Days 138 & 139 Geology Paper Final

March 20 & 21, 2012 Days 138 & 139

LA Book: 2 pages

Math: 4 pages

Latin: Chapter 10 conjunctions + vocabulary flash cards

Geology: write and edit paper (*some formatting issues from Word to Blogger)

My science project for this year is a diorama of a volcano since I have been studying geology. My diorama shows the proportions of a volcano, the nature on the ground next to a volcano, the tectonic plates that make the volcano, and what’s inside a volcano. We made this project with a recycled lid to a plastic box, Sally’s old dog cone, and recycled snack boxes. My project is supposed to represent a volcano with nature all around, tectonic plates, and what makes the magma or lava come out of the volcano. We used dried, (dead) moss, rocks, paint, fake bushes and marbles to make the nature side of my project, recycled snack boxes for the tectonic plates, and paint for the magma/lava. The snack boxes fell off for the tectonic plates so I painted in the lithosphere, asthenosphere, upper mantle, and the continental crust.

A volcano is made by tectonic plates colliding together and making a mountain however, the tectonic plates that formed the volcanoes have heat and magma under them which makes the volcano erupt the lava. There are five various kinds of volcanoes. For instance, cinder cones, shield volcanoes, lava domes, stratovolcanoes, and calderas. Cinder cones are the most common and recognizable types of volcanoes because they are mountains with a whole at the top where the lava comes out. My volcano is a cinder cone volcano. Shield volcanoes are close to the ground and are only found in Hawaii. Lava domes are volcano domes with a small hole at the top, not very much lava comes out of these volcanoes but they erupt quite frequently.

Stratovolcanoes are known as composite volcanoes and because they are formed by many different materials. These volcanoes are close to the stratosphere, hence, the name stratovolcanoe. A caldera is a volcano that is formed by a volcanic eruption, it is usually not very big but it has little eruptions rarely. A caldera is very valuable because the magma or lava that comes out of the volcano comes from the mantle where many valuable minerals are. The Volcanic lava contains minerals such as gold, zinc, and copper. However the lava is very deadly, it is a lot like fire. In fact, in the Pacific Ocean there is a circle of volcanoes that erupt frequently called the ring of fire. From North West South America, all the way up to Alaska, around and under the ocean back to Japan and the Philippines is the “Ring of Fire.”

Earthquakes can cause a volcanic eruption, especially in the ring of fire. Earthquakes cause the plates to move and slide kind of like my knee cap. When the plates split in half on a diagonal sort of line, it causes an earthquake, and then those plates keep moving which trigger a tsunami. If an earthquake happens beneath the sea, that’s what makes tsunami. A tsunami is a massive wave of water that speeds across the ocean at 620 mph, when the wave hits the coast the damage can be devastating.

The Tectonic plates that make up a volcano form all of the other giant landmarks on the earth such as mountains, hills, and continents. Actually a man named Alfred Wegener proposed a theory that the Earth’s continents were once connected and there’s proof too. Since the Tectonic plates of the Earth slide, it might have forced a big landmass to move away from each other. Wegener called this continent “Pangaea,” meaning “One Earth” in German. There are about 20 tectonic plates on the Earth that make up the earth’s crust, although the plates are placed on the upper mantle, below the crust.

We are going to try to erupt my volcano twice, once with salt and once with baking soda and vinegar. Salt! For this experiment I will need a 12 0z bottle of any carbonated diet soda, and we are going to use diet cherry coke which the experiment summary says works pretty well, and two tablespoons of Salt. We are supposed to put the soda into the hole of the volcano and then pour the salt in. The chemical reaction of the salt will create brown lava flying out of the volcano, this experiment is supposed to get messy. With the baking soda and vinegar, a chemical reaction occurs that immediately sets off carbon dioxide so we will have to be careful during this eruption experiment. Since Vinegar is an acid, when the baking soda is poured in to it, it releases a huge explosion of “lava.”

We are going to try those experiments soon because we need to shellac the volcano so we can do it twice. The other eruption that was suggested but we are not going to do, is the very famous diet coke and mentos experiment.  This experiment is common because it has a quick reaction, usually. My friends Katie and Cecilia are homeschooled too and they did this experiment with their mom that day and when I had a sleepover at Emma’s house with them, they wanted to try it. So we took ginger ale and some mints and a cork and waited for ten minutes and nothing happened so we decided to go to bed since we had skating rehearsal in the morning. The next morning we got up and found a shattered plastic bottle with mints and soda all over the floor, we guess it was a very late chemical reaction!

My diorama of a volcano is supposed to capture all the details on what makes a volcano and an eruption happen. I learned a lot about geology in this unit and I think that a volcano really represents that theme. I learned a lot about earthquakes, tectonic plates, and tsunami’s as well.

History Diorama: plan, outline

Farm School