Goodbye

Goodbye everyone! I'm off for now! I hope you continue to follow me on my blog and learn about the wonderful places in the world I visit! Thanks!

Returning Home

So now we arrive to my hometown, Seattle, Washington. There are so many things to do in Seattle….going to the top of the space needle, visiting Pike Place Market, sightseeing down by the waterfront, going to the EMP. Hey; I could be your tour guide! Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. We’re supposed to be talking about plate tectonics. 

The Strait of Juan is a large body of water about 95 miles long. It forms the principal outlet for the Georgia Strait and Puget Sound, connecting both to the Pacific Ocean. It provides part of the international boundary between the US and Canada. The Juan de Fuca plate is generated from the Juan de Fuca ridge, and subducting under the northerly portion of the western side fo the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone. The Strait of Juan de Fuca is an effective example of Subducting Convergent Boundaries. Subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth’s mantle as the plates converge. A subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates move toward one another and one slides under the other.  

 

http://wiki-images.enotes.com/thumb/0/02/JuandeFucasubduction.jpg/300px-JuandeFucasubduction.jpg

Uh oh! We're going dooooowwwn!

Uh oh!  My plane crashed! I was just taking off from Hawaii when my plane went down in the area of the East Pacific Rise. Fortunately everyone was ok on board. Once we were rescued from the water, we made it back to land I decided to do some research on where the plane had crashed. Turns out, the East Pacific Rise is a divergent plate boundary!

 

http://www.mbari.org/expeditions/EasterMicroplate/images/90W45Sglobe_box.jpg

 Above is where my plane crashed in the East Pacific Rise

This boundary is located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It separates the Pacific Plate to the west from the North American Plate, and more. The ocean crust is moving away from the East Pacific Rise to either side at a rate of 70mm/year. On the eastern side of the rise, moving plates meet the westward moving South American Plate and the North American Plate and are subducted under them. The belt of volcanoes along the Andes and the arc of volcanoes through Central America and Mexico are the direct results of this collision. 

Aloha Hawaii

Wasn’t that was a nice little trip. It’s like it’s a whole other world up their….. Anyways, let’s move on to something other than mountains, I’m heading to Hawaii! We’re going to visit Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Mauna Kea is a dormant (inactive) volcano. So Hawaiians shouldn’t have to worry about this one erupting. 

However, there are some really interesting facts about this volcano. It stands 4205 feet above sea level and is the highest point in the state of Hawaii, however much of the mountain is underwater. Mauna Kea is about a million years old.  Mauna Kea is one of five hotspot volcanoes. Hot spot volcanoes are where the mantle of the earth below is abnormally hot. The Pacific Tectonic Plate has moved over a hotspot in the earth’s underlying mantle. 

Matchu Picchu

Well that was a fun topic to cover! Now I’m getting close to the end of my journey but I still have a couple more places to go. The next place I’m off to is Matchu Picchu, the great mountain in Peru.  This mountain is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site located 2,430 meters (7,970 ft) above sea level. The ruins of Machu Picchu are divided into two main sections known as the Urban and Agricultural Sectors, divided by a wall. The Agricultural Sector is further subdivided into Upper and Lower sectors, while the Urban Sector is split into East and West sectors, separated by wide plazas.
The central buildings of Machu Picchu use the classical Inca architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular shape. The Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. Many junctions in the central city are so perfect that it is said not even a blade of grass fits between the stones.

Everyone ready for Everest?

Hey guys! India was great! Exotic foods and the clothing was really cool too! I got a bunch of bangles for my friends, back home in Washington. But now I’m heading off to Mount Everest! Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world! On average, about 1,500 people climb it per year. I however, am not going to climb it, but just examine and dissect the various parts of the monstrous mountain.

Geologists have subdivided the rocks comprising Mount Everest into three units called "formations" Each formation is separated from the other by low-angle faults, called “detachments”, along which they have been thrust over each other.

Hiya Himalayas!

Ahhh, wasn’t New Zealand nice? The pretty views, the perfect weather, and let’s not forget the science!!! Can you guess what country I’m in now? Well, somewhere in Asia…..the country is shaped like a triangle…. *drum roll please* India! India is a great place to research tectonics in depth. I’ve learned so much and am so excited to share it with you!

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=india&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbm=isch&tbnid=qpeSrbA88nF7dM:&imgrefurl

Ok! I’m gonna jump a little deeper into this so hold your hats! India is just one of the many places that the Himalayan Mountains run through. The Himalayan mountain range is the largest mountain range in the world! That’s really something, but there’s a big question, how were they formed?

 http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=1440&bih=705&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=himalayas&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=

 

Their formation was a result of a continental collision along the convergent boundary. PAUSE! What’s a convergent boundary you say? Convergent plate boundaries are locations where lithospheric plates move toward each other. These collisions may cause earthquakes, volcanic activity and crustal deformation. RESUME! As I said before, the Himalayans were a result of the collision between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. 

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi968C0-gi-KGuoSTUw2_bIARGzrhsxGmbxcabyqmhujgtHbGanzWVD6fLoB_BzCAarvWMNgeX0tTS8gf1QE1mTkJt2yTicEzKVwKQ0G_QS7FuGBrk-MqPi_zglSNWBIfx0lGAeTG26nKI/s1600/Convergent_Boundary%252B1.jpg 

This collision began about 70 million years ago. Back then, the Indo-Australian plate moved at a rate of about 15cm per year until it eventually collided with the Eurasian plate. Currently, the Indo-Australian plate is moving at 67 mm per year and over the next 10 million years it will travel about 1,500 km into Asia. 

 http://www.google.com/imgres?q=eurasian+plate&um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbnid=Ir_dkakCAb5WkM:&imgrefurl=http://www.abovetopsecret.com/

Thanks for reading about my Himalayan experience and check out my future posts for where I’m heading next! See ya!