Week 9: Earthquakes and Volcanoes

 

1.      What did you do in lab today?

In lab we explore volcanoes and earthquakes. We did lots of pair-and-share group work about these two topics. First, we brainstormed individually about what we know about them from our previous courses and knowledge. Next, we looked at a world map and predicted where volcanoes and earthquakes most commonly occur. When placing these locations, we were thinking of places that we’ve seen on the news and tropical places. We had to guess about many of these places because we did not know where they most commonly occur. Next, we looked at a website that shows that tracks all the volcanoes and earthquakes to see how accurate our predictions were.

2. What was the big question?

The big question we discussed was: What are volcanoes and earthquakes?

2.      What did you do in Thursdays discussion?

These are my notes from Thursdays discussion:

Oldest to youngest: White sandstone, siltstone, limestone, shale, igneous batholith, igneous dike A, sandstone A, Conglomerate, Dolostone, igneous dike B, sandstone B, glacial debris



Earthquakes and Volcanoes

·       mostly found on plate boundaries or coastlines

·       there are exceptions such as Hawaii

Pangea

·       Continents were connected

·       It wasn’t the continents that moved, it is the earth’s plates

·       Taught in 4th grade science class

Wegener and Plate Tectonics

·       Proposed a theory called continental drift

·       Was eventually accepted and altered to the theory of plate tectonics

Hawaii

·       Water covers some of the islands and they are underwater

·       There will be another island that surfaces in about 10,000 years

·       Islands are made from a fixed hot spot that the plate drifts over



4. Read the online textbook chapter 2. 

  • What did you learn?

One thing I learned from the textbook chapter was the different types of plates that cause a volcano to form and the characteristics of each type. A convergent plate is when the oceanic plate goes under the continental plate and pushes into the earth to form a volcano. A divergent plate is when two plates separate and magma goes between them to form a volcano. A hot spot is a third way that volcanoes can form. This is a very hot spot in the earth’s crust that forms magma and rises to the surface. An example of this is Old Faithful at Yellowstone national park. The last time this volcano erupted was 174,000 years ago.  

·       What was most helpful?

Something that was especially helpful to me was seeing images of different types of volcanoes such as composite, cinder cone, and shield. The names of them go along with what they look like, so tit was helpful to see both the description and images. Many students might have the misconception that all volcanoes look the same so seeing different types is helpful for learning.

·       What do you need more information on?

Something I need more information on is how scientists predict when an earthquake or volcano is going to happen, and what scientific data they use to determine this.

5. What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have?

I do not have any further questions or comments. 

 

 

 

 

 

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