Yellowstone and Plate boundaries help.
Both due Sunday by 10pm
Today, there are many topics that are pseudoscience in the news. Pseudoscience 'looks' like science but isn't. Astrology, homeopathic healing, bigfoot, the moon landing was faked are examples of ideas that may seem like science at first but once examined using the scientific method are found to be wrong. As the great Carl Sagan referenced in his book, The Demon Haunted World, scientists have a built in “baloney detector” with the knowledge and use of steps of the Scientific Method. Just as a review on how the scientific method works, view the Neil de Grasse Tyson video. You see that something as simple as the mystery of missing whipped cream on hot chocolate can be easily solved with the Scientific Method as there is solid evidence that cream floats on liquids. Therefore, you should be able to use the Scientific Method to prove or disprove pseudoscience as well. For this discussion assignment:
- Choose en example of pseudoscience from the list.
- In your initial post, devise a hypothesis about this topic and explain the steps that you would take to prove the hypothesis. Also, explain how think you will be able to prove your hypothesis.
- You will need to reply to TWO other students as well. Your replies should include feedback on the methods used as well as any additional suggestions of how the hypothesis might be proven.
Here's the list. Remember these are things that look like science but are actually wrong. Choose one of these. AstrologyCryptozoology (bigfoot Loc Ness monster etc…)Homeopathic medicineCrop circlesPerpetual motionFaces, or canals on MarsVaccines cause autismFlat EarthHollow EarthBermuda TriangleEarthquake predictionPhrenology
Plate Boundaries Concept Sketch
50 points
Use the chapters on the Earth’s Interior Processes and Volcanoes as well as the USGS resource Understanding Plate Motions in the Module 2 reading assignments to help you make the following concept map for plate boundaries.
Instructions:
Sketch, label and explain the following plate boundaries. Include an example on Earth of each (be sure to name both plates involved) on your concept sketch:
· Divergent Plate Boundary (oceanic divergent or Mid-ocean ridge)
· Convergent Plate Boundary: continental-oceanic. You will also need to explain the other two types of convergent plate boundaries (continental-continental and oceanic-oceanic) but you do not need to draw them.
· Transform Plate Boundary
Remember, detail is key. You will have three sketches with labels, explanations and examples plus the explanations of the other two types of convergent plate boundaries. Upload your concept map to the drop box provided.
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Yellowstone Hotspot
Introduction: Review the text on hotspot volcanism and recall that hotspots produce a string of dormant volcanoes behind an active volcano. Because we know the age of the volcanoes and their distance from the hotspot, we can use the dormant volcanoes produced by a hotspot to determine the speed and direction that a tectonic plate is moving. This exercise will guide you through that process.
So, let’s think about this, if a dormant volcano is 5 million years old and is sitting 450 km from a hotspot then it has moved 450 km in 5 million years. If we divide 450 by 5 we get 90 km/Ma. That unit is kilometers per million years (Ma is an abbreviation for millions of years). This is not a particularly useful unit. A million years is a very long time so it's difficult to really understand how fast a speed given in km/Ma really is. For most of what we do, we measure speeds in miles per hour. You know how long an hour is, and you know how far a mile is so it's a useful unit. For plate tectonic velocities it's best to measure the speed in centimeters per year (cm/yr). Doing this gives a number usually between 1 and 15 or so which is a very useful and manageable unit. Since there are 100,000 centimeters in a kilometer converting from km/Ma to cm/yr is relatively easy: divide by 10. So 90 km/Ma is 9.0 cm/yr.
Speed of the North American Tectonic Plate
Use the map on the previous page to figure out how fast the North American plate has been moving since the first (oldest) volcano formed over the hotspot. The questions below will guide you through the process. Remember to put or transfer your answers onto the answer sheet that you will turn in. You don’t need to turn in this exercise just the answer sheet. 2 points per question for 22 points total.
1) How old is the oldest volcano in the system? (The ages on the map are millions of years, Ma). __________ Ma
Take a piece of paper, hold it up to map scale against your screen on the bottom of the map and make two tick marks on either end of the scale. Now you can move that scale on your paper over your screen to measure distances.
2) How far is the oldest volcano from the hotspot? (use the north eastern edge of the yellow volcano as the location of the hotspot) _____________ km
3) Now divide your answer for #2 by your answer for #1. ___________ Km/Ma
4) Now convert #s into cm/yr. If you’re not clear how to do this read the directions above the map on the previous page __________cm/yr.
Direction of the North American Tectonic Plate
When tectonic plates move over hotspots the direction the plate is moving is from the younger rock toward the older rock. In other words, if you draw an arrow on the map from the younger rock toward the older rock that arrow points in the direction the plate is moving.
5) Given what you know about how plates move over hot spots, what general direction has the North American plate been moving for the last 16 million years? ______________
6) Was it moving in a straight line? __________
7) What direction was the plate moving between 13 and 16.1 million years ago? __________
8) What direction has it been moving for the last 6.4 million years? ______________ (after doing #7 and #8 you may want to look at your answer for #6 and make sure it still makes sense)
9) The Hawaii hotspot produces mafic volcanoes while the Yellowstone hot spot produces felsic volcanoes, what does this mean for the relative explosiveness of these two volcanoes ie which would be more and which would be less explosive?
10) Looking at question 9 what is is about the chemical composition that makes one volcano more explosive? Relate the chemical composition of the volcano to the type of crust involved.
11) Go to the website for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yellowstone-volcano-observatory
Do a screen capture of the current status of the Yellowstone volcano. I have an example below from when I wrote this lab. This is a great site to go to when you see that click bait article on Facebook about how Yellowstone is about to erupt and destroy us all. If they YVO people aren’t worried, you need not worry either. Remember please put your screen capture on your answer sheet not this worksheet and please crop it down to something about this size.
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