Week 10 Blog Post

What did you do in lab?

  - This week in lab we modeled the three different kinds of rocks with starbursts. First, when creating the two models of the igneous rocks, we made the first one by heating warming it up and then letting it cool from the air, and the other one was made by warming it up and cooling it in cold water. Next, the sedimentary rocks were made by pushing one together with our hands, and stepping on the other one. Lastly, the metamorphic rocks were made warmed up, and one of them we pushed together with more pressure, and the other one we applied lighter pressure. In lab we also talked about assessments we give. It was emphasized that when we give assessments, the most important thing to observe is their learning and improvement they have made from the formative assessments to the summative assessments.

What did you learn in lecture?

  -  One of the things I learned about this week in lecture is the different types of weathering. The first type is mechanical weathering. This type can be explained as the breaking down of rocks into small pieces, and this type of weathering also leads to the creation of detrital sedimentary rocks. The second type of weathering is chemical is described as the changing of the make up of a rock due to chemical reactions that occur. This type also results in the formation of a sedimentary rocks, specifically a chemical sedimentary rock. I also learned about multiple different chemical processes. Some of these are chemical solution and chemical hydration. Chemical solution is the process where the minerals that are seen in rocks dissolve into water. Chemical hydration is the process that ends in disintegration of rocks (or weathering), starting with the absorption of water into minerals from rocks that lead to their expansion.

Textbook questions:

  -  What did you learn?

        -    Something I learned in the textbook reading is about Snowball Earth. I learned that this is when the Earth is surrounded by ice, and this has happened about three time since the Earth's origin. Snowball Earth was created as a result of a positive feedback loop. This feedback loop had a cycle that went like: the formation of ice, increased albedo, and the cooling of the Earth. This process repeated itself until Earth was entirely surrounded by ice.

  -  What was most helpful?

        -     Something that I thought was helpful was seeing the different events that happened on Earth displayed on the geologic clock. It can get confusing remembering which events occurred at what point in time, but I think this diagram was very helpful in showing how far apart the events were, what era each event occurred in, how many million or billion years ago each event took place, as well as how close or far apart they were to the formation of the Earth.

  -  What do you need more information on?

        -    Something that I would like more information on is more on what the different parts of the analog clock represent, specifically what each number represent and the two colors that are shown. I feel that this would be a great resource as looking at and reading this kind of clock is something that we are familiar with and could make some connections to.

What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have?

    -     Something that I am a little confused about is the evidence of sedimentary rocks with Snowball Earth and where they were found.