Last Minutes

I have had a great time reporting to you about plate tectonics. I will go home to Seattle now. While I was in Iceland I found a wife. Her name is Inca Svinclewitz. It was true love at first sight. We met at the location of the crack. She was looking for her dog Magnus. He had fallen down the crack and was just a little bit too far into the crack to get out. I have long arms so I rescued it for her. This is my final sign off. From me and Inca, Busters/Svinclewitz Out!

Collision Zone

Next I went to the Himalayas. This post will be about Plate Tectonics. It is a very interesting theory. It says that there are giant slabs of rock below us that are moving in different directions and at different speeds. Its called Convergent Collision Plates. When they crash into each other they normally create earthquakes. But this is also how mountains are formed. One good example is the Himalayas. The plate underneath India smashed into the Plate under Eurasian and they have been pushing up ever since. They cant go through each other so they push up and up until they create mountain ranges. They will bend slowly and push. This creates the largest mountains in the world. Volcanos can't be born because there is no gap for it to come up. Busters Out

http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Asia/Nepal/photo183295.htm

San Francisco

After Iceland I decided to go to a Transform Boundary. The San Andreas fault is a good example of one. A Transform Boundary is where two plates are shifting against each other. One is sliding up and one is sliding down. The plates have been moving for around 10,000,000. They move around 5 centimeters a year. But the earth is still moving below us which is kind of scary.

Earth quakes are happening all of the time here. Most of them are just to small to feel. These plates are responsible for the massive earthquakes in 1906 and 1989 in San Francisco.

The fault line enters the us above Los Angels and stops after Baja California. Scientists predict that Los Angeles will be above San Francisco in around 100,000,000 years. That is a long time but I think that is crazy that that much land can move that much!

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/glossary/?term=transform%20fault

Next Stop: Iceland

I had to be evacuated so I decided to go to Iceland and learn more about different kinds of plates. Iceland is a divergent fault. That means that the two plates are pulling apart from each other. It is on top of the boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate. They are coming apart and there is a giant crack down island. Iceland is made from a hot spot near by. It has one of the newest islands in the world. It came up in the 1960s. As the plates pull apart lava can come up more easily and it is squeezed up in other places at the other ends of the plates where they are smashing into other plates.

When two Plates pull apart they create a rift. This is called the Mid atlantic rift. It is like a giant sea trench that spans the length of the plates that are pulling apart from each other.

http://www.platetectonics.com/book/images/Divergent1.gif

Subduction Zone

This is the research that I have found. Chile is in a subduction zone. That means that one plate is sliding underneath the other. The South American Plate is riding on top of the Nasca Plate. The younger of the two will ride on top because it is less dense. The older plate can plunge down and create a giant trench. The earth quake was caused because the pressure built up in between the plates. One plate will slip and that will shake the earth. This vibration will also cause a tsunami.
Subduction zones often create volcanoes. When the bottom plate melts it releases Carbon Dioxide that will boil up to the top and through the crust. This is a volcano. When the volcano erupts that is the carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere again. One example of this is Mount Rainier In Washington State.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/glossary/?term=subduction%20zone

DISASTER STRUCK

I (Sugar Busters) was having a great time with steve in the mountains when disaster struck. There was a massive earth quake. Everything started falling down and i hear that there will be a tsunami. Steve was hit through the face with a piece of rock from a cliff above. It Created a whole in his face that was 3 inches by 3 inches and dropped to the ground just to get engulfed in a mudslide. I was lucky enough to jump onto a giant rock that was floating down the river of mud like a boat.

I made it safely back to the hotel which had a mud retardent wall and a giant dome that could keep debris and smoke out. I am now safe temporarily and I am doing research on Earthquakes to figure out what caused this one. That will be my next post. Hopefully I will survive until then. I miss steve. Busters Out.

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/2010-Chile-Earthquake-81.jpg

My Trip Over

This blog will be devoted to science. Consider the name. Gin and tecTonics. It has nothing to do with alcohol. Just a clever name. In this blog we will go over tones of earthquakes, volcanos, and plates.

Hi, my name is Sugar Busters. I am from Seattle and I am 22 years old. So, I got to the airport at 10 am for my flight. I left at eleven for chile. I hope to have a great time their even though i am going on my own. I landed five hours later and checked into the four seasons resort. The hotel was great. I got a great steak for dinner and met a wonderful friend named steve. We made plans to go see the Andes Mountains tomorrow. I am tired so I'm going to bed. Busters Out.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/1e/e4/eb/closeup-of-andes-mountains.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1026496-d1024577-r27572381-Conalbi_Grinberg_Casa_Vinicola-Maipu_Province_of_Mendoza_Cuyo.html&usg=__HvhSfME2Ri5tRrn-qAIMRWTJSnE=&h=413&w=550&sz=34&hl=en&start=0&sig2=xkhDJ4ERhAETd0A8dbTOaQ&zoom=1&tbnid=jevmzSyqFdJTXM:&tbnh=154&tbnw=246&ei=_0yjTYvxC6XSiALEhYT2Ag&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dandes%2Bmountains%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1254%26bih%3D680%26tbm%3Disch0%2C392&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=338&oei=_0yjTYvxC6XSiALEhYT2Ag&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0&tx=166&ty=70&biw=1254&bih=680