Modern industry makes extensive use of copper compounds, and it is a substance found most ubiquitously in electronics around the home and workplace. Copper is useful because of several characteristics, namely: its very high conductivity and ductility, its low manufacture…
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The Moment Magnitude scale and the Richter scale are both measures of the magnitude of earthquakes, where magnitude is the seismic energy released by the earthquake. The Richter scale is the older of the two but is now being gradually…
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Metamorphic rocks are rocks that have been changed by heat, pressure, chemicals, or any combination thereof. The original rocks are transformed into new types of rocks. Igneous, sedimentary, and older metamorphic rocks can undergo metamorphism. The changes the rocks experience…
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Mother Nature on the War Path When bad things happen we always want to pin it on someone. Even if it was a natural disaster that would have happened regardless of the warnings. Lives could have been saved; but since…
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The Ice Age, which brought about a sudden change of temperature around 195,000 years ago, is believed to have wiped out a wide range of species who could not adapt to the freezing temperatures. Mankind was among the survivors, although…
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The Volcanic Explosivity Index or VEI was created in 1982 to describe the magnitude of explosive volcanic eruption in much the same way that the Richter scale describes the magnitude of earthquakes. 0 is the lowest rating and 8 is…
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The carboniferous period was a time of tremendous growth on Earth. One of the reasons for this was the average worldwide temperatures. Naturally, there wasn’t anyone around with a thermometer to get accurate readings of the amount of heat. However,…
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“A flight controller watched Delta Air Lines Flight 191 emerge from an intense thunderstorm at a low altitude and radioed the urgent command ‘Delta, go around!’ to abort its landing seconds before the jumbo jet crashed and burned Friday night, (August 5,…
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Tides are the effects produced by the rise and fall of sea levels. Spring tides most often occur when the Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned. The combined gravitational forces that these bodies exert upon Earth produce the highest tides…
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Today there is an international standard for the nautical mile: 1.1508 miles, or 1.852 kilometers. Strictly speaking, these figures are not derived from surface distances, but rather from the curvature of the earth at the Equator. Since the earth is…
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