Bill Nye: Earthquakes reflection

In class we watched a video about earthquakes. It explained how earthquakes occur, why do they occur. It talked about seismographs, machines that calculate the earth's movement. The Earth is really flexible. It is made of plates called tectonic plates. As the plates move, they crack and the cracks are called faults. The epicenter is the center of the earthquake. One of the things I liked was the explanation when Bill Nye was in the pool. The water in the pool represented the Earth's interior. It explains why in a volcano eruption we can see the lava coming out from the Earth's crust. On the top of the water he put the map of the world made of board. Every board was one tectonic plate. When the water was moving, the plates moved also.

The video in some parts gave recommendations on how to build your own seismograph.

Wave interaction with barriers

Guiding question: what happens when a wave hits a barier? 

Hypotesis: my hypotesis is when a wave hits a barier sometimes it gose through it but some times it bounces back?

Exploration (plan to do a test):

1) gather materials that you will need to do this lab

2) fill up the recipient (with water)

3) get 3 rolls Plasticine

4) create barrier

5) shake the table (create a disturbance)

6) observe and write down what you see (drawing form or writing or both)

Materials: 2 rolls of plasticine, a recipient, water.

Record and analyze: what I did was having diffrent trials. The first was creating a barrier with one roll. The 4 trial was with 2 (this is what I wrote in my notebook under the picture I drew) (I shake the recipient from one end and it did like the sonic wave. The second trial Ii got the role and put it one side and the other one in the other side, I shook the continer and the two waves crashed one into each other like a car crash or an airplane crash.

Conclusion: in some occasions of the lab my hypotesis was right and in some it was not. It was kind of complicated to descirbe a drawing that you drew in words because it is not the same thing, but I was not wrong in what I said. My hypotesis was actually right.

Further inquiry: if I did this lab again I would draw better what was happening and write better what I drew, but it is kind of hard to draw what is happening. At the end you mange to do it.For me it is easier to say orally than in written what is happening.

Designing a Seismograph Lab

GUIDING QUESTION: How does the movement of the pen/needle work vs. the needle not moving?

HYPOTHESIS: I think it will record the lines, but not properly and all zig zag?

PLAN TO DO A TEST: 

(materials) list the materials that you will use

(procedure) list the steps that you will do for the lab

PROCEDURE: find materials 

                 put materials all together 

                 cut cardboard

                 put paper into the box

                 tape ruler to the wall (tape so the pen can move) 

                 test

                 record

RECORD ANALYZE: look carefully what happens. when you are testing i,t write down what happens and record. When you are done collecting data you sometimes need to do some analyzing.

CONCLUSION: After testing the seismograph my hypothesis was right and wrong. It was right, but not always at zig-zag, our recording was what was the diffrence between when the pen is not moving and when it is moving, we concluded that it would be easier when it was stationary. It was easier to record an earthquake making our hypotesis corecctly done.  

FURTHER INQUIRY: I think it needed to be built a little steadier and better, but it still worked out for us. But it was kind of hard to tape the pen to the wall because we needed to get the exact measure of height. If we built it better, it wouldn't take some much time to do it.

Tsunami Warning System Report

What is a tsunami? Definition and facts

A tsunami is a big wave that causes damage. The word “tsunami” comes from the Japanese language and it means harbor wave. In order to have a tsunami there must be an earthquake. When there is an earthquake the tectonic plates move and a rupture in Earth shows. That causes the ocean to rise. Sometimes it can also be caused by volcanic eruption or a giant meteor crash in the water. A tsunami is not one wave, there are various strong waves. The multiple waves are not all equally strong. The first wave isn’t always the most dangerous. Between one wave and another it can take from five minutes to one hour. A tsunami can reach 30 centimeters in height and it can go 500 miles per hour crossing the entire ocean in one day or less.

What signs tell us that a tsunami is approaching?

There is a series of signs that indicate us that a tsunami is coming. One of them is an earthquake. If there is an earthquake with the epicenter under the sea, it is possible that it will be followed by a tsunami.

Other signal is the one that animals send us. For example, the elephants are able to hear or predict it and their reaction is to move away from the approaching noise. This is both a safe and not safe sign because we can’t trust animals. Monitoring their behavior can warn us of earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.

Some people even report that before a tsunami they heard weird noise like freight train.

Also, some tourists have said that they were looking at the sea from the beach and they could see that the ocean was retreating. They could see that the wave was not coming back and it left dead fish and algae on the seafloor. When the water retreats there are about five minutes before it comes back with all its power and drone everyone.

In Japan tsunamis are frequent. So the government puts out signs of evacuation routes on surrounding hills.

What are the benefits of these methods?

It is important to predict earthquakes and tsunamis because in that way many lives can be saved.  Tsunamis surge vertically as high as 100 feet (30 meters). They can cause the sea to rise no more than 10 feet (3 meters). If you feel an earthquake, do not stay there and look at the waves. Start running and go to higher parts of the city.

Reefs, bays or river entrances can slow the tsunami. Computers help in analyzing the risk of tsunamis of every earthquake.

Limitation factors

When the ocean is deep tsunamis can travel unnoticed on the surface. Geologists, oceanographers and seismologists work together to analyze and predict tsunamis. However, a tsunami cannot be precisely predicted. The biggest problem is that we cannot exactly predict the tsunami in advance. If you see that a tsunami is coming there is not much time to run away. On the other hand, if you are near a river or a stream that lead to the ocean it is possible that a tsunami can approach. Tsunami waves are very fast and get to the shore going 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour) so it is often too late to run away when you see one.

What impact does a tsunami have?

            One of the most damaging tsunamis on Earth was the 2004 that killed 40,000 people. It took place in the Indian Ocean, near the Indonesian island of Sumatra on 26^th of December. In 1782 there was a big tsunami in South China Sea. Some of the consequences are that there are many injured people and many people lost their lives. People are left without shelter because the tsunami washed out their homes, markets, hotels, etc. It is a difficult situation because people are starving, there is no running water and the dead bodies start to decompose. Without medical care people can’t survive. There are a lot of contagious infections. A lot of people died because they didn’t pay attention to the warning signs. They stood on the beach watching this natural phenomenon.

Conclusion

            I learned new things about tsunamis. I find it very interesting and important to know about tsunamis. As we can’t predict a tsunami, we have to learn about it and understand the signs that the nature sends us.

Bibliography:

"The Deadliest Tsunami in History?" National Geographic. N.p., 7 Jan. 2005. Web.
     23 Feb. 2011. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/
     1227_041226_tsunami.html>.

Tsunami." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/
     wiki/Tsunami>.

"Tsunamis: Facts About Killer Waves." National Geographic. N.p., 14 Jan. 2005.
     Web. 19 Feb. 2011. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/
     1228_041228_tsunami.html>

Finding the epicenter

Guiding question: how can you locate an earthquake epicenter?

Hypothesis: my hypothesis was that all the circles would meet in the middle?

Materials: drawing compass whit pencil outline map of the united states

Procedure: make a copy of data table showing difference in earthquake
Record and analyze: I saw that when i was making the three circle I needed to have the exact amount of meters between one city and the other one it made a triangle at the end where the earthquake was the sizes of the circles where different one from the other one was small one big and one medium.

Conclusion: my hypothesis failed because I though it would meet more in the middle at the end it met in Kentucky I tough it would meet Kansas city my lab was positive and it did not fail and it went well at the end.

Further inquiry: if I did this lab again i would do it all over. I'm not saying that the answer I got was wrong but I did not like how I did it and I would put more concentration on it and work more time on it