Asiatic Clam

The Asiatic Clam is the clam that we collected in the river. Its origin is in eastern Asia and Africa. Exactly when and how is arrived in the United States is unknown.  The Asian clam does well in estuarine habitats and river beds and is found in fresh waters throughout the United States.  The Asian clam is known to clog intake pipes, damage industrial water systems, alter aquatic habitat, and disrupt irrigation canals. There is also concern that Asian clams compete for food with native mussels and clams. 

The Spanish Flu of 1918

The Spanish Flu of 1918 was an unusually severe and deadly influenza pandemic that spread across the world.  Most victims to the flu were healthy young adults.  The pandemic lasted from June 1918 to December 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands.  3% of the world's population (1.8 billion at the time) died of the disease. 

Tree Love/Hitchiti Forest

The Hitchiti Forest Research Center was established in 1946 by the Forest Service, USDA, to find ways and means of producing more wood in the depleted forests of lower Piedmont Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. Sixty percent of the 18-1/2 million-acre territory is in forest. The forest consists principally of even-aged stands of loblolly pine on the uplands and a mixture of oaks, hickories, yellow-poplar, and other hardwoods on the moist sites.

Ocmulgee National Monument

This past week our class visited Ocmulgee National Monument for lab.  While there we learned that  there I  were two wars fought in Macon during the civil war on the monuments grounds.  In 2014 the park will commemorate the battles that took place at the Dunlap farm.

Rogue Waves!!

Rogue Waves which are also known as freak waves, monster waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves,are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that occur far out in sea, and are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners.  In oceanography, they are more precisely defined as waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height (SWH).  Rogue waves are not tsunamis, which are set in motion by earthquakes [and] travel at high speed, building up as they approach the shore. Rogue waves seem to occur in deep water or where a number of physical factors such as strong winds and fast currents converge. This may have a focusing effect, which can cause a number of waves to join together.

Caught On Tape: Wave Crashes Into Cruise Ship

Soil!

link to 12 soil orders of world

      Ultisol

Georgia soils typically are lacking of nutrients, but support a variety of southern pine trees. Red clay soils in Georgia are not well aerated and must often be supplemented with manure and soil conditioners in order to support landscape features throughout Georgia's suburban areas.

One of the ways we identify soil is by looking at the soil and we also use the Munsell soil color chart to identify. 

Munsell Soil Color Chart pdf link

                               Soil Map of Georgia

 Soil Texture Dichotomous key

Extremophiles

An Extremophile is an organism that thrives in and may even require physically or geochemically extreme conditions that are detrimental to most life on Earth.  Most known extremophiles are microbes.  There are many different classes of extremophiles that range all around the globe, each corresponding to the way its environmental niche differs.  Many extremophiles fall under multiple categories.  

Thermophiles- thrive under extremely high temperatures

Acidophiles-thrive under extreme acidic conditions

Halophiles-thrive in environments with very high concentrations of salt

Psycrophiles

Psycrophiles are the type of extremophiles that just love low temperatures. 

 They do not like temperatures above 12°C for reproduction.

This is one environment that Psycrophiles dwell.  

GEOLOGY!

Igneous Rock

Igneous Rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. It may form with or without crystallization, either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface as extrusive (volcanic) rocks. 

Basalt 

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet.  Basalt has also formed on Earth's Moon, Mars,and Venus.  Basalt is used in construction (e.g. as building blocks or in the groundwork), making cobblestones and in making statues. 

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock and usually has a medium- to a coarse-grained texture.  Granites can be pink to gray in color, depending on their chemistry and mineralogy. Granite is nearly always massive, hard and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use as a construction stone.  Granite is formed form magna and it is the most abundant basement rock.  

Metamorphic Rock

Metamorphic rock is the transformation of an existing rock type in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form".

It makes up a large part of the Earth's crust and may be formed simply by being deep beneath the Earth's surface.  It is subjected to high temperatures and the great pressure of the rock layers above it. The study of metamorphic rocks provides us with information about the temperatures and pressures that occur at great depths within the Earth's crust.

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash.  When cut expertly, many slates will form smooth flat sheets of stone which have long been used for roofing and floor tiles and other purposes. Slate is frequently found grey in color, especially when seen in covering roofs, however, slate occurs in a variety of colors.  

Quartzite

Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure. Quartzite is a decorative stone and may be used to cover walls, as roofing tiles, as flooring, and stair steps.  It is very resistant to chemical weathering and often forms ridges and resistant hilltops.  Pure quartzite is usually white to grey, though quartzites often occurs in various shades of pink and red due to varying amounts of iron oxide. Other colors, such as yellow and orange, are due to other mineral impurities.

Sedimentary

Sedimentary rock is formed by sedimentation of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water.  Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles.  Before being deposited, sediment was formed by weathering and erosion in a source area, and then transported to the place of deposition by water, wind, mass movement or glaciers.  The sedimentary rock cover of the continents of the Earth's crust is extensive, but the total contribution of sedimentary rocks is estimated to be only 5% of the total volume of the crust.  

Sandstone  

Sandstone is composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust.  Sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and pink, white.  Fine-grained aquifers, such as sandstones, are more apt to filter out pollutants from the surface than are rocks with cracks and crevices.    

Limestone

Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral.  Limestone makes up about 10% of the total volume of all sedimentary rocks.  Because of impurities, such as clay, sand, organic remains, iron oxide and other materials, many limestones exhibit different colors, especially on weathered surfaces.     

WHERE iS MY BABY?!?!?!

This is my unborn baby Greg...
I planted him about three weeks ago and he still has yet to sprout!!!!!!:(:(
I water him everyday and keep him in my window sill in the sunlight by my bed...I really don't know what went wrong :(

Geocaching!!!!!

This is the path that our geocaching team took to win!!!!! Google earth calculated that the total distance that we traveled on this route amounted to 0.27 miles.  


Geocaching is an outdoor activity that consists of participants using a GPS(Global Positioning System) to hide and seek "geocaches"anywhere on the planet.  Geocaches are currently in located in 100 different countries around the world, and on all seven continents including Antarctica.  A typical cache is normally a small waterproof container that has a logbook inside of it where a geocacher can enter the date that they found it.  There are also large geocaches available to be found and can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.  Geocaches often vary in size, location, and difficulty it is often referred to a "game of high-tech hide and seek." I like to think of geocaching as a treasure hunt!!!!
link to geocaching.com  
GPS can be important to research in many different ways.  A GPS tracking system can be used to track animals if say one is doing an experiment on a particular animal the GPS is able to keep track and record the animals route and every move.  Also for a researcher to be able to know the exact coordinates of a certain subject  is  an easy way for others to access the subject.  By using the GPS it makes researching easier and more enjoyable.  Scientists use GPS to study areas that are prone to earthquakes.  They measure motion of faults in earthquakes and hope to be able to predict earthquakes in the future so more lives can be saved.

Sun Fish!

The ocean sunfish or mola mola is the heaviest known bony fish in the world.  The average adult can weigh up to 1,000 kg (2,200lbs).  The species is native to tropical and temperate waters all over the world. Sunfish live on a diet that consists mainly of jellyfish because this diet is nutritionally poor they must eat large amounts in order to maintain their healthy weight.  Females of this species can produce more eggs than any other vertebrate.  Sea lions, sharks, and orcas are just some of their natural predators.  Sunfish is also considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, including Japan, the Korean peninsula, and Taiwan.  Ocean sunfish may live up to ten years in captivity, but their lifespan in a natural habitat has not yet been determined.  Their growth rate is also indeterminate.

Kilauea volcano

Kilauea volcano is one of the most active on Earth and is located on the big island of Hawai`i! The daily activities of the volcano (e.g., movement of lava flows, earthquakes, surface deformation and gas production) are monitored by the staff of the U.S. Geological Survey at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO).  Unlike most other active volcanoes, Kilauea is approachable. It is known as the "drive-up" volcano because of the ease of access to many of its active areas.  It is one of the better studied volcanoes however there is still much that we do not understand about the innerworkings of this volcano. 

Sea Life Park in Hawaii

The Sea Life Park in Hawaii is located on the island of Oahu,one of Hawaii's most famous islands. It is mainly known for its natural beauty, history, culture, and attractions.  This park provides a unique opportunity to interact with exotic sea life and animals. It offers activities from swimming with dolphins and sea lions to feeding sea turtles and diving with rays!!!!http://www.sealifeparkhawaii.com/information.asp

Hawaii Experimental Tropical Forest

The Mission of the Hawaii Experimental Tropical Forest (HETF) is to provide landscapes, facilities, and data/information for those wishing to conduct research and education activities contributing to a better understanding of the biological diversity and functioning of tropical forest and stream ecosystems and their management. 
Monitoring the climate of the HETF units and being able to relate the climate and any climate change to the ecology of the HETF is a major goal of the experimental forest.

Path to my Preschool! :)

This is a map that I created on Google earth of where I live in  Southern California.  I drew a path from my house to the preschool that I attended.  It's right up the street!

Isarithmic map of temperatures on January 31, 1981 throughout the state of North Carolina

An isarithmic map displays geographic data on an assumed surface.  Isarithmic maps are used to represent many types of information including topography, weather, population densities, soil types, etc.  The map above displays temperatures in the state of North Carolina on January 31, 1981.

Chloropleth map of the change in divorce rates between 1980 and 1990

 The choropleth map provides an easy way to visualize how a measurement varies across a geographic area.  
The greater the density of shading, the greater the density in reality. These maps generally use different shading, colors or placing of symbols inside specific areas on the map in order to indicate the average values of some property or quantity in those areas Examples include maps of annual rainfall, January and July temperatures, or percentages of Labour voters.
Above is a chloropleth map of the change in divorce rates between 1980 and 1990.