Minerals

On-line Mineral Resources:

• Regents Prep Mineral & Rock Review
• Mineral Information Insstitute guide to all minerals
  

Earthquake resources

Great new animations and video lesson on earthquake faulting.

How Do I Locate That Earthquake's Epicenter?

• UPSeis
• eHow
• sciencebuddies.org
• USGS 1906 earthquake
• Virtual Earthquake
• Maryland Virtual High School Earthquake Simulation
  

USGS Earthquake Preparedness Handbook

Homework: Index Fossils

This assignment will help you become familiar with one of the 26 fossils listed on the bottom of the "centerfold" of the Regents reference tables.

(IMPORTANT: if you have misplaced your copy of the reference tables, you need to print out a new copy from the NY State Regents website)

Your Assignment: Choose one of the fossils from the bottom of pages 8-9 of the reference table booklet and provide it's history, when it lived and when it died.

Submit your answer on this blog as a comment to this post that includes your name and class (or no credit will be given) by clicking on the comment link below.

Directions - For the fossil you have chosen:

1. Describe the fossil - what is its complete genus and species and what does its name mean? (click on the link for definitions)
2. Where in the world has this fossil been found?
3. What kind of environment did it live in?
4. In which Geologic Period(s) did it live?
5. How many years ago did this fossil first appear?
6. How many years ago did this fossil disappear from the fossil record (go extinct)?

Take a peek at the website (blog) entry for Eurypterus remipes for an example of what your assignment should look like - the second paragraph contains all the information you would need to provide.

Your response MUST also include a link to the source of your information (wikipedia is not an acceptable source) if you found it on-line or the printed source (book, magazine,etc), cited in the format you learned in Mr. Brown's class.

This assignment is due by 9:00 am, Eastern Standard Time on Friday, November 13th.
You have more than a week to complete this assignment. No late posts will be accepted.

Eurypterus remipes

Eurypterus remipes is the New York State Fossil

According to the New York State Library website, "Eurypterus Remipes, an extinct relative of the modern king crab and sea scorpion, was adopted as the State fossil in 1984. During the Silurian Period (over 400 million years ago), Eurypterus Remipes crawled along the bottom of the shallow, brackish sea that covered much of New York, extending from Buffalo to Schenectady and south to Poughkeepsie, roughly along the route of the New York Thruway."

Eurypterus (the name means "broad wings") fossils have been determined to have first appeared approximately 450 million years ago (the Late Ordovician period) and went extinct about 260 million years ago, just before the Permian extinction (in which 90% of life on Earth went extinct). Eurypterus remipes lived mostly in shallow water, and may have been on e of the first creatures to crawl up onto land. Eurypterus fossils have been found all over the world.

• Prehistoric Pittsford (NY): How did Eurypterus get it's name?
• Find more information at www.eurypterid.net
  

Orogeny - Aint no mountain high enough...

Several colleges offer excellent resources for understanding Plate Tecctonics, subduction and how mountains are formed (Orogeny):

• An excellent page with descriptions of Orogeny and Plate tectonics can be found here
• Here's a page with links to animations of the mountain-building processes
• An Illustration of Tectonic Cycles and Mountain Building
  
• A diagram showing the Alleghenian Orogeny
  

Continental Drift Lab - Wegener's Plate Tectonics

If you need a fresh copy of the Wegener's Plate Tectonics lab (lab #4) you can find it here at Discovery Education

To finish the lab, you'll need a map of Antarctica that inlcudes all the fossil locations mentioned:

• Prince Harald Coast
• Oates Coast
• Wilhelm II Coast (Kaiser Wilhelm Land)

Other maps that might be helpful can be found here, here and here.

Homework: Geocentric vs. Heliocentric

Our view of the Solar System (and the universe) has changed over time.

This assignment will help you understand how identical observations can lead to different inferences.

Your assignment includes brief answers to each of the following:

1. What is the difference between the Geocentric and Heliocentric models of our solar system?
   
2. How were the observed orbits of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) explained in the Geocentric model?
3. How were the observed orbits of the planets explained in the Heliocentric model?
4. Explain one of the following terms and how it is related to this assignment:
   Celestial Sphere, Elliptical orbit, parallax, Almagest, Aristotle's Ether, equant, epicycles, Occam's razor, superior planets, inferior planets, transit, clockwork universe, cosmology
   

You will submit your answer on this blog as a comment to this post that includes your name (or no credit will be given) by clicking on the comment link below.

Your response MUST also include a link to the source of your information (wikipedia is not an acceptable source) if you found it on-line or the printed source (book, magazine,etc), cited in the format you learned in Mr. Brown's class.

This assignment is due by 9:00 am, Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, November 4th.