My 3 Favorite Peer Projects (#2)

My 3 favorite peer projects

One of my favorite projects that my peers presented was the "Spellbinding Weather Rarities" which was all about strange weather formations and how they come to be. In the presentation we saw beautiful weather sites diamond dust and learn the trick to its construction. That being a warm front pushing in humidity into a cold clear area which then forms ice crystals.I got to learn more about the awesome site of the Catatumbo in Venezuela. I love this awesome place because of how cool it looks whit all of the lighting crashing down and was so happy to see it in the project. I learned that the reason so much lightning strikes down there is because of the multiple number of warm fronts coming in and mixing with the methane gasses from the swamp and river.

Another one of my favorite projects is "Tornado Alley" which is an area within the United States that is particularly tornado prone. The area is located anywhere between the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico. I learned about how the formation of the tornadoes is similar to the physic properties that allow a an ice skater to spin around. They are generally created with the occurrence of three different elements, those elements being warm air, moist air, and instability in the atmosphere.

And finally the last peer presentation that I found to be my favorite was the “Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon” presentation. In this presentation I learned about the long skinny pillar rock formation called Hoodoos that are located in Utah. I also learned that the rock formation are made out of limestone forms from frost wedging weathering. The hoodoos area in Wyoming has over 300 freeze/thaw cycle that caused the giant 5-150 feet tall hoodoos to form.

Canyon Lake Gorge

Canyon Lake Gorge

I was on the field trip that visited the Canyon lake Gorge. The Canyon Lake Gorge is a small exposure of that was carved out in the limestone located in Cormal county, Texas. It is a product from the canyon lake and reservoir located on Guadalupe river. The gorge was formed during a flood in 2002 where the massive flood waters flowed on over the emergency spillway and flooded the whole area. As a result from this it developed unique exposure that shows layers of rock millions of years old. So thanks to this exposure I was able to see a lot fossils that have been exposed from beneath the layers of limestone. I saw lots of tiny fossilized shells from the animals that lived there long ago. And these shells were most likely there because of how water used to be able to cut vertically through North america from Canada down into what is now the gulf of mexico. This became evident as how the tour guides had showed and explained some topographic maps from long ago. We got to see some dinosaur prints that had been fossilized as it stepped in the sand that was once there. And finally saw a lot of nice waterfalls that came from the Canyon lake as the water passed thought the holes in the limestone and actually came falling out the other side. Overall it was very cool experience and it was my first time going out to see fossils where they were found and not in glass boxes.

Stone Forest

Stone Forest

Our project is about the beautiful site that is popularly known as the “Stone Forest”. The site is located in China within Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. The sites history in china dates way back being known since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) as one of the 'First Wonder of the World.' The site is giant sets of limestone formations that peak upwards out of the ground and into the sky. Many of the towering stone are described as looking like giant petrified trees and therefore give the illusion of being a forest made out of stone. The site also has lots cultural significance to people living there. According to some popular folklore, the forest is the birthplace of a girl named Ashima. Who after falling in love was forbidden to marry her chosen suitor. And then instead was turned into a stone within the forest. The site is celebrated every year during the torch festival. The stone forest provides a very distinct environment in which very peculiar

wild life can exist. The site is known for it white Lemurs who live within the forest climbing up the giant stone pieces. The whole forest covers an area of over 300 square kilometers. It is said to have been formed by a sudden uplift of the crust that then had undergone multiple phases of corrosion by both groundwater and surface water flowing through the cracks in the rock.

Favorite 3 Peer Projects

One of my favorite projects that my peers presented was “ Titanoboa: The Amazonian Monster.” I had no idea that a species such as the titanoboa actually existed and it was great to learn about it. The Titanoboa was a prehistoric snake and the largest to have ever roamed the earth.  It stretched over 49 feet long and would weigh slightly over a ton. Its living relative today, the boa constrictor, isn't anywhere near the titanoboa size. The snake lived during the geologic epoch of paleocene and its remains were discovered by group of workers who stumbled upon it as they were mining for coal.

Another one of my favorite projects is "The Cotton Castle" which is an astonishing natural rock formation. I learned over how the site is a sedimentary rock formation and is made of limestone. That the water that flows down from the springs contains hydro carbonate and calcium. I also learned that the water from the spring cools as tectonic movement expose it to carbon dioxide. I also learned that the sites, also known as a travertine, lead to the release of carbon dioxide and monoxide which later results in the precipitation of calcium carbonate. Lastly if i would like to visit this mysterious and natural site i would either have to go to Turkey or Italy.

And finally the last peer presentation that I found to be my favorite was the “Megalodon” presentation. The megalodon was the largest species of shark to have ever lived. It was named after their teeth which would translate into ragged tooth. It went extinct around 1.5 million years ago. It would eat whales, carrion, dolphins , and giant sea turtles. It is not known exactly why they went extinct but a theory is that they were forced by extensive competition.

Tiger Fossil

Our project is basically over the fossils of tigers (some prehistoric cats and cat like mammals).  Within the project we wrote over import information relating to the fossil such as the age of the some of fossils signaling the tigers very first appearances. The project also holds some facts such as how a common misconception is that Sabretooth's were actual tigers. They are in fact their own their species of prehistoric cat called Smilodon Fatalis which went into extinction around 10,000 years ago. We stated how with the fossils and remains migration of the tiger is seen as it spread through the different continents over time. And with this as their environment would change many cat-like species, including tigers, were forced to adapt. The differences in the bone structures of the tiger have not changed much since the beginning of the prehistoric cat.  Some only small changes occurred in the Tigers have lost their big teeth during their evolution into now being much smaller.The size of the tigers back then were actually a lot smaller than what they are now. As time progressed migration occurred they grew in size as opposed to how their prehistoric counterparts were. They are now reaching up to 13 feet (4 meters) in length, including its tail, and weighing up to 660 pounds (300 kilograms).