Internet Investigation: How does stream flow change over time?

1. Describe three factors that control how much water is flowing in a river.
Dams, natural levees, and gradience

2. List the factors that produced the different flow conditions.
Temperature and weather.

3. What do the spikes in the graph indicate?
The higher discharge.

4. List the date and amount of discharge for the two highest peaks on the graph.
August 11th: 3 cfs
August 16th: 1 cfs

5. What do the spikes in the graph indicate?
Higher precipitation

6. List the date and amount of precipitation for the two highest peaks on the graph.
August 10th: 35 mm
August 15th: 28 mm

7. Record the amount and dates of the five discharge spikes and amount and dates of the seven precipitation spikes. What do you notice about the timing of the peaks of discharge and rainfall?
Discharge Spikes: August 2nd, 11th, 16th, 28th, and 30th.
Precipitation Spikes: August 1st, 7th, 10th, 13th, 15th, 27th, and 29th.
There is a precipitation spike right before every discharge spike.

8. What do you notice about the timing of the peaks of discharge and temperature variation starting in March? What do you conclude from this relationship? What other data might you need to confirm your hypothesis?
The graphs have similar shapes. This means that the higher the temperature, the more discharge there is.

9. What do you notice about the timing of the peaks of discharge and rainfall? What do you conclude from this relationship?
The peak of rainfall is just before the peak of discharge.

10. What relationship exists between temperature and discharge? What do you conclude from this relationship?
They peak at about the same time. This means that the higher the temperature, the more discharge there is.

11. What do you think is responsible for the regular shape of the discharge peaks? Speculate on the cause of the major discharge peak at the end of March.
Standard temperatures and precipitation.

Internet Investigation: Flood Controls on the Mississippi

1. Describe how each structure or activity illustrated in the images may reduce the impact of floods.
All of the structures have a method of slowing down and diverting flood water.

2. Briefly summarize how floods cause property damage.
Floods cause property damage by the vast volume and impact of the water break things, pick them up carrying it with the water, and knocking things over. This property damage costs a lot of money to repair.

3. Identify the events surrounding the Great Flood of 1927. Use the images and note some of the effects of the flood. Were attempts at flood control effective during this event?
Some of the effects of the flood were a rise in the water level, damaged levees, flooded farmland, and damaged property. Some attempts at flood control were effective during this event, different flood control methods slowed down the water pressure and diverted water, making parts of the flood less devastating.

4. How was the flood control system constructed under the Flood Control Act of 1928 different from earlier attempts at flood control?
It was government run, so it had more resources and funding. It also went all over the entire river, not just a section of it.

5. Examine the images and summarize the results of the 1937 flood of the Mississippi River. Were attempts at flood control effective in taming the 1937 flood?
There was farmland, housing, highway, streets, and other property destroyed or damaged. The attempts at flood control were relatively unsuccessful because the damages were devastating.

6. Describe some of the damage done by the flood of 1993. What contributed to such a disastrous flooding event?
Unusual weather patterns, causing high moisture levels, causing much of the rain to drain directly into the river contributed to the disastrous flooding. Some of the damage included destroyed homes and displaced families, flood-related deaths, damaged property, damaged crops, and damaged farmland.

7. Examine the three satellite images. Describe the major differences in the landscape before, during, and after flooding.
Before: Lots of vegetation, and the water was confined to the rivers.
During:Water spread out everywhere.
After: Very little vegetation, lots of water and soil everywhere.

Science Homework 1/6

Sand was more prone to sliding.

Avg. of trials 1 and 2: 75%

Avg. of trials 5 and 6: 125%

1. What conditions might cause mud to flow?
A lot of rainfall, loose soil, and steep slopes are all conditions that might cause mudflow.

2. What conclusion can you draw from the two images?
The higher the slope, the more likely mudflow is.

3. List at least two ways you could make the mud slide off the 30° slide plane without changing the plane's angle.
- add more water
- shake it/cause vibrations so that the soil loosens.

4. What conditions in nature would be represented by the answers you gave for question 3?
- rainfall/flooding
- earthquake

5. List at least two factors that contribute to the formation of mudflows on volcanoes.
- glacial water build up
- large quantities of ash and debris

6. How might forest fires affect an area's potential for experiencing mudflows?
It would effect it by melting snow, and mix with soil to create mudflow, it would also create more ash and debris.

7. Hypothesize about how mudflows could change the topography of an area after a fire.
Mudflows would change the topography of an area after fire by flattening out the land.

8. What human activities strip soil of its protective vegetation and increase its vulnerability to mudflows?
Human activities such as building buildings and roads, as well as driving strip soil of its protective vegetation and increase its vulnerability to mudflows.

9. Write a paragraph describing the conditions that cause dangerous mudflows. Include the types of locations where mudslides are most likely to occur.
The conditions that are likely to cause dangerous mudflows are wet land, caused by heavy rainfall and flooding, and shaking of the ground caused by earthquakes, as well as steep mountains. Location where mudflows are most likely to have mudslides are mountainous places, and places with a lot of rainfall, as well as places with high earthquake rates.

Mass Movement: Lahar

Type of Mass Movement: Lahar
Definition: Mudflow composed of ash and water. (rain/snow/ice)

Questions - Plate Boundaries

1.What are the first 3 types of plate boundaries listed?
             Divergent, Convergent, and Transform boundaries.

2. What does the word divergent mean in regard to plate movement?  What forces the plates to move apart at divergent boundaries?
             To move apart. They are forced apart by magma pushing up form the mantle.
 
3. Give an example of a specific mid-ocean ridge where seafloor spreading and divergent boundaries occur.  What country sits directly on top of this ridge?  What are the red triangles that are shown on the map of this country?
            The Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland sits directly on top of it. The red triangles represent some of Iceland’s active     volcanoes.

4. What does the word convergent mean in regard to plate movement?
            Convergent means that the plates are moving towards each other.

5. Find the diagrams shown on the website for each of the following kinds of plate boundaries.  Label and post the three diagrams on your blog.

a.     Oceanic-continental convergence

b.     Oceanic-oceanic convergence

c.     Continental-continental convergence

6. When one plate gets pushed below another plate it is called subduction.  What geologic features form on Earth’s surface directly above the subduction zone in the case of:
            a. oceanic-continental convergence? deep sea trench or volcanic arc
            b. oceanic-oceanic convergence? deep sea trench or an island arc
            c. continental-continental convergence? very high mountains

7. What is a transform boundary?  What geological disturbance is caused along transform boundaries?  Where in North America is there an example of this type of plate boundary?
           A transform boundary is when crust is neither produced nor destroyed as the plates slide past each other. The San Andreas fault zone is an example of this in North America.

8. Using the Internet and a focused search, identify the type of plate interaction that caused the following features:
    a. Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Divergent
    b. Kuril Trench:  Convergent
    c. Philippine Islands: Convergent
    d. East African Rift Valley: Divergent
    e. Red Sea: Divergent
    f.Peru-Chile Trench: Divergent
    g. Aleutian Islands: Divergent

Geologic Timeline: Follow-up Questions

1. In order for multi-cellular life to take hold, the heavy bombardment had to stop, water had to form, the temperature had to cool, and the atmosphere had to allow for it.
2. I believe that the Proterozoic Era was the most important in terms of the development of the Earth because oxygen began filling the atmosphere and multi-cellular organisms formed, laying the ground work for human existence.
3. I believe that the presence of humans is very insignificant in context of the entire history of the Earth. Out of the estimated 4.5 billions years that Earth has been alive, humans have only been existent for a very short time, barely a blink of an eye in the whole scheme of things.