circulation help with the wind blowing off the rigde of Alaska cooling the eastern part of America. On April first ther was a split jet steam that was 7 miles above earth making all earth temps drop very quickly. All these thing made temps drop and made many people cold in the after noon instead of in the morning.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-jetstrea.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ni%C3%B1a

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/113520172/ABSTRACT