Monday, April 11, 2011

Welps

This seems to be it for my world tour. Too bad it was so short...

I hope I can get the chance to travel sometime in the future, or maybe even reading about other people's travels might do.

Welps, I suppose all I can do now is start saving up for the next one!

Thanks to those ^4 of you who took the time to actually read this blog *rolls eyes*

I hope to see you again~

~Momo

Sciencey stuff

These pictures may help explain all that science stuff i was talking about :D

DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY
Click it if it's too small





SUBDUCTION ZONE




TRANSFORM BOUNDARY





...get it?

Heehee~

~Momo

Friday, April 8, 2011

Photos from Seattle! :D


http://www.uniqueseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/experience-music-project.jpg


http://marcobrambilla.com/img/ARTWORKPAGES/Cyclorama/9_Seattle.jpg


http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/images/space_needle_night.jpg



http://students.ou.edu/S/Cody.A.Stokes-1/Space%20Needle%20Dawn.jpg

Ohdeargodimsobehind- GALAPAGOS RISE

Another place i traveled to was the Galapagos rise. The Galapagos rise is a divergent boundary located between the South American coast and the Triple Junction of the Nazca plate, the Cocos plate, and the Pacific plate. The Volcanically active Galapagos Islands exist on the Galapagos hotspot above the Galapagos rise.

The Galapagos rise is a currently active ridge. The Fernandina Volcano on Fernandina Island, the most westerly chain on May 12, 2005, ejecting a column of ash that rose to a height of seven kilometers. Volcanic ash fell on the neighboring Isabela Island.

Shortblogpostisshort :D

~Momo

1000 paper cranes

No doubt you've heard about the Earth quake, which triggered a Tsunami, that hit Japan? It's amazing how powerful nature is, isn't it?

Japan is an Island nation in East Asia Located in the Pacific Ocean. The Characters that make up the word Nippon (Or Nihon. But it is officially Nihon-koku or Nippon-koku) mean "Sun-Origin" which is why Japan is called "The Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan is an Archipelago of 6,852 Islands. The four largest Islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. Together, they make up 97% of Japan's total area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the De Facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with 30 million residents.

This country lies between Latitudes 24° and 46°N, and longitudes 122° and 146°E. About 73% of Japan is forested, mountainous, and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial, or residential use. Because of this, the habital zones, which are mainly located on the coast, have extremely high population densities.

The Islands of Japan are located in the volcanic zone of the Pacific Ring of Fire. They are primarily the result of the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate beneath the continental Amurian Plate, and Okinawa Plate to the south, and the subduction of the Pacific plate under the Okhotsk plate to the North.

The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami was caused by a 9.0 magnitude undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occured on Friday, March 11 2011. The earthquake triggered an extremely destructive Tsunami with waves up to 38 meters (124 ft) that struck Japan minutes after the earthquake. The Tsunami traveled up to 6 miles inland. The earthquake and Tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage.


Ways to help:

American Red Cross

There are also More ways at the ABC News website


Our school also folded (last i checked) 990 paper cranes. We're sending them to an organization that will send two dollars for every paper crane. If you haven't heard the story of the paper crane, you can read about it at WIKIPEDIAYES

Sadako Sasaki and the one Thousand Oragami Cranes

~Momo

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Which Way is Mordor?

"Which way is mordor, Gandalf? Left or right?"

Mordor is located on one of the islands of New Zealand. New Zealand is a long and narrow, with approximately 9,404 miles of coast, and total land area of 103,483 square miles. Due to this long coast land, the country has extensive marine sources.

The south island is the largest island in New Zealand, and it's divided along its length by the Southern Alps. The term "Southern Alps" generally refers to the entire range, but separate names are given to ranges that form part of it. The Southern Alps were named by Captain Cook on March 23, 1770, even though they had been previously noted by Abel Tasman, in 1642.

The Southern Alps lie along a plate boundary in the Pacific Ring of Fire, with the Pacific plate pushing westward, and the Indo-Australian plate pushing northwest. Over the past 45 million years, the colliding plates have pushed up 20 km of thickness on the Pacific plate. Uplift has been at its peak speed during the last 5 million years, and the mountains continue to raise due to tectonic pressure, causing earthquakes on the Alpine Fault. Most of the movement along the Alpine Fault has been sideways, not vertical.

Because the way the Alps are oriented perpendicular to the prevailing westerly winds, the Southern Alps create excellent wave soaring conditions for glider pilots. The prevailing westerlies also create a weather pattern called the Nor'west Arch, which is where moist air is pushed up over the mountains, which forms an arch of cloud in the sky. This weather pattern is visible during the summer in Canterbury, and North Ortago.

Ever since i heard of it, i always found it rather intriguing. I was looking at the commentary of the Lord of the Rings movie, and i saw some very interesting things.

Did you know?

In the scene were Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimili find the pile of Uruk hi after the Rohirrim had slaughtered them, and Aragorn kicks the helmet of a fallen Uruk hi, he breaks his toe. That's why the scream was so believable.

Did you know that the man who plays Smeagol also plays Worm tongue?

Yeah yeah. I'm a dork, I know, but i'm proud of it.

~Momo

Monday, April 4, 2011

Fawlty Towers

So on my world tour, one of the places i absolutely had to visit was Seattle! Seattle is one of the largest cities in the pacific northwest. It was named after chief Sealth (Seattle) of the Duwamish and Suquamish native tribes.

What really got me interested in this musical city is the Space Needle. It is stationed right in between the Pacific Science Center, and the EMP. The Space Needle was built in 1962 for the world fair. 20,000 people a day used the elevators, and had over 2.3 million visitors during the world fair. The Space Needle is 605 ft. high at its highest point, and 138 ft wide at its widest point. This massive building was built to withstand 200 mph winds, and 9.0 earthquakes. How is that, I wonder...

The design of the Space Needle was a compromise between Edward E. Carlson, and John Graham Jr. Edward Carlson's idea was a giant balloon tethered to the ground, while John's Idea was a flying Saucer.

Seattle is a major earthquake zone due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Pacific Ring of Fire (or sometimes just the ring of fire) is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. It is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes, and is home to 75% of the worlds active dormant volcanoes. 80% of the worlds largest earthquakes occur here.

The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics. The eastern ring of the belt is the result of the Nazca plate, and the Cocos plate being subducted (Subduction is where ocean plates collide with either ocean plates, or continental plates. If its oceanic plates colliding with oceanic plates, one of them moves under the other because they are both so dense. If oceanic plates are colliding with continental plates, the oceanic plate will sink underneath because it is much denser than the continental plate.) beneath the westward moving South American plate.

In the western United States (The area of Western Washington, Western Oregon, and part of Northern Western California) lies the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It is home to 20 major volcanoes, and 4,000 volcanic arcs. That is because when a plate is subducted beneath ours, it keeps stretching down for miles, until it reaches a hot spot, and begins to melt. Then it will continue stretching down and melting until a pocket opens up on the surface for an outlet for it to all come spewing out.

Now that you have some of the background information, we'll go back to the Space Needle.

The earthquake stability was ensured when a hole was dug 30 ft deep, and 120 ft across, and 467 concrete trucks were used to fill it in one day. The foundation of the Space Needle weighs almost 6,000 tons, with 250 tons of reinforcing steel in the base. With the concrete base weighing as much as the structure above ground, the Space Needle's center of balance was just 5 ft above ground level. The structure is bolted to the ground with 72 bolts, each 30 ft long.

So hey, even with a 9.0 earthquake, all you may notice is water spilling out of your glass. Even though this monstrosity stand at 605 tall, it is still safe to go dine at the Sky City Restaurant standing at the top of this luxurious sky scraper. I prefer to go at night, so i can see the entire city lit up.

Sky City Restaurant

Ooooh! Even some of the food is space themed! If you ever go there, I would definitely recommend the Lunar Orbiter. There's no way you can disagree with Vanilla Ice cream and Chocolate sauce!
...
unless your lactose intolerant...

~Momo