MSED 252 Earth Science Blog

                                                                         Relative Dating  During this week we learned how to find a relative date of certain rock formations. We began with learning the Law of superposition which is that the older rocks in a particular formation are usually on the bottom while the younger rocks are on the top of the formation as shown in the picture below. We compared this to a  Snickers bar where the first part that was being made was the Caramel center ( the oldest part of the rock). The peanuts were considered the fossils stuck in the rock and lastly the youngest layer the chocolate shell.  Then we talked about  Principle of original horizontality or that sedimentary layers are horizontal, or nearly so when they first become deposited. and other principles like the principle of lateral continuity which is talks about how sediments move laterally in the movement of the particular rock formations and lastly the principle of cross-cutting relationships

                                                            Earth System Analysis During this week in MSED 252, we performed an Earth System Science Analysis. An Earth System Science Analysis involves examining an event and the responsibilities of each sphere and their interactions with one another. As a class, we split off into teams and discussed the situation given to us. The event was hurricane, Katrina. We read and analyzed the situation, listed initial hypotheses, ideas, and what was already known and unknown. After that, we had to figure out what needed to be done, in order for us to figure out how it affected each sphere.   We split off into different teams. And each group was assigned their own sphere to do research on. After we conducted our research, we came back to the initial group and discussed what we found. I had the biosphere and below is what our group found. Hurricanes can have extreme damage on the biosphere, like destroying, damaging, injuring, and killing what t

                                                                                                                 Crystals and how to grow them  This week, we learned how to grow crystals. Considering how we were learning about minerals, and how each mineral has a different crystal shape. By doing this activity, we could visually see the crystal formation. Crystals form indifferent shapes, and sizes in which we can categorize them. here are some examples of crystals in different categories based on their crystal shape: ISOMETRIC: salt, pyrite, garnet, galena, fluorite, copper, silver, gold HEXAGONAL: quartz, calcite, tourmaline, graphite, beryl, apatite, corundum TETRAGONAL: zircon, rutile, wulfenite, chalcopyrite ORTHORHOMBIC: sulfur, topaz, olivine, barite, stibnite, epsomite, aragonite MONOCLINIC: orthoclase, mica, gypsum, malachite, azurite TRICLINIC: albite, rhodonite What you need for this activity: salt, water, bluing solution, ammonia (optional), cardboard, coal,

                                                                   Identifying Rocks  In our lab today we learned the basics of identifying certain rocks. At first, we were shown what it meant for a rock to be igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary.  We learned how to identify these rocks in a number of different ways such as The texture is the rock finely grained, glassy or coarse to the touch. Also, we described the look of the particular rock and what qualities it possessed. Lastly, we looked at the minerals that made up the rock usually them being silica or iron. Below is a link to explain more about how we identified the rock samples. https://educat.nmu.edu/moodle2/pluginfile.php/1052476/assignsubmission_file/submission_files/1708227/Rock_ID_Lab_form%20I.docx?forcedownload=1  Shown above is a chart to help identify rocks   In addition, we got to check our answers to see if we identified them correctly. If we did not, we were able to figure out and understand why we got the answer wr

                                                           The Sun King activity  During this activity, we were told to calculate the distance to the Sun from where we were standing on the Earth. We did this by using a cardboard tube, rubber bands, aluminum foil, a ruler, and parchment paper. As you can see, in the pictures, we placed the parchment paper and aluminum foil at the ends of the tube and attached them with rubber bands. We poked a small hole in the aluminum foil and drew a scale on the parchment paper. We did this so when we looked at the sun, through our tube, we would see the light shining through the hole and be able to measure the diameter of the circle.   We then used the diameter of the circle and the length of the tube to calculate the distance to the sun. We figured out the distance to the sun was 1,400,000 miles. Our calculation was 1,200,000 miles, . This activity was a fun and engaging activity to do. It was interesting to see that by looking at the diameter of t

                                                             Life the Universe and Everything  This week, we completed an assignment about life, the universe, and everything. While doing so, we learned about different kinds of creation myths, like Ex Nihlo, Earth Diver, Emergence, the Dismemberment of a Primordial Being, and the Splitting or Ordering of a Primordial Being. All of these myths serve as a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. The creation myths, that I found, come from different cultures in which they describe their own version of how earth and people came to be. Overall, I thought this assignment was interesting to do. I never knew that there were so many different types of myths and that every culture has its own story of how the world came to be. I, personally, agree with the universal myth of the Big Bang theory considering that in the big bang theory we find that was and the earth is made up of dead stars. Also, that is on