Should The Movie Title Change?

On May 29, 2015, the movie "San Andreas: The Big One" starring Dwayne Johnson (also known as The Rock) was released to movie theaters. The basic plot for this movie is that the fault will bring chaotic destruction to most of California with earthquakes passing the magnitude of 9.5 which is the largest earthquake in history. Essentially, this movie is about a father trying to rescue his wife who is in L.A. and his daughter who is in San Francisco via an helicopter.

Cover page for the new movie "San Andreas" which is in movie theaters on May 29, 2015. 

The San Andreas Fault is the fault that runs along most of California covering about 800 miles, which has been dormant for more than 150 years on January 9 1859 with a 7.9 magnitude. This fault is supposed to be the "Big One" for L.A., when it does cause an earthquake which is positive it will anytime soon but what is sure is that it will be a mega-quake.

This is a detailed illustration of the San Andreas Fault which runs along most of California.

The Puente Hills Fault is a smaller fault that runs right through the middle of Los Angeles. The fault line runs down the downtown part of the city which includes all the tall business buildings. If this earthquake were to happen it would potentially bring down the majority of the buildings in the Downtown area. Which would be chaotic for Los Angeles.

In my opinion, the movie title should not be changed to Puente Hills fault because the majority of the chaos in the movie takes place in San Francisco which has nothing to do with the Puente Hills fault.

Sea Level Rise

Many people assume that the sea level rise is low but in reality due to global warming a lot of land based glaciers are melting causeing the sea level to rise. Sea level rise hasn't had much of an increase since year until 1990, the level rise went from about 0 to 0.1. Carbon Dioxide is the main source of green house gas causing global warming making the Earth warmer as time passes.

This is a picture of the estimated amount of sea level rise in San Diego, this would take hundreds of years.
LINK

The ocean is not flat, although maps do make it seem that way but glaciers prevent oceans from being completely flat, the ocean stays in motion through gravity, wind, tides, and obviously glaciers. Scientists ahem different methods to measure specific things. For instance to measure the sea level rise they use satellite altimetry to accurately measure sea levels. 

This is a picture of land based ice glaciers melting increasing sea levels. LINK

 

In this this graph You can see the comparison between San Diego and Hawaii in the sea levels. This comparison goes from 1992-2006, for both locations. San Diego doesn't have much of an increase like Hawaii, makes sense because Hawaii is an island and San Diego isn't.

Ocean Acidification

Ocean acidification is the reduction of pH In the ocean. The amount of greenhouses is causing the oceans to acidify. The amount of CO2 in the ocean has greatly increased. Oceans has increased in CO2 in the atmosphere. The differences of CO2 and H2O as greenhouse gases is that CO2 can release more heat than H2O. The oceans chemistry decrease in pH it equals acidification.

This illustration shows the process of ocean acidification successfully.
LINK

Some examples of acid are battery acid, sodas, oranges juice, milk and urine. Some examples of bases are baking soda, bleach, and drain cleaner. Chemistry affects biology by shelled organisms are affected by (Snails, Clams, Mussel, Crabs).

This table shows the different levels of pH and examples for each level.
LINK

 

Human Footprint, Carbon, and Substance

A couple green areas in North America are Canada, Seattle, and San Fransisco. The country Canada consists of 10 provinces and territories, it is also known for being the second largest country. The city of Vancouver is the eighth largest Canadian municipality. In 2011 Vancouver recorded 603,502 people in the city. Seattle is the most populated city of the State of Washington, it is where the famous Space Needle is located. There are about 625,405 residents as of 2013.
 

This photograph clearly depicts the green component Canada adds to the planet.
(LINK)

       The black areas are Los Angeles, San Diego, and Chicago. L.A, which is short for Los Angles, is the second-largest city in the U.S with a population of 3,772,621. San Diego is the eight-largest city in the United States with the population of 1,355,896. San Diego is known for its mild weather; it has on average 146 sunny days and 117 partly cloudy days a year. Chicago is the third most  populous city in the U.S. with 2.7 million residents. In 2012, Chicago hosted 46.37 million international and domestic visitors. All of these areas use a lot of energy with lights, due to the amazing view with all the beautiful buildings at the center of the cities.
 

This is a photograph of San Diego, my hometown,  showing off the beautiful view of the ocean and tall buildings at the center of the city.
(LINK)

 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2eTGs5vnoRSZmhJa1JUR1llcDQ/view?usp=sharingThis is a map of Nothern America pointing out the places with high and low impact on the Human Footprint.

Carbon and Me

The carbon cycle is the process carbon is used and re-used throughout ecosystem of the Earth. Two forms in which carbon enters the carbon cycle is through diffusion and human elements. Diffusion is the process in which carbon enters land, ocean, and atmosphere. Human elements is the second process where carbon enters the atmosphere through us when fossil fuels are burned. 

This is an illustrated demonstration of the Carbon Cycle, showing us all the different forms carbon enters the planet. (LINK)

       In the modern world, carbon is the greenhouse gas which remains in the atmosphere the most. Due to the increasing amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere the planet to become warmer. The majority of the CO2 being released into the atmosphere is human made, making us the primary reason fro global warming. Humans release about 7 billion tons of carbon each year, which is an insane amount of carbon. 

 

        Wood converts to coal. Slimy plants converts to oil. Both wood and slimy plants make Natural gases. Carbon enters the atmosphere when human burn fossil fuel. In 1850, carbon in the air has increased 36%.

Letter to KHS Students

Dear Kearny High School Students,

Due to the insufficient water supply, regulations will be established to make sure Californians aren't excessively wasting water and adding onto the drought. Each local water department will be responsible for enforcing these regulations, that if disobeyed the offender will be fined up to $500.

Water restrictions are now put in effect in California.
http://www.twpofwashington.us/home/180006394/180006394/water_restrictions_logo.jpg

These new regulations are being used to keep Californians from over using water unnecessarily. A restriction being added is that you cannot wash your car at home, you have to wash at a car wash. Another restruction is not being able to wash your drive way or sidewalk using a hose.


 

Plastics, Greenhouse Gases and Sustainability

Plastics and mankind made greenhouse gases have an extremely negative affect towards Earth. The effect is negative because the plastic being used ends up in the ocean and the abnormal amount of greenhouse gases cause climate change all over the planet.

In the ocean, there is about 10% of plastics scattered in the water furthering pollution. However, these plastics photo degrade into smaller almost non-existent pieces which are later eaten by sea creatures like fish. By eating these pieces of plastics they are poisoning themselves, and some of those poisoned fish are the ones that are being eaten by us. 

Greenhouse gases made by humans cause climate change in negative ways. All the additional greenhouse gases from cars and factories in the atmosphere are causing the extreme heat and the polar vertexes which extreme cold weather (9 feet of snow in NYC) in the east, 

Man made greenhouse gases and plastics are indeed problems of sustainability. They are destroying the environment which means they are destroying our life. Essentially, sustainability means to preserve for the future generations and when plastics are released into the ocean and man made greenhouse gases are released into the air, we are destroying the environment and cutting down the amount of resources for future generations. 

This is a simple illustration explaining the Greenhouse Gases effect on Earth which is climate change.
http://icons.wxug.com/metgraphics/climate/sunearthdiagram.jpg

This is a photo of photo degraded plastics showing how most of the plastics in the ocean are barley visible which means its easier for fish or other sea animals to accidentally ingest them poisoning themselves.
http://www.worldoceansday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ocean-plastic.jpg

 

San Diego, California & H2O

This is a photo of a California resovoir 

San Diego has 146 sunny days in a year. Every year San Diego consumes a huge amount of water due to increased population and hot weather. Most of the water used comes from far away places, 63% comes from the Colorado River, 20% comes from the state water project, and 17% comes from local sources.

San Diego County plans to meet the demands in the future by re-using water and conserve it more. 

This is a photo of the recycle symbol

The main reasons for the increase demands and lower supply is because of higher population, record heat, and reduction of existing water sources.

The graph is trying to tell us that over time as population keeps growing the water supply for San Diegans is decreasing. This shows we need to find new ways of conserving our water. An option for drinking water is to go through the process of desalination which essentially is extracting the salt from sea water. An option for non-drinking water is using recycled water, this water can be used for filling lakes, ponds, ornamental fountains, school athletic fields, golf courses, etc. 

5 new ways of conserving San Diego's water is through grass replacement, laundry, toilets, rain barrels, and landscape replacement. Grass replacement can reduce the water usage because turf doesn't need to be watered. Turf may be expensive but it's assured that it's a long term investment. High-Efficiency Washers use 30% less energy and 55% less water, you also get a rebate of $85. In a house, 30% of the water consumption comes from toilets. Recent advancements can allow you to use 1.28 gallons rather than 3 gallons using the new High-Efficiency Toilets. When you buy these HET toilets you can get a rebate of $100 per toilet. Rain barrels collect rain water through barrels that can be reused for non-drinking necessities. When you resort to rain barrels you can get a $75 rebate. The last form of conserving water is by landscape replacement which is essentially replacing things in the lawn like grass with turf, watering grass at night to avoid the water being absorbed by the sun during the day, using plants that don't need daily watering like cactus plants for instance, and not to use too much water when watering plants because that could lead to drowning and killing the plant and you also wasted water that could have been used for something else.

Extinction of the Dinosaurs

               In the New York Times article, "The Death of the Dinosaurs" was written by Peter Brannen published on January 31, 2015, Brannen argues that mass extinction caused by climate change and volcanoes is a better explanation to how things happened rather than saying it was caused by a "colossal fireball from heaven."
The Death of the Dinosaurs Article


               Dr. Gerta Keller, a geologist from Princeton University, developed a hypothesis that explains the mass extinction of dinosaurs among other animals from that era. Essentially, Dr.Keller's hypothesis conveys the idea that mass extinction was caused by the change of climate and volcanic eruptions. She has found evidence in Texas and Tunisa to support her hypothesis.


               The Alvarez's are made up of two men, Luis and Walter Alvarez who are a team of father and son scientists. The Alvarez hypothesis says that mass extinction was caused by a massive fireball that was sent from "heaven."


               Mass extinction is when deadly force of nature kills one or more species, the earth has endured 5 of these. This makes me feel nervous because the sixth mass extinction could be coming up in the next hundreds of thousands of years which I supposed would be terrifying seeing the world on fire and just be torn apart ending all life on earth.


                Dr. Keller found evidence inside rocks from Texas and Tunisa, "that indicate the warming episodes of at least 7 degrees Fahrenheit in under 10,000 years, with acidifying oceans that killed all but the hardest life-forms, which then thrived for millenniums." She also discovered evidence that the India lava flooding overlaps the dinosaur extinction.


               In my opinion, the hypothesis that is the best is the one Dr. Keller came up with. I believe this because there's a lot more solid evidence supporting it and it makes more sense.