Introduction

Hi there. Taking pictures is my passion, and so is science, so I have started this blog to let you all in on my scientific journey around the world to take pictures. I leave today so I am writing this in the airport as I wait for my plane. The purpose of my trip is to go to different plate boundaries and take pictures, so this blog will have a lot of pictures on it. I though that I should start out this blog by letting you all in on how plate tectonics work so you can understand what you are going to be seeing from me.

You may know this already, but the world is constantly moving right under your feet. It might not be very fast, but its moving. The speeds of the different plates range from 0.95 cm a year to 8.1 cm a year. As you can see, the plates don’t move at the same speed so they are all bumping into each other. That is what I am going to take pictures of. When the plates meet, they do one of three things. One of them can go under the other, which is convergent subduction, they could meet and push up over millions of years, which is called transform and they could also meet and then shift side to side, which is called convergent collision. They could also be going away from each other and this is called divergent, and when this happens, new rock is formed.

I will be going into deeper explanations as I come across these plate boundaries, but that is the basics.

The airport staff is starting to board the plane now so I should go. I will post as soon as I get to California, which is my first destination.

picture from: http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/airplanes-work-1.jpg

Disclaimer: This is a fictional blog written for a science class

Andes in the Afternoon

Another day in mountains has got my neck hurting from looking up so much. I just finished going to a small informational class about the Andes because yours truly is here in Peru. I am finishing up my journey here because I have some family here and I want to visit with them a little bit after I complete my mission. I have had such an amazing experience learning about the Earth and I have learned so much and this trip is really inspiring me to keep pursuing my dream career of becoming a Tectonophysicist. The inner earth has always been my calling and this trip is really progressing my interest in the subject. I’m sure you don’t want to hear me blabber about my dreams so I’m going to get to the good stuff.

Today, I woke up in Peru in my cousins’ house. I always loved going to Peru when I was little because I could look out the window and I could see the Andes. I would tape a piece of paper to the window and trace the mountains with my crayons. My cousins hung the drawings in the guest room so I always see them when I come. Keep in mind I was a very bad artist.

:http://effectiveinstructionalstrategies.weebly.com/nonlinguistic-representation.html

I drew what I wanted to see, not what I actually saw. My drawing skills have changed since then, but not my obsession with the mountains. I always wanted to know why they were there. I thought maybe someone built them, until I learned how they were really formed. I would have never believed you if you told me that tectonic plates can go under one another and that can form mountains/volcanoes. The Andes have many volcanic mountains dispersed around the entire range and that is because of the subduction of the Nazca Plate and the Antarctic Plate under the South American Plate. These plates are going under the South American Plate and not the other way around because the Oceanic plates have a higher density so they go underneath and the continental plate, which happens to be the South American Plate go above. Some of the effects of the can be volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis.

:http://peer.berkeley.edu/publications/peru_earthquake/Seismology/seismological.html

I wasn’t able to take a ton of pictures because my camera ran out of storage, but that’s okay because I have a ton from before, but this means I can’t post a ton. I’m so sorry, but I will definitely post them later on!

:http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes

Big Mountains in the Morning

This morning I woke up to a beautiful view. It was this.:http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/travel/article3773231.ece

Yep. You guessed it. I’m in Nepal. Nepal has been on my travel list for years and years and I am over the moon excited to finally be here. I have barely been able to sleep I’m so excited. I’m going up in a helicopter today and going to look at an aerial view of some of the lower peaks and I am ecstatic to be able to see those. I was thinking about how the Himalayas were formed and it’s crazy to think they started forming millions of years ago and they are still growing today. The Indo-Australia Plate and the Eurasian Plate are constantly coming towards each other. The Himalayas were formed by a subcontinental plate that was carrying India and then abut 50 million years ago they collided. They continue to push the Himalayas up at five centimeters a year. This, by the way, is called convergent collision.

I am so excited to go sight seeing after I go on the tour because gee whiz, I really want to explore Nepal. I’m only here for a few days so I want to make the most of it. My number one place to go to is Durbar Square. I saw a picture of it when I was seven and since then it was my dream to go there. I begged my parents for years and years, but we could never afford to go to Nepal, so I made it one of my goals in life to visit there, and here I am, 23 years later about to live my dream. I did so much research on Durbar Square and I have learned so much about it, so if you want to look into it, here is the link to a website that I have been exploring for a few months. I think it has a lot of great information on it so definitely check it out! http://dbrevisited.weebly.com/

:http://www.nilayatravelandtours.com/index.php/2014-04-06-10-04-08/2014-04-06-10-04-35/patan-durbar-square

:http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/pltec/converge.html

Iceland at Noon

Hello there.

I just returned from a tour through the Mid Atlantic Ridge here and Iceland and I must say, it was very beautiful. The cliffs tower above you and you feel like you are walking through an open cave. I took lots of pictures so I will add those in here too. I brought my big parka, but I ended up not needing it because it was a beautiful day! The weather was around 65 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 18 degrees Celsius. Going through the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was really intriguing because I have been studying plate tectonics for years, and I have only seen boundaries from helicopters, but actually being able to be on the ground and imagine myself standing on top of a plate boundary (even though I wasn’t actually standing on the boundary because it is impossible to stand on molten rock as it is pouring up slowly. I was in reality just standing on a plate, but it was cool to put myself there). What I actually was saw was a rock outcrop on the easternmost edge of the North American plate

The Mid Atlantic Ridge is a divergent boundary, which is where two lithospheric plates (in this case the Eurasian and the North American plates) move away from each other. Most divergent boundaries lie along the ocean floor and have rift valleys, which are deep valleys at the center of a mid ocean ridge. The rift valley forms the boundary between the two plates. Molten rock forces it’s way upward through cracks along the valley. This molten rock cools, hardening into new oceanic crust.

I studied the Mid-Atlantic Ridge quite a bit before I came because I wanted to be able to understand what I was seeing, and in my research I found a lot of interesting things that I had no idea existed. I learned that Matthew Fontaine Maury wondered that it could have been there in 1850 which was so cool because I didn’t know they had the technology to do that in that time period. It was actually discovered during the expedition of the Challenger in 1972. This expedition was led by a scientist by the name of Charles Wyville Thomson who discovered a large rise in the middle of the Atlantic while he was scouting out the future location for a transatlantic telegraph cable.

Some characteristic features of a divergent boundary are: mid-ocean ridges, rift valleys, earthquake activity, and volcanic activity.

I have had an amazing three days here. I went on tours and hikes and explored towns and it completely exceeded my expectations. I’m not going to go into a deep explanations about what I did because this would turn into a novel, but I will say I went to the Gullfoss Waterfall,  Aurora Borealis, Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, and the Skaftafell ice cave. I have attached some pictures of my activites below.

:http://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/09/the-mid-atlantic-ridge-in-iceland.html

:http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/space/images/36270547/title/aurora-borealis-photo

:http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/84/132084-004-A045F6D8.jpg

:https://www.flickr.com/photos/albaret-boit/176502393/

:http://www.infoiceland.is/gullfoss.html

:http://www.sternatravel.com/day-tours/all-year/reykjanes-blue-lagoon-spa/

:http://galleryhip.com/skaftafell-crystal-cave.html

:https://mycyberwall.co.za/sites/default/files/content/geography/Geography-Grade7/structure_of_earth/Divergent%20Boundary-01.png

San Fran at Sundown

Hello California! I have had an amazing day today. I visited the Golden Gate Bridge, went on a trolley ride around town, went down Lombard street, and visited Alcatraz. I ate at In n Out Burger and my golly it was amazing! I have always wanted to eat there and I was not disappointed. I also did a little shopping when I had some time, even though my day has been super crazy. I went to Brandy Melville and got some super cute tops, and I went to Forever 21. I am always up for shopping!

Yesterday, I visited a transform fault called the San Andreas Fault line. I was able to actually go  up in a helicopter and photograph this boundary. First, I am going to go into detail about what a transform boundary is because they can be difficult to understand. A transform boundary is where two plates grind against each other, creating friction, and forming lots of earthquakes and strange land arrangements.

http://science7rileyt.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/3/3/23339720/9051463_orig.jpg

A characteristics of a transform boundary is earthquake activity. This is why there are so many earthquakes in San Francisco, California. The San Andreas fault is a very well known fault line and it also happens to be a transform boundary.

The San Andreas fault is the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. The Pacific Plate, which is on the western side of the boundary moves Northwest and the North American Plate (Which I am on), is moving Southeast.

The views that I saw yesterday from the helicopter were almost to beautiful to describe. We don’t really appreciate how amazing out world is and we should really appreciate it more. I saw animals and trees and wildlife and I can’t explain how it was. Words can not describe, and I am not great with words. It is a once in a lifetime experience to see a fault line from a helicopter and I’d say if you are given the opportunity, take it, because it will change your life.

picture from

“Kluft-photo-Carrizo-Plain-Nov-2007-Img 0327” by Ikluft – Own work. Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kluft-photo-Carrizo-Plain-Nov-2007-Img_0327.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Kluft-photo-Carrizo-Plain-Nov-2007-Img_0327.jpg

http://www.sanremohotel.com/attractions/

http://www.cruisewithgambee.com/best-things-to-do-in-san-francisco/

http://www.placestoseeinyourlifetime.com/top-10-things-to-see-and-do-in-san-francisco-4015/