Earth

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The earth is the third planet from the sun and the fifth largest planet in the solar system. The earth is also one of the four terrestrial planets, the earth is sometimes referred to as the world, the blue planet, Terra (the Latin word for earth) earth is also the densest in the solar system. The earth has Millions of species and supposedly has tectonic plates. One theory is that the tectonic plates float around like boats and when the collide it causes an earthquake. There are different kinds of movement: Convergent boundaries, that is when the plates smash into each other, Divergent boundaries when the plates are pulled away from each other, and Transform boundaries, when the plates scare alongside each other. The oldest rock ever dated is 4,030 million years old. The oldest oceanic rock ever found was 200 million years old. Most of the ocean floor is 100 million years old. The slowest moving is the Eurasian Plate. It moves at about 21 mm a year. Most move at the same speed as your fingernail grows. The fastest moving plate, is the pacific plate moving at 59-69 mm a year. But in the  Francisco earthquake the scientist are compelled to think that the Francisco was not in the direct path of the vibrations. Instead they think that the vibrations started approx. 120 miles away from Fransisco, and traveled at an angle and hit the outer core of the earth and went in a direct line under Fransisco. the core is said to have a layer, and when the pressure becomes intense it can give way causing it to bulge up and forming a mountain. When the ash/magma begins to push on the top of the mountain it makes it erupt. In the mount saint Helen incident, it was mostly ash and not magma,  The main threat at that time was the “pyroclastic flows”  These flows can be 50 feet high and usually go faster than 70 miles an hour and can wipe out anything in their way, because they have the consistency of wet cement, If they hit anything it crushes it. These flows are created by debris but mostly melted water from the mountain which combines with all the dirt resulting in these flows. Scientists think that is an asteroid any larger than 20+ miles could destroy all life on the planet in approximately 4 months. If it landed in the ocean it would cause tidal waves bigger than any in history. If Yellow Stone state park or any other super volcano erupted it would send ash into the upper atmosphere blocking out the sun and steadily freezing the planet (which supposedly already happened). It would also make glaciers come down from the upper part of the earth (Alaska, Russia, Canada…). These giant glaciers would cover approximately 50% of the earths surface (as they supposedly did in the last ice age). This would of course devastate the rest of the earth horribly and would eventually destroy it. They also believe that giant tornado’s called “hypercanes” could cause severe global damage. The scientists are mildly sure that there have been prehistoric hypercanes thousands of years ago. There is one little snag, it is very difficult to raise a hypercane in the modern oceans. The temperature of the water is hundreds of degrees short of the required water temperature to make a hypercane. The water would have to be approximately 200°f. because the water would have to evaporate quickly enough for the winds to catch it at the right angle to swirl it into a vortex creating a hypercane. They could move a long distance inland and go 80 miles an hour, they have even been blamed for killing the dinosaurs. They were (according to models) roughly 50 miles wide and would draw everything within 20 miles to be crushed.