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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Dolphins and whales

   Today I am going to be blogging about dolphins and whales. I am going to have the characteristics of both,their diet,where they can be found and name some creatures in both groups.

     
  First, I am going to blog about dolphins. Dolphins are mammals which means they feed their babies with milk made by the mother. They also breathe air through a blowhole in the top of their head and they have to breathe every few minutes. Mammals also do not lay eggs, except for the platypus. Dolphins can be found in every ocean in the world and sometimes in rivers.Dolphins can vault out of water because of their tails.Some dolphins have been able to reach 55 miles per hour! Dolphins are very intelligent mammals. Their brain is about the same size as a humans and can be easily trained.Dolphins usually travel in a pod.The word pod means group.




    Here is a picture of a dolphin brain compared to a humans


    When people think about dolphins the bottle nose dolphin comes to mind.The bottle nose dolphin can grow up to 4 meters in length.The smallest dolphin is the Hector's dolphin which can grow up to 1 meter long.The largest whale is the Orca or killer  whale which can grow up to 10 meters long.
  
When dolphins have to get some rest they do not completly go to sleep. Half of their brain goes to sleep while the other half wathches for predators.




  Here is a picture of a bottle nose dolphin and a Killer whale.

                                                                                                                 

       


        Now on to whales. Whales are also mammals which means they breathe air, don't lay eggs and feed their babies milk which comes from the Mom. Whales are the largest mammals that exist at this moment.The blue whale is the largest whale in the world.When I think of a whale I think of a killer whale,beluga whale or a blue whale. The bad thing is that I am wrong. The killer whale is not a whale because it is a dolphin. Oh and the whale shark is only called a whale shark because of how big it is.It is really a shark because it does not breathe air.
     
    Whales are put into two groups toothed and baleen.Toothed whales include the killer whale,dolphins and the sperm whale. They eat squids,fish and sometimes seals depending on how big they are.Baleen means that the animal is a filter feeder. Filter feeders usually have big mouths but eat small animals like krill or shrimp.Some of the whales in this group include blue whales and humpback whales. I know that sounds kind of weird since they have big mouths.


This is a picture of a whale shark.

    






Click  HERE to go to the national geographics page on killer whales
Click HERE to go to the national geographics page on bottlenose dolphins
Click HERE to go to the  Enchanted learning website on whales
Click HERE to learn more about dolphins


Friday, November 11, 2011

What are we gonna learn?




   





    Hey you are probably wondering what are we going to learn about.I know my Title does not help at all. We are going to learn about Seasons and what in the world makes leaves change colors.
   

   First,seasons are caused by the tilting of the Earth.The Earth is split into 2 sections the north and South hemisphere and is  tilted about 23.5 degrees.Globes are tilted because the Earth is too.The Earth spins on it's axis every day.One full rotation means one day.The axis are imaginary lines that go from the North pole to the South pole.



  While the Earth spins around on its' axis it is also orbiting around the Sun.Since it is tilted the hemispheres have different angles on how the sun hits them.If it is winter in the northern hemisphere it is summer in the southern hemisphere.


  The leaves change color because the sun stays out for a shorter .In autumn the leaves turn different colors because the clorophyll goes away  and the other colors are now visible.The clorophyll is what makes the leaves green.


                                                
  

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                                                   Bye

Friday, October 21, 2011

Volcanoes



     Hi today I am blogging about Volcanoes! Volcanoes are the Earth's creators and destroyers. You are probably thinking how can a volcano be a creator and destroyer. Well you will learn about that and how a volcano is formed,what causes it to erupt and what types of volcanoes there are.


  Here are two pictures of volcanoes.(please note that these volcanoes are not real)







   


     First,there are three ways a volcano can be formed. The first way a volcano is called a Convergent boundary. Convergent boundaries cause two plates collide and one goes under the other. When one plate falls under another it starts to melt down into magma. The plate is usually the oceanic plate that goes under the other plate.


                        Here is a picture of a convergent boundary.


                       


    The second way a volcano can be formed is in a Divergent boundary. In a Divergent boundary the two plates move away from each other because of the magma from the mantle. Then the magma cools and becomes part of the crust and the cycle starts again.


                         Here is a picture of a Divergent boundary.


                   

   The last way a volcano can be formed is by a hot spot. The way a hot spot can create a volcano is by letting the rocks from the Earth's mantle  come up through the crust. Hawaii's islands were made from a hot spot.


                      Here is a picture of a hot spot volcano.



         


    Most volcanoes are found around the Ring of Fire. The only time a volcano is not on the ring of fire is when a hot spot occurs. The Ring of Fire is a bunch of volcanoes that are all around the Pacific plate.



                      Here is a picture of the Ring of Fire.




    Next is the different types of volcanoes about the different types of volcanoes. The first type of volcanoes are called Shield volcanoes. Shield volcanoes are big and have smooth gentle slopes that were formed by basaltic lava. They are usually found around Divergent boundaries and hot spots in the ocean.


                        Here is a picture of a shield volcano.






    Now for the Composite volcanoes. Composite volcanoes are very tall and steep sided volcanoes. They are formed by explosive eruptions. They are usually found around Convergent boundaries.


                    Here is a picture of a Composite volcano.







   The last one is the Cinder cone volcano. Cinder cone volcanoes are very dangerous. They are like super volcanoes because of how much lava,rocks and volcanic ash. Volcanic ash is a bunch of dust,smoke and derbies that fly out of a volcano. Lava is the molten rock that is on the surface. The molten rock is called magma only when it is still in the mantle.


                    Here is a picture of a Cinder cone volcano.








     Next is how do you determine the eruption style of a volcano. You can determine it by it's magma chemistry. I mean like the viscosity of the lava. Viscosity means a liquids resistance to flow. If something has low viscosity means that it flows easily like warm maple syrup. If something has high viscosity it means that it does not flow easily.


     








The last thing in this blog is how are volcanoes are classified. Volcanoes are classified by their shape and their size. If a volcano is small and steep sided it is classified as a Cinder cone volcano. If a volcano is big and not steep sided it is classified as a shield volcano. If a volcano is tall and steep sided it is a composite volcano.





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                            Hope you enjoyed my blog.


                    Here are some pictures of stick figures.





                                BYE!                                     

Monday, October 3, 2011

Tsunamis

   This blog is going to be on tsunamis.  Have you ever wondered why and how a tsunami happens,well I am going to explain.

                                                  This is what a tsunami can look like.
 

  First plate tectonics are related to tsunamis because plate tectonics cause tsunami!  When plates move under water they cause an earthquake, landslide or a under water volcano.  When that happens a sudden burst of energy  is released which causes a tsunami.
   
                                          Here is a diagram on how  a tsunami is formed.


     These waves can get very big and you do not want to be in their path when they come.


     Now I will blog about how a tsunami travels.  A tsunami wave can hold a lot of energy which means it can go very far.  A tsunami wave can go up to 500 miles per hour.  Wow!  That is fast.  A tsunami wave is not like a regular wave just because of it's size but also how it travels.  When it travels it stays under the water.  That is why if you are way out in the ocean you can not feel the wave, but if you were on shore you are in trouble.  When a tsunami wave travels it does not just go in one direction, it goes in a circle from the epicenter.  You know like when you throw a rock into a pond or someone jumps into the water it moves in all directions.

                                                  Here is a picture of a tsunami.



     Next is what happens when it impacts the shore.  When a tsunami wave gets closer to shore it starts to slow down which causes the water to recede from the shore about a few meters.  Then more waves build up and the water just gets so high that it floods the shore and it looks like a wall of water.  There is also another way a tsunami can hit the shore.  It is when the shore slows the water down enough that it comes in as a giant wave depending on the coastline structure.

              This is what it sometimes looks like when a tsunami hits shore.



Click HERE for a video
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Click HERE for some facts on tsunamis
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   BYE!!BYE!!BYE!!BYE!!BYE!!BYE!!BYE!!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

9/11/2001

   What happened on 9/11 was that planes were crashed into the pentagon,the north and south buildings of the world trade center and a field in Pennsylvania.
  There were 19  men at three different airports.They were split up into 4 groups each going to hijack a plane.There was 1 pilot and 4 muscle hijackers in each group.The first group got on their plane and headed off and the second group was not far behind.They took over the the planes a few minutes after take off and turned around to go to New York.
  When they turned around the next plane took off and was soon took over by the hijackers.Then same happened to the next plane.The first plane crashed into the north tower of the twin towers and the second crashed into the south.The third hit the pentagon and the last one was heading for the national monument or the capital building,but the passengers and crew members fought back and took control of the plane.Next they crashed into a field to prevent any more life to be lost.
  9/11 changed the  world by bringing the world closer together than it was.It brought out the best of people and showed true heroes that sacrificed their life for others.It makes everyone more careful with what they do.It also changed America by everyone caring more about  each other.         
  Americans will probably view this as a tragedy,but remember this also as a moment of true heroes and leaders.They will also try to prevent it as much as they can.The families who lost family members will have a family reunion.People will probably treat each other with higher respect,be more generous and be more compassionate.
  The best way to remember 9/11 is to feel sorry for the family who lost family members.I do not think it should be celebrated but remembered.
  The worst thing about 9/11 is that so many people were killed.The best thing that came out of 9/11 is that the world came closer together.Another good thing is that people were helping others as much as they could.






1)What happened on 9/11.
2)How did 9/11 change America.
3)How do you think Americans will view 9/11 in the future
4)What is the best way to remember 9/11?Should it be celebrated?
5)What are the best and the worst things about 9/11?

Run here comes the earthquake blog!

    An earthquake is a result of when two plates collide.What happens is that when they collide and start to build pressure.Then it is released and it is in the form of an earthquake.An earthquake releases different types of waves.The waves are called Seismic waves.There are three types of seismic waves.They are called Primary waves,Secondary waves and Surface waves.

   The first wave I will explain are the primary waves.Primary waves are the fastest waves and the first to be detected.You can detect an earthquake by using a seismogram.It tells you where the epicenter.The epicenter of an earthquake is above the focus on the surface.The focus is the center of an earthquake.


                          Here is a picture of a Primary wave.


                         This is what a seismograph looks like
seismograph


There is also a richter scale.They use it to measure the strength or magnitude of an earthquake.It has numbers from 1 to 10 is the weakest and 9 is the strongest.



                         Here is what a ritcher scale looks like.

                          .

   Now  the Secondary waves.Secondary waves make the ground vibrate.They come a few seconds after the primary waves.They are stronger than the Primary waves,but they are slower.



                        Here is a picture of a Secondary wave.

  Last but not least the Surface waves.They are the slowest waves,but the strongest.They make the ground move in a spinning motion.They can make buildings collapse.They can also be called Love waves


                           Here is a picture of a Surface wave.




                            
                         This is what a surface wave can do.
   


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Well that is all and hope you enjoyed my blog.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Continental Drift

    I am going to be blogging about Continental drift.I know what you are saying what is Continental drift.Well I am going to blog about Alfred Wagner's theory of Continental drift and seafloor spreading.Hope you enjoy it.
    
      First Alfred Wagner was a German Scientist.Alfred was born on November 1st 1880.He came up with the Continental drift theory in 1911.He was drafted into the German Army in 1914.
                                            
  Here is a picture of Alfred Wagner.



    Now I will explain what his theory was about.He was talking about how the Earth Was made up of one giant Continent called Pangaea.He had some evidence explaining his theory like plant and animal fossils.He said that people have found four legged creatures in South America when their home is in Africa.


Continental Drift is when the continents move around because of the mantles heat.What happens is that the mantles heat moves the tectonic plates. The tectonic plates move about 1-4 inches a year.

                                  Here is a picture of Pangaea.




    Seafloor spreading is something that happens at the oceans crust.Seafloor spreading is when two plates move away from each other because of the mantles heat.Like how South America keeps moving farther away from Africa.

                       Here is a picture of Continental drift.


 
  






Here is a video about Continental drift




Here is a video of ice age 4 Continental drift.



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