woodchurch science » earth materials

tyndall centre website

woodchurchscience — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:19:25 +0000

Climate change organisation website. Good video on this about what they do. Useful for C1b 6.6 especially Triple science.
Click here for Tyndall Centre
Click here for info on John Tyndall

animated guide to earthquakes

woodchurchscience — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:26:45 +0000

bbc link, good animation, covers some stuff about tsunamis as well.

breathing earth…births/deaths/CO2

woodchurchscience — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:40:21 +0000

this site (breathingearth.net) shows how many people are being born and dying around the world and just how much CO2 is being produced. interesting and just a bit worrying…

earthquakes…right now!

woodchurchscience — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:39:00 +0000

this link shows you where earthquakes are going off right now! read more about seismology here.

nevada copper

woodchurchscience — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:44:27 +0000

here’s a link to the copper mine that was seen in the ‘rocket science’ program. the company is called nevada copper. you can download a copy of their information booklet here.

china buys peruvian mountain at bargain price

woodchurchscience — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:34:16 +0000

the chinese government has bought an entire mountain in peru and plans to ship it back to china – every last ounce. why? it’s one of the largest copper resources in the world and china is desperate for copper which it is planning to use to re-wire its entire infrastructure. this from the bbc…

The Peruvian government is happy with the $3bn (£1.53bn) that Chinalco will invest in the Toromocho mines. The Chinese will be even happier. They have got themselves a bargain. The copper Chinalco extracts from Toromocho will cost something like US$410 (£210) per ton. Today, the price for copper on the London Metal Exchange was $8,255 (£4,220) – 20 times more. Chinalco stands to make a 2,000% profit on its investment.

here’s a short video clip.

mary anning resources

woodchurchscience — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:49:02 +0000

here’s a few places you could look for resources concerning mary anning:
mary anning wikipedia page
mary anning google search
mary anning images
plesiosaur fossil images

inside mount vesuvius

woodchurchscience — Thu, 31 May 2007 22:32:22 +0000

here’s a picture from microsoft virtual earth looking directly into the cone of mount vesuvius. you can zoom in further here.

here you can see a stack of images from the last major eruption in 1944.

continental drift versus contraction

woodchurchscience — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:52:51 +0000

this downloadable pdf file takes the reader through contraction theories developed by edward suess and james dana in the 19th century, then into why these were rejected in the early 20th century; how alfred wegener put forward his theory of continental drift and its rejection by many, and finally to the development of plate tectonics. it is a story which shows that the development of scientific theories requires more than just evidence in their favour.

more plate tectonics stuff

woodchurchscience — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:53:11 +0000

this website has been designed by moorland school in clitheroe, lancashire. it provides some evidence for plate tectonics, comment on alfred wegener’s idea of continental drift, and the earlier contraction theory. excellent animations and information support the topics of sea-floor spreading, subduction, and what convergent and divergent plate boundaries are and where they occur. link here

pompeii dead

woodchurchscience — Mon, 28 May 2007 13:06:28 +0000

when the eruption of vesuvius started on the morning of 24 august, ad 79, it caught the local population utterly unprepared. at the same time, as we now know in retrospect, all the tell-tale signs were there to warn them. volcanologists of today constantly monitor any changes in levels of seismic activity from an observatory on vesuvius, because they know that the same increase of activity in the deep reservoir of magma (molten or partially molten rock beneath the earth’s surface) causes both earth tremors and volcanic eruptions. through measuring seismic activity, these scientists expect to predict an approaching eruption months in advance.

the casts that you see below were made by 20th century archaeologists of the people, frozen in their moments of death. they are a haunting reminder of what nature can do.

kryptonite found!

woodchurchscience — Fri, 18 May 2007 19:08:57 +0000

kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of science fiction feared by superman. a new mineral matching its unique chemistry has been identified in a mine in serbia. according to comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap superman’s powers whenever he is exposed to its large green crystals. however the real mineral is white and harmless. it’s not green and it doesn’t glow either!

you can read more about the discovery here and here.

mining – getting the balance right

woodchurchscience — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 20:03:39 +0000

visit the rio tinto website. what is most noticeable about their home page? what is the main story? visit their products page. they mine for many transition metals with many applications at various locations.

now visit the friends of the earth site. the friends of the earth are an environmental pressure group who are involved in various campaigns. their corporates page states that they are concerned about big business. why is this?

now revisit the rio tinto site. rio tinto refute the claims of environmentalists. their approach page says they are a ‘responsible’ company.

who do you trust? who can you trust? rio tinto or the friends of the earth?

the great pyramids at giza

woodchurchscience — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:01:46 +0000

these ancient buildings are made of limestone. why do you think the egyptians needed to build pyramids if they wanted to build high buildings?

concrete and glass buildings

woodchurchscience — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 14:56:07 +0000

see how versatile limestone can be. all of these beautiful buildings have been made from concrete and glass, both products of limestone.

interactive tour of oil installations

woodchurchscience — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:17:19 +0000

take the tours – two to choose from. also visit the infobank and learn how distillation and cracking work.

addicted to oil

woodchurchscience — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:11:36 +0000

the discovery channel charts the rise of the oil industry. here’s a (very brief) excerpt:

the united states has about 5 percent of the world’s population, but the 21 million barrels of crude oil that it consumes each day amounts to nearly a quarter of the world’s usage.
numbers, however, don’t convey the full magnitude of america’s dependence upon oil.

the black gold story

woodchurchscience — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:05:00 +0000

an accessible account of the story of crude oil. make it into a timeline.

from plankton to petrol pump

woodchurchscience — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:00:51 +0000

in this radio program howard stableford discovers how jurassic plankton ends up in our petrol tanks, why oil dominates world politics and what we might do when it starts to run out. its worth getting pupils to listen to the first 10 minutes or so of the program (including the bit about using a mars bar to illustrate the formation of sedimentary basins!), then get them to, for example, produce a timeline or cartoon strip to illustrate how plankton is converted to oil.

8h3 the rock cycle – drag and drop activity

woodchurchscience — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:24:07 +0000

here’s a drag and drop activity to try when your revising the rock cycle. it’s all against the clock so try and beat my best time of 25 seconds…

keywords/glossary for 8h the rock cycle

woodchurchscience — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:45:41 +0000

rock cycle – a cycle that describes how the three rock types change from one to another over millions of years.
sandstone – a type of sedimentary rock made up of grains of sand cemented together.
sedimentary rocks – a type of rock made up from layers of sediment that have built up over millions of years and become cemented together.
volcano - mountain or hill from which lava erupts out of the Earth’s crust.
limestone – a type of sedimentary rock formed from the shells and bones of sea creatures, which contains calcium carbonate.
magma – molten rock found deep below the surface of the Earth.
metamorphic rock – rock formed when sedimentary or igneous rocks are changed by intense heat and/or pressure.
lava – molten rock from deep below the surface of the Earth that reaches the surface through cracks or volcanoes.
marble – a type of metamorphic rock that is produced whenlimestone is heated under high pressure.
igneous rock – rock that is formed from molten lava or magma that has cooled and solidified.
basalt – a type of igneous rock with small crystals.
shale – a type of sedimentary rock made up of very fine grains.
granite – a type of igneous rock with big crystals.
cementation – in the gaps between compacted grains in sedimentary layers, chemicals in the water crystallise and ‘glue’ the grains together
slate – a type of metamorphic rock that has a layered structure.
intrusive – igneous rock with large crystals, formed when magma cools slowly underground, such as granite.
compaction – grains in sedimentary layers pressed tightly together by the enormous weight of layers of sediment deposited later.
extrusive – igneous rock with small crystals, formed when lava cools quickly on the surface of the earth, such as basalt.
crystalline – a substance that contains crystals is crystalline.
density – how heavy a material is for its size (density = mass/volume).

imagine the earth with no water

woodchurchscience — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 16:09:13 +0000

click on these images to view the earth from a new perspective
picture 3 shows what the planet would look like with no water – weird!

earthquake in java

woodchurchscience — Sat, 27 May 2006 18:49:24 +0000

with the sad news that another earthquake has left thousands dead and hundreds homeless here’s an animated guide to how these earthquakes cause such devastation. there’s also a printable version here

mr rogers’ earth materials project resources

woodchurchscience — Thu, 25 May 2006 12:12:38 +0000

all the links are available in this document

wegener and continental drift resources

woodchurchscience — Thu, 25 May 2006 12:11:30 +0000

wegener and continental drift, convection currents, plate boundaries, seafloor spreading,magnetic reversal patterns 1, magnetic reversal patterns 2

animation resources for 8g (and y10)

woodchurchscience — Sun, 21 May 2006 18:57:40 +0000

physical weathering, chemical weathering, fossil formation, sandstone formation, sediments, examining rocksfrom differing viewpoints, many other earth science animations: well worth a visit

mount merapi – ready to erupt?

woodchurchscience — Sun, 14 May 2006 18:49:19 +0000

the active volcano merapi in java indonesia has been spewing streams of lava steadily over the last few weeks. here’s a couple of links to interesting sites; this first one is from the global disaster alert and coordination system (loads of useful and interesting stuff – maps, data, alert levels and satellite images); the second is from nasa and gives more images and up-to-date imagery from orbiting satellites.

crude oil formation animations

woodchurchscience — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 19:07:50 +0000

clip 1 dead animals fall to seabed, clip 2 plant/animal matter turns to rock, then oil, clip 3 oil rises through permeable rock, clip 4 drilling for oil

making fossils

woodchurchscience — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 08:40:50 +0000

mr sanders made plaster of paris fossil models with 10e, 10n and 10o. the presence and nature of fossilised plants and animals can be used to give an approximate age of sedimentary rock formations.

just waiting – mount vesuvius

woodchurchscience — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 20:18:50 +0000

click here for mount vesuvius webcams – one day soon it might just blow. last major eruption was in 1944. this page gives a list of dates of major eruptions.