Posts

Photo Blog #10

Image
  Photo Blog #10 For this week's blog, I decided I wanted to focus on clouds. The clouds depicted are some outside of my apartment building. These photos were all taken around 11:45 on Sunday, June 8th. One way that clouds can form is due to the convection cycle. An example of this is a sea breeze. Air likes to go from high pressure places to low pressure places, and since the land is able to heat up more than the ocean, the land air is less dense than the ocean air. Therefore, the air goes from the land to the ocean. From there, the air moves up and eventually cools down, where the water vapor in the air is able to condense and form clouds. This happens when air reaches its dew point. Throughout this class I have learned about how clouds are formed, but I wanted to do some research on the different types of clouds. After conducting some research, I have learned that there are 5 different types of clouds: cirrus, cumulus, stratus, cumulonimbus, and nimbostratus. Some characteristic...
Post a Comment
Read more

Photo Blog #9

Image
  Photo Blog #9 The stratigraphy that I observed was Spooners Cove in Montaña de Oro. I visited this site for the PSC field trip on Saturday May 31st at around 11am. I think that the ocean moving towards the land periodically overtime caused the erosion that exposed the layers. Also, I think another contributor was the fact that the continent slowly rises over time too, which could cause erosion as well. The layers are different, which leads me to believe that they are different rock material. The layer that is horizontal on the top looks like a different material than the rest of the rock layers. These specific layers were created due to anticline which caused Spooners Cove and another Cove to be compressed  together. This caused the two coves to create an upwards arch. When I researched Spooners Cove, I found that the formation is a long-term process driven by geological forces like wave action, erosion, and tectonic shifts and it has taken over thousands or even millio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Photo Blog #8

Image
 Photo Blog #8 For this week's blog, I decided to record the leaves rustling due to the wind as my atmospheric process. This tree is in the view from my apartment window, so it's part of an atmospheric process that I see everyday. I visited the tree on May 24th around 12PM. From my research, I learned that the atmospheric phenomenon that I am observing is a form of wind-driven boundary layer that can impact the leaf's transpiration rate. This means that the wind has an impact on how quickly water vapor leaves the leaf through its stomata, which affects the plant's capability to take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Wind-driven boundary layer forms when wind interacts with the Earth's surface and creates a layer of turbulent mixing. Some things that are necessary for this atmospheric process are strong winds, surface friction, and temperature differences. Also, I'm assuming that since we live so close to the ocean, we experience more wind compared to other p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Photo Blog #7

Image
  Photo Blog #7 The volcanic geological feature that I chose to visit is the Morro Rock. I visited Morro Rock around 2:35 on Thursday, May 15th.   Morro Rock formed over million of years ago and it is a result of a long-extinct volcano's plug. It is part of a chain of nine volcanic peaks known as the "Nine Sisters." It is an igneous extrusive rock primarily composed of dacite. When Morro Rock was active, it was part of a chain of volcanoes that erupted between 20 and 26 million years ago. Yes, Morro Rock has physical characteristics of an igneous rock, specifically an igneous extrusive rock. Morro Rock is mainly composed of dacite rock, which is formed by the cooling of magma at or near the Earth's surface. It also has large crystals, which is a physical characteristic of igneous extrusive rocks.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Photo Blog #6

Image
 Photo Blog #6 The place I chose to visit where I believe humans have created structures to fight against erosion is the creek near the Poly Canyon Village apartments. I visited the creek at around 12:30 pm on Friday May 9th.       In this picture here, you can see the black metal piece that is placed in the water. I believe that this was man made to help slow down the flow of the creek, which would, in turn, help slow down the effects of erosion. It works by stopping the flow of the water and forcing it to slow down, similar to a speed bump. I think that erosion is still happening, but I think that the added structure definitely helps slow down erosion.
Post a Comment
Read more

Photo Blog #5

Image
 Photo Blog #5 For this week's blog, I decided to visit the periodic table in the LS office. I visited the office on Friday May 1 at around 12 PM.     The mineral that is a single element that I am focused on is Gold. Gold is primarily used for jewelry, art pieces, investments and finance, electronics and industrial applications, dentistry, medicine, aerospace and defense, and many other uses. Gold is typically found in often in the form of nuggets or in quartz veins. It is usually found deep in the ground or in river and stream beds. Gold is usually extracted from the Earth through mining and then processing the extracted ore to separate the gold. The two main principal mining methods are placer and vein mining. Gold mining operations have numerous environmental consequences. Some of these include deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution, and air pollution.
Post a Comment
Read more

Photo Blog #4

Image
  Photo Blog #4 For my isostasy (buoyancy) experiment, I decided to test different objects in the same amount of laundry detergent. All of these experiments took place on Saturday, April 26 around 5 pm. First I did all types of coins, which all sank. This concludes that all of the coins have a higher density than the laundry detergent that they were in.       Then, I decided to test the buoyancy of a cotton ball in the same amount of laundry detergent. The cotton ball barely sank into the detergent, which leads me to believe that the cotton ball is definitely less dense than the laundry detergent, due to its elevation. This also means that the cotton ball is less dense than all of the coins as well.     After that, I decided to test the buoyancy of paper. It was important that I made sure that the two pieces of paper were the same size. I left one piece flat, while I crumpled up the other piece. Both pieces of paper sank a bit into the water, but the c...
Post a Comment
Read more