Spanish Influenza

The horrible pandemic of the Spanish Influenza spread across the world between June 1918 and December 1920. The origin is unknown. Most victims were healthy young adults. Between 50-100 Millions deaths where believed to be a result of this flu. This makes it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. In one Macon cemetery 160 people are buried as a result of the Spanish Influenza.

EARTH DAY :)

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Ocmulgee Indian Mounds

The Ocmulgee Indian Mounds are preserved as a national monument. It has been said that humans have inhabited the site for 17,000 years. It is a sacred site of the Mississippian Indians. It includes a burial site and an earth lodge. The Mississippian Indians still consider it sacred land today. It makes me very sad that we took this land away from the Mississippian Indians.

Earth Lodge

Burial Mound

THE BURGESS SHALE!

The Burgess Shale contains the best record we have of Cambrian animal fossils. One of the earliest fossil beds in the world. And it is special because it is containing imprints of soft bodied animals.. If you can call those little guys animals. It is located in the Canadian Rocks of British Columbia. It is 505 years old!! And it was discovered by the great Paleontologist Charles Walcott. 


Below are some images of the fossils found! 

SCARYYYY!!!!!

Here are all the creatures playing! 

This is what the excavation site looks like! 

Mercer Lab-

5 Different Plants-

5 ANIMALS

A Bear-

A Dog









A squirrel (very hard to see) -

A Bird

A Jag-

A Fly




5 examples of Soil Erosion-

5 Different Rocks-








Opps- One tuned out to be a chicken nugget..

Water! Pastorious Park Pond

    The water I have chosen is a pond in a dog park that happens to be directly across the street from my house. The park is called Pastorious Park and its located in Philadelphia, PA. While the pond is probably not as polluted as the ponds in center city Philadelphia, the pollution in this pond is a concern to me. Sense I was little my dogs have always gone swimming in this pond. And my little brother has occasionally taken a dip in the pond. (Against my parents will)..
   My dogs drink this water and sometimes swim in it. Which then leads to them tracking it through my house. So I was concerned with what exactly they are tracking through my house. And also what is coming off on my hands when I pet them.
   When searching for test results I found a few things. The first is that the 3 pump system that is supposed to circulate the water around the pond (an attempt to keep it clean) is not the correct system for this pond. So the pumps get clogged, and little cleaning is taking place. This completely explains why the pond always looks disgusting. However, the cost for a new pumps cost was estimated 8,000-10,000 dollars.
    They are putting anti-algae enzymes into the pond. Which they clam to be working.. This may be true. But makes me concerned for what this pond would look like if they were not using these. Because the greenish brown thick mucky water does not seem like it could get any worse.
     Another problem is that when it rains the pesticides and weed killing chemicals run into the small pond. Which increases nitrogen levels and spurs the growth of more algae. As stated by Joel Hoffmann who wrote an article on the pond. And people obviously want their park to look pretty, so they are going to continue using these things that pollute the pond. So as they release anti-algae enzymes into the pond, it seems it might be getting canceled out by these pollutants..
      Officials say there is no immediate danger being caused by the pollution and algae in the lake. However, the pond is not meant to swimming or playing in. It seems like if there is no immediate solution for clearing up my little pond. While it would be nice for people that visit the park to have a more clear pond, the only solution is to expensive. I am glad I am now more educated about what is happening around me. I will no longer just thing what a gross pond,  now I know why it that way!

Here is a picture of the cute little dirty pond!

12 Soils Orders

Above is a map of the world with the 12 Soil Orders shown. All 12 can be seen on the key on the left of the map. In the state of Georgia Mollisols are the most popular.

Here are 12 Soil Orders-
Gelisols- soils with permafrost within 2 m of the surface
Histosols- organic soils
Spodosols- acid forest with a subsurface accumulation of metal-humus complexes
Andisols- soils formed in volcanic ash
Oxisols- Intensely weathered Soils of tropical and subtropical environments.
Vestisols - clayey soils with high shrink/swell capacity
Aridisols- CaCO₃-containing soils of arid environments with subsurface horizon development
Utilisols- strongly leached soils with a subsurface zone of clay accumulation and <35% base saturation
Mollisols- grassland soils with high base status
Alfisols- moderately leached soils with a subsurface zone of clay accumulation and >35% base saturation
Inceptisols- soils with weakly developed subsurface horizons
Entisols- soils with little or no morphological development

This information was found on the University of Idaho web site for the College of Agriculture and Life Science. here is the link!
http://soils.cals.uidaho.edu/soilorders/index.htm

Extremophiles Animals

Extremophiles are living organisms that survive in extreme conditions.
There are 3 tyeps of Extremophiles-
thermophile- They survive at very high temperatures.
Acidophilic- They survive in acidic conditions.
Halophiles- They survive in very high concentrations of salt.

Halobacterium is a type of Halophiles that surivie in salty lakes. Owens lake in California contains a high level of Halophiles. Below is a picture of the lake.

Soil Orders

 

One of the ways to examine soils is by looking at the soil color- one way we find the soils is the Munsell soil color chart. The picture above is a page of that.  We went around campus collecting soil.. Which I enjoyed. Then we brought them back and tried to find out what type of soil we had. Soil is different because of of the amount of sand and different minerals in them.

This is a Soil Map of Georgia. All the colors from the Munsell Chart can be clearly seem. 

This is a soil texture Dichotomous key. You can see how soils made out of different combinations of things turn out to look and feel so different. 

Pat The Tomato Plant

Week one- After a week of sunlight and water Pat has grown about an inch! 2/21/2011

This Rocks!

There are three different type of rocks- Igneous, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary.

Igneous rocks are formed when magma cools with in the earth. The way it hardens against the other rocks already formed creates the rough texture of the igneous rock.

Metamorphic rocks form when enough heat or pressure on an existing rocks is so much that it causes a chemical or physical change.

Sedimentary rocks are formed when minerals settle at the earths surface within bodies of water.

Above is an illustration of how these three rocks are formed from this web site http://www.knowledgeallocator.com/article/igneous-and-metamorphic-rocks-49.html

Geocaching

We went geocaching today around Mercer! This is what we found at each location and where each location was.
1- Metal keychain and rolled up piece of paper- Outside Willet on a bike rack
2-clear container with a white lid full of black eyed peas- On a white metal gate beside the RLC
3- red container with a log inside
4- a pill bottle with baby Tabasco sauce inside- In the shrubs between Willet and the grass area in a walkway
5- Pill bottle full of soda tabs
6-chalk inside a clear bottle- In the mulch outside Tarver in the front by the entrance
7- battery in a clear container
8- magnets and a little car inside a pill bottle- in bush beside walkway to the front of Willet.

Geocaching is a hobby where people use a gps to locate coordinates. Once they locate these coordinates there is something there like a little bottle with a piece of paper for these people to sign. This is a neat hobby because people can see places they would have never seem before thanks to others giving them the coordinates to find. When someone is interested in starting this hobby they can go to the website www.geocaching.com and find coordinates and start their search!

Geocaching can be used for environmental research. Scientist that find new places that will be important to study can write down the coordinates and easily remember exactly where they were. The scientist can also give the coordinates to others to put into their gps and others can find the location with out any trouble. It allows for easy access for places that might be hard to give directions too. In this way a gps helps scientist better learn about the environment. Because they easier they can find what they are looking for, the more they will be able to study it!

The picture below shows the trail we followed around Mercer while geocaching in pink!

http://www.geocaching.com/

Red Panda

The red panda is an adorable species that is sadly endangered. I like them because they manly eat bamboo leaves, berries, and small leaves. They only bad thing they eat is bird eggs. With this green diet I am sure they are friendly sense they are not meat eaters. They live in cool temperature bamboo forest in the Himalayas and China. They share there habitat with giant pandas. There are less than 2,500 adult red pandas in the world. They became endangered because of habitat loss.

KILAUEA

The volcano Kilauea is located in Hawaii and is the most active volcano in the world. I would love to see a volcano because they are uncontrollable. While humans are polluting and messing up the environment, there are some natural things that will never be changed or destroyed by us. The Halemaumau is the name of the fire pit that is in the southwestern edge of Kilauea. This is where you would find the lake of boiling water. The eruptions of lava flows create these lakes. It would be so cool to see something so huge and dangerous. Even though we can mess up a lot of the environment there is no way we could mess with a volcano. 

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is unlike anywhere I have ever been. I think it would be so neat to see bison, elk, bears, and other animals wondering around. It is also famous for the Old Faithful Geyser. I would be nice to visit somewhere that is so natural. The web site says be prepared to emergencies and changing weather. While that sounds a little scary, I like the idea of not being around a lot of people. It would be a great escape from our over populated cities. The picture above of the Grand Prismatic Spring. The water is different colors because as it comes out of the spring it is hot, that is seem in the deeper blue. As the water cools the color goes from green to orange. The water is colored by algae species that are temperature specific.  There is also an active super volcano called Yellowstone Caldera that is still active. Yellowstone seems to have some unbelievable wildlife and scenery that could usually not be found all together. Living in a city sometimes I forget that neat things like this still exist.


http://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm

Science for Galapagos

Everyone has heard of the Galapagos Islands. But not many have been there. The research center I would pick to travel to would be the Science for Galapagos Charles Darwin Foundation Science and Research Center. There have a few areas of study. One that I believe is important to the world outside the Galapagos is the ecological restoration. In this department of research they look at how to help plants that are going endangered. As the human pollution is growing we have to keep in mind the wildlife that we are endangering. If we do threaten a species we should know how to help it to rebuild itself and thrive! The department I would enjoy the most would be ecological monitoring. This is because they monitor the giant tortoise!

My Google Earth Map!

This is a map of my neighborhood in LaGrange, Georgia. My house is marked my house on Gordon Street. It was  just a short walk from my cousin Margaret house and my Grandmothers house. These are both labeled. It was nice to be able to walk to see either of them. The blue line is the way I walked to my Grandmothers. The red line is the way to Margarets house. There is also a green line that is a short cut from my backyard to my Grandmothers backyard. My Grandmothers backyard is outlined in pink. This is because it was my favorite play to play as a child. It was huge with a swing set, sandbox, and hug grass area. 

Isorhythmic Map: The United States Weather Patterns

Isorhythmic Maps are used a lot as weather maps. This map looks a lot like the ones on the weather channel. the top map showing the average annual temperature for the United States in the Summer. The bottom map show the average annual temperature for the winter in the States. Although people probably do not look up Isorhythmic Maps when they are planning a vacation, they should! These maps can help anyone discover where their idea vacation weather would be. 

Choropleth Map: Leading Church Bodies in the United States

Choropleth Maps are shaded in a way that shows a statistic. A common choropleth map would be per capita income. This map shows the leading church bodies in the United States in 2000. It is strange to me that the Baptist church dominates so much of the south, and the Catholic church is popular everywhere else.