Pacific Rim

Studies of past subduction earthquakes are inexact things, based on finding their geologic signs: sudden changes of elevation that drown coastal forests, disturbances in ancient tree rings, buried beds of beach sand washed far inland and so on. Twenty-five years of research has determined that Big Ones affect Cascadia, or large parts of it, every few centuries. Times between events range from 200 to about 1000 years, and the average is around 500 years. The most recent Big One is rather well…

The movement of the Pacific and North American plates cause the old sea floor to be replaced by the now wider North American plate. Also with the movement the continental plate was stretched as the Pacific plate pulled the continental plate to the northwest which again stretched it out. This movement of the plates against each other also created the San Andreas fault which will come up later. What caused the San Andreas fault to be created twenty million years ago was the Pacific plate and the…

Breaking news: Just yesterday at 4:53 pm, the country of Haiti was Figure 1: Port-Au-Prince flattened by 7.0 earthquake. flattened by a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 causing major destruction. The epicentre was 13 km from the capital of Haiti, Port-Au-Prince. The initial estimates for this disaster, placed the death toll around 210,000. Sadly, this estimate was horribly wrong with the death toll rising well above 300,000. There were many reasons for the death rising so high,…

The Popocatepetl is a volcano that has captured attention since prehispanic times and until know for is activity, size and story. It is one of the highest volcanoes in Mexico as well as one of the most active. The fact that the is a large population living around this volcano makes it even more dangerous. The name “Popocatepetl” was given by the Aztecs, it means “smoking mountain”. They gave it this name because during their empire the Aztecs were able to witness options. The Popocatepetl has…

The Caribbean tectonic plate has a wide variety of height and depth within its borders. While all the land and islands are quite tall, the middle of the plate, that is mostly sea, is much more deep in some areas than others. Around the Yucatan Peninsula, Central America, and all the islands are gradual slopes that gain more depth the further from land-above-sea-level you get, however, from Honduras and Nicaragua to Jamaica, where there should be deeper sea, there is quite a lot of height but…

Japan is associated with so many natural disasters. This is because the island, Japan is located where the North American, Pacific, Eurasian, and Philippine plate meet, also known as plate boundaries. Japan is also located where the Pacific plate and the Philippine plate are subducting. This results in the stress building up where the two plates are subducting. How do plates move? Well, plates move when uneven heating in the mantle creates currents. This current is a convection current, and…

My grandmother was personally affected by the earthquake that occurred in the morning of September 19th in Mexico. When she got home she got to witness the aftermath with her own eyes. The walls of her home had been cracked, her glass arrangements had been destroyed, and her outside porch was basically broken in half. There are many other cases like this, and the image shows just one area out of the many that were affected. It uses colors, ethos, pathos, and logos instead of using words to…

Have you ever heard of the volcano called Mount St. Helens? You probably have since it is a very well known volcano, but if you haven’t, then I will tell you all you need to know about the volcano. Mount St. Helens is a stratovolcano. Stratovolcanoes are also considered to be a composite volcano. Composite volcanoes are the type of cone-shaped volcanoes. Mount St. Helens is made up of layers of hardened lava and rock fragments, because it is a composite volcano. Mount St. Helens has had many…

Our goal is to eliminate the use of plastic bags in grocery stores and promote the use of reusable bags, which will help the environment. We are students from Penn State Brandywine, located in Media, and are doing a school project for the campus read Garbology by Edward Humes. This project is for “us,” the students, to help spread the word that plastic bags are harming the environment. We have become addicted to the convenience of plastic, and it is time for serious change. After watching…

Garbage relates to everything from all kinds of waste whether generated during the extraction of raw materials or after the consumption of final products. It is present everywhere, even in the middle of the oceans. Trash Inc: The Secret Life of Garbage is a documentary film showing the waste produced around the world and the life cycle of trash/garbage. The documentary explains what happens to the garbage when it’s thrown away and its impact on the people and the world. It shows how the waste…