Problem 1: Plate Tectonics
Imagine that you have taken a time machine back to the early 1900s and are meeting Alfred Wegener for lunch. He is very depressed because almost no one believes his theory of continental drift. Explain to him how science in the decades after his death (he died in 1930) will later confirm his theory and expand it into the larger theory of plate tectonics. The most important part of your explanation to him will deal with discoveries that happened from the 1950s onward, in particular discuss seismic data and how it helps prove a mechanism for the plates to move and sea floor spreading.
Problem 2: Explain how a seismic Tsunami forms, what is required? What are characteristics of the wave in the open ocean and how does that change (in terms of speed and height) as it approached the shore.
Problem 3: What makes a glacier grow or shrink? Use the glacial budget in your discussion.
Problem 4: How does water tower supply pressurized water to your house? Draw a diagram and correctly draw and label the pressure surface.
Problem 5: You are sailing in the Pacific Ocean, you become shipwrecked from a large storm, but you have no idea where you are.
a) A volcano violently erupts, first there were earthquakes, a nuee ardente, then a full vertical eruption, there was ash everywhere. Are you on the edge of the Pacific Ocean Basin or somewhere in the middle, why?
b) A massive earthquake, so large it knocks you off your feet and you cant even standup. The sea rises 5 feet within a couple of minutes after the earthquake, it then resides, this cycle continues for a few hours. Are you on the edge of the Pacific Ocean Basin or somewhere in the middle, why?