Earth Science

The idea of balance in nature is ancient, but in the 1970’s it became a kind of cause for which biologists, conservation experts and ecologists rallied behind. The problem is, there may be no such thing as balance in the…
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At 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) high, Mount Everest has always been heralded as the world’s highest mountain. But is that really true? It depends on exactly what you are measuring. You can measure the summit of a mountain by either…
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Mountains are essential for life on earth as it is known. Their greatest contribution is the moisture they trap, through weather and snow fall.  The amount of snow held on slopes and glaciers determines how much water or drought a…
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The United States is home to 59 national parks that are operated by the National Park Service. In order for an area to become a national park it must first be established as such by the United States Congress. The…
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A microburst is a weather phenomenon that can abruptly generate hurricane force winds that change direction very quickly. A microburst most frequently occurs when a mass of warm and humid air meets cumulonimbus thunderstorms, which greatly increases the ferocity and force of…
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The sky holds many wonders. The old familiar ones like the stars and Milky Way and the moon, or puffy clouds that look like dragons and rainbows and sunbeams…well, most everyone are familiar with those sights. Rarer are such optical…
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Drought is a common and serious problem for many severely dry places in the world. In order to combat this problem there have been drought mitigation strategies put in place that will help alleviate this naturally occurring condition. The land…
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Marble is a metamorphic rock used in the most beautiful and famous sculptures and structures in the world. Sedimentary carbonate rocks, most commonly limestone and dolomite, become marble through the process of metamorphism. Metamorphism is the process of heat and pressure…
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Relatively few people will have ever heard of Taconite, but without it steel production around the world would be devastated. Taconite is one of the main ores of iron. Taconite is a low grade ore when compared to Magnetite and…
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Metamorphic rocks are classified into one of two groups based on their texture. They are either foliated or non-foliated (also known as granular). In general, foliated metamorphic rocks have distinguishable bands of color or layers of different minerals, while granular metamorphic…
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