Science Methods II - Week 9

1.      Convection cells video: Convection Cells Video

                     What did you do in lab today?

a.       In lab we began by thinking about when, in geologic time, certain major events happened. We compared when the moon was created to when life first appeared as well as when humans and dinosaurs began to roam the earth. We then talked about how we think humans have been around forever, but how if the history of Earth was a road trip across the country that all of human history would only take up the last inch of the trip. We then split into our table groups and researched a section of Earth’s history and presented it. I learned that the history of Earth started very slowly, and in the last 500 million years big events have been happening significantly more frequently than the time before it.

2.        What was the big question?

a.       The big question for this week was, How do we find our place on Earth’s history when we have been around for such little time?

3.       What did you learn in Thursday’s discussion?

a.       In Thursday’s discussion we took our space exam

4.       Read the online textbook, chapter 16

a)    From the textbook I learned all about tectonic plates. The first thing I learned was that the plates sit on a layer of magma and rise up and down depending on the currents. I had no idea that was how they worked, and had always wondered how they moved and why. The next thing I learned was about effusive eruptions. I did not know that there were different names for different types of eruptions, I thought that they were all the same thing. I also learned that geysers are fueled by volcanic activity, I always thought they were fueled by the warmth of the earth’s crust but I never connected it to volcanoes. I also learned about the law of superposition and think that it is interesting how the movement of plates can disrupt our thinking of earth’s history. What I am still wondering, is how do volcanoes form from magma and pile up. Does the magma rise and cool forming these perfectly shaped mountains? Is there ever any leftover? I really wish I could see a volcano forming in real time, I am curious as to how that whole process goes.

5.       I still have questions over why have the events in Earth’s history begun to keep speeding up? Why has Earth changed so much more in the past 500 million years than ever before? Will humans still be around for the next major change on Earth (that isn’t climate change related), or will all of human history be just a blip on the geologic scale?