Earth Science

Before the first Earth Day or recycle bin, Mother Nature already had a recycling program in place. Every drop of water, every molecule of air have been endlessly recycled since day one. Most of us don’t know, though, that she…
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Herkimer diamonds have a very interesting name, look and history, but are not actually diamonds. These are quartz crystals that have two branches, which creates doubled terminations. Tibetan quartz is double terminated quartz, sometimes with manganese and carbon included. A…
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What do you do for entertainment? Kick back and watch a favorite movie? Drop in on a hot new dance club? Read a good book? How boring! Instead of following the crowd, why not do something really entertaining—like rappelling into…
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Color in a diamond is a glittering imperfection. Diamonds are carbon, locked tightly into a lattice structure, a three dimensional grid, that makes them the hardest natural substance. Diamonds are crushed into shape deep underground, in inconceivable conditions of temperature…
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Soil is composed of rock that has been weathered by atmospheric forces of mild acid, water and wind until it is broken down into fine grains. Fertile soil is soil that is infused with decomposed and decomposing plant, insect, fish,…
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The television camera pans over a devastated cityscape, pausing on piles of rubble that were once houses, apartments, and office buildings. Dazed and dusty survivors pick through the remnants of their lives seeking keepsakes, valuables, or simply food and water….
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There are many buildings and residences that need to be seismically retrofitted, especially those that were built prior to 1975 and are situated on earthquake faults. For example, certain locations such as Los Angeles, The San Francisco-Bay Area, Kansas, etc., that…
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When volcanoes erupt, they can cause devastation for miles wide. Anything in the volcanoes path gets destroyed instantly by the hot lava. There are many dangerous volcanoes in the world, however, here are some that I feel to be some…
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Thunderstorms can be as simple as a few rumbles of thunder and a little lightening, or they can become violent and terrifying. Either way, being prepared for the worst that nature can throw at us is always a good plan….
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Magnitude is a measure of the amount of energy released during an earthquake; seismologists use a Magnitude scale to express the energy released by the quake. Every earthquake has a unique amount of energy and the magnitude values given by different…
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