Hot Spot: Volcano World

Every volcano that has ever existed on earth has an area that is called a hot spot. A hotspot is an area in the mantle where hear rises as a thermal cloud from deep in the Earth. Low pressure and high heat at the base of the tectonic plate make possible for the rock to melt, also called magma. Magma rises through the crack and erupts to form a volcano. Forcing the tectonic plates to move over the motionless hotspot. The volcanoes are then pushed away and new ones move in and form in their place. This then results in chains of volcanoes, such as the Hawaiian Islands or Yellowstone National Park. The Hawaiian Islands are the tops of huge volcanic mountains formed by many eruptions of lava over millions of years. The source is seafloor spreading. Seafloor spreading and plate tectonics are used by scientists to determine the movements of the earth’s surface layer. The three common plates are convergent, divergent, and transform fault. The Hawaiian hot spot have been active for over 70 million years. Yellowstone was formed by the collapsing of a volcanic cone after an eruption, this is known as a Caldera. A Caldera is a large bowl-shaped crater that is formed by the collapse of a volcanic cone after an eruption. The hotspot under Yellowstone will continue to create volcanic activity for millions of years ahead. When Hawaii volcanos erupt you get rivers, fountains, or lakes of liquid lava. Eruptions are gentle, but very long lasting. The dangers of living near Hawaii is that the magma can flow all the way down to your city or home and just destroy everything it touches along the way. Yellowstone eruptions are very enormous and violent. One of the dangers for the people is when this erupts there is so much ash deposited that it covers the ground and air. If I had to choose, I would rather visit Hawaii because the eruptions are not as violent as Yellowstone and you can prepare for the rivers of lava coming your way.

Faults occur when brittle rocks fracture and there is an offset along the fracture. When the offset is small, the displacement can be easily measured, but sometimes the displacement is so large that it is difficult to measure. A thrust fault is a special face of a reverse fault where the dip of the fault is less than 45. Thrust faults can have displacement and can result in older strata overlying younger strata. Synclines are folds where the originally horizontal strata have been folded downward, and the two limbs of the fold dip inwards toward the hinge of the fold. Synclines and anticlines usually occur together such that the limb of a syncline is also the limb of an anticline. An anticline has a upside down U shape, with the oldest rocks in the center of the fold. A syncline is a U-shape, with the youngest rocks in the center.

The Rocky Mountain Research stations has been working hard to study how inest and tree poplutions have changed during the period of fire exlusions. During this research scientists have found that extensive fires are not a new phenomenon. They found out that before about 1880 evert 20 years more than half the mountain range would burin in one year. Once fire was taken away, the tree populations increased over 1,800 percent. The area occupied by Engelmann spruce rose by 4x the amount, and spruce trees grew twice as fast and nearly doubled in size and duration. Species compositions and tree population changes were the highest in the mixed-conifer forests. These changes significantly affected bark beetle outbreaks, and fire size. The information accrued in this study shows that restoring natural forest conditions and fire regimes in the mixed-conifer forests will promote forest health, longer fire season and more intense droughts.

I found this interesting because earlier in the week I was just reading about how the fires in California affected the tree populations and animal/ insect populations surrounding the near forests. Obviously the first thing that comes to mind when seeing a huge forest fire is how many humans were injured or impacted by the fire. What most people do not take into consideration is the actual tree populations and the animals that use them as homes. Every time there is a fire countless trees are lost. These trees take years and years to fully develop. Once they are gone they are gone and need to be replanted. Think about how many insects live in one tree. Probably millions, when those trees are gone all the life goes with it. Hundreds of animals lose their homes. This is something we need to think about more and really need to try and put a stop to these huge forest fires that break out.

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