Time Zones

Hello, today I am going to write about time zones:

-YEAR: is a revolution around the sun. It takes 365 days and a half. Every 4 years there is one day more. It´s measured with calendar.
-DAY: is a rotation on it´s axis. It takes 24 hours and its divided into two 12 hours period. It´s measured with calendar too.
-A.M.: Ante meridiam (before the meridian).
-P.M.: Post meridiam (after the meridian)
-G.M.T.: Greenwich Mean Time
-U.T.: Universal Time.

Now I am going to answer some questions that my teacher have asked me:
 - How many Time Zones divide the earth?
   The Earth has 24 Time Zones. 
  -What is the distance (in degrees) between Time Zones?
 The distance between one Time Zone to the next is 15 seconds longitude.
 -What is the name of the city where  we can find the Prime Meridiam? What is its longitude?
Greenwich, England and it is at 0º longitude.

 The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, that runs from the north to the south pole. If you want to cross the IDL from east to west it will take you 1 day (24 hours) and you wont be in the same day you will be one day after.
Here are some images of this unit:

 

This is a map showing Earth Time Zones.

This is a image showing the                                 This is the                              .    Prime Meridian.                                      International Date Line.

Prehistoric Art

Hello, I was a long time without writting, but I am here again. We have finished a unit about geography, and now we have just started History, we have learned about the different stages of human beings and now we are going to learn about Prehistoric Art. Lets start:

Prehistoric Art.
a) Art started with the appearence and dispersion of Homo Sapiens from Africa, Europe, Asia, America and Oceania.
Archeologysts have find four types of Prehistoric art:
· Cupules, rocks carvings and engravings.
· Pictorial imagery, ideomorphs, ideograms or        symbols.
· Cave paintings and drawings.
· Small totemic statuettes known as Venus Figurines,  various forms of zoomorphic, therianthrophic carving   and relief sculptures.
And megalithic art, consisting of the arrengement of  rocks. 

Like we do, prehistoric people represented their belifs and world trough paintings.   
Paintings in the Lascaux Cave were made by brushes made from animal fur. 
Paleolithic artists used five colours: yellow, red, black, white and brown. White is more strange, but it has been seen. 

The cave art of all the prehistoric groups  consisted of five main motif:
  · Human figures, animals, tools and weapons, local maps and   symbols.

 Vase decoration is a typically Neolithic art form. They were decorated with rolled shells and geometrical motifs. 

 b)  

c) 

Lascaux Cave Paintings. 
The Lascaux Cave was discovered by a group of teenagers in September 1940. The cave is in the southwest of France in the village of Montignac. 
It was closed because of enviromental problems and in 1983 the exact replica "Lascaux II" was build a few hundred metres from the original caves. Other wall made art is reproduced in the Centre of Prehistoric Art, located at Le Thot, France. 
Altamira Cave Paintings.
It is located in the North of Spain, near Cantabria. Altamira is famous because of it's vivid rock paintings, featuring drawings and multicoloured cave paintings. 

Seine

Hello!! It's been a long time since I wrote in this blog, but I've returned!!! Well, lets start:
I am going to talk about a river, the river Seine:
 The River Seine is about 445 km long and it is 24m above sea level. It's depth is 8m when flowing through Paris, and it´s flow is very slow therefore it is easily navigable. It is the second longest river in France after the river Loire with a length of 776km. The mouth of the river is located on the English Channel. It is, perhaps,  the best known river in France. 
The river starts just outside Dijon and flows to the North west through Troyes. It continues its journey to Paris, the capital of France. Then goes to Fontainbleau. Before reaching the English Channel, it goes through Rouen.  
Ile Saint Louis is surrounded by the river Seine. This small island is like an oasis in the middle of Paris. Ille Saint Louis is one of the most visited places of Paris, in this island is the famous Cathedral, Notre Dame.  
The name "Seine" comes from the Latin Sequana. Sequana was the goddess of the river Seine. She was represented like a large bronze statue of a woman, draped in a long gown and with a diadem on her head, she stands in a boat shaped like the head of a duck. The statue is now in the Musée archéologique de Dijon.

 

  

The Dream

Jenny was a 12 years old girl, she was always dreaming. Her two brothers Dani and Gonzalo were always laughing at her, they were always saying that her ideas were silly and stupid. But one day, all was going to change. Here her story starts:

On the 10th of July when she was celebrating her birthday, she blew out the 12 candles and she made a wish. Her wish was for all of  her dreams to come true. That was her mistake.
That night she had a nightmare and that nighmare came true.
The next day, it was dark when she woke up and she was confused,  she went downstairs to ask what was happening but nobody was there. She ran to see if the cars were there, and they were! She didn't know what was happening, neither her parents or brothers were there, it was very strange. 
Two hours later a big storm was coming and Jenny was alone, she tried to phone everybody she knew but no one picked up the phone. She was scared. Suddenly, strange sounds started and she went to see where they were coming from. Then she went out and she saw big ice pieces falling down from the sky. She tried to dodge them. She ran under a bench but it broke. She ran with all the energy she had to the canopy but, there wasn't one!! so she ran home.While she was running a big hail stone hit her on the head.

 The next thing she knew she was  in bed, sweating and unharmed. Jenny ran down stair and all was normal: mum making pancakes, dad drinking coffee and reading the newspaper and her two brothers devouring the hot pancakes and playing with "Mrs. Muffin" their dog.
Luckly it was only a bad dream, but imagine if it came true!! 
Poor us.

Climate and living things

Hello, today we have started a new unit. It is called climate and living things. Here we go:

First, I will write the definition of atmosphere and describe the definition of it's layers and their most important characteristics:
·Atmosphere: is the layer of gases that surrounds the Earth and makes life possible on the planet.
 ·Troposphere: It is the closest layer to the Earth, less than 10 km high. It is essential for life in Earth. It is composed of  air and water vapour and it's where snow, rain, etc. occur
·Stratosphere: 10-50 km altitude. Temperatures starts to rise from 20 km upwards due to ozone, a gas that stops harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.
·Mesosphere: 50-80 km altitude. Temperatures drop quickly, falling as low as -90ºC.
·Thermosphere: 80-500 km altitude. Temperatures can reach over 1000ºC.   
·Exosphere: outer limit of the atmosphere, wich begins at an altitude of 500 km. 

Now I will explain the main differences between weather and climate and describe what is climatology.

 ·Weather: It is a result of atmospheric conditions at a certain place and time.
·Climate: It is the result of average atmospheric conditions in a certain region over a long period of time.

·Climatology: It is the science of climate, the study of the climatic elements and the factors that affect it.
 
The elements of climate:
·Temperature: It is the amount of heat in the air. We measure it with a termometer and express it in degrees centigrade (ºC).

·Precipitation: It is water from the atmosphere that falls onto the Earth's surface in the form of snow, rain, hail and sleet.

·Atmospheric pressure: It is the pressure that the atmosphere's weight exerts on the Earth's surface.

·Wind: It is air that moves from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. 

Ok, now I will writte about the different Earth's climates. 

Tropical or hot climate

·Equatorial climate: Temperatures are high throughout the year. the mean annual temperature is over 25ºC. Precipitations are abundant all over the year, over 1500 mm annually. There is no dry season.

 ·Humid tropical climate: Temperatures are high throughout the year. The mean annual temperature is over 20ºC. Precipitations are abundant, although less than 1500 mm annually. There are two seasons, the dry one in winter and the wet season in summer. A variation of the humid tropical climate is the monsoon climate wich has torrential rainfall from June to September.

·Dry tropical climate: Temperatures are mild in winter and hot in summer. The annual mean temperature is over 18ºC. Precipitations are scarce, although more than 250 mm annually. 

·Hot desert climate: Temperatures are high. The mean annual temperature is over 20ºC. There is a pronounced difference between day and night temperatures. Precipitations are very rare at any time of the year,  less than 250 mm annually.

Cold climates 

·Polar climate: Temperatures are very low, not exceeding 0ºC except in some places in summer. Precipitation is very rare, less than 250 mm annually, usually snow.
·Alpine climate: Temperatures fall with altitude. Winters are cold and summers cool. Precipitation increases with altitude.
Temperate climates
·Mediterranean climate: Temperatures are mild in winter and hot in summer. 

Katrina

Hello, today friday I will talk about the hurricane Katrina and the tropical storm Katrina, too.
Hurricane Katrina was formed over the Bahamas on august 23 of 2005 and crossed southern Florida as a category one hurricane causing some deaths, but in the Gulf of Mexico it reachec a category five.

The most significant number of deaths occured in New Orleans and Louisiana, in wich the catastrophical system failed. 80 % of the city became flooded. However the worst damages occured in coastal areas, such as all Mississippi, wich werw flooded over 90%. Water reached 10-19 kilometers from the beach.

The name Katrina has been used for three tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean, three tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and one tropical cyclone in the South Pacific. The name was retired in the North Atlantic after the 2005 season for its devastating damage, and was replaced by Katia for the 2011 season.

·Hurricane Katrina- Struck Cuba in November 1981.
·Tropical Storm Katrina-struck near the same area as Hurricane Mitch a year earlier, but caused little impact in Central America. (western caribbean sea).
·Hurricane Katrina- Formed over the Bahamas,Miami, Florida, then struck near Buras, Louisiana and Long Beach, Mississippi. It caused over 81 billion dollars in damage and over 1,800 deaths, becoming the costliest and one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
·Hurricane Katrina- Struck Baja California in 1967.
·Tropical Storm Katerina- Affected Baja California and hit Mexico in 1971.
·Hurricane Katrina- Did not affect land in 1975.

I can talk also about 2004's Cyclone Catarina, a south Atlantic cyclon, and don't confuse it with Katrina.

The name Katrina was first used in 1981 when they changed the names of the hurricanesand was retired because of the catastrophic damage in Louisiana in 2005. It was replaced by Katia. 

What is a Hurricane? And a Cyclone?
 A hurricane is a storm with violent wind and it forms a twister wich spins in bigs circles. It usually starts in tropical zones and each time it gets bigger.
A cyclons are winds that usually go with storms and it refers to the areas of the planet were the pressure is lower. And it's important for creating winds and atmospheric drafts.

Relief

Hello, today I am going to talk about the second unit: RELIEF. I don´t know if it´s interesting or not, but I hope it will. Let´s start.

Now I will write the next definitions about the following concepts:

·Crust: The crust is the surface layer. It´s thin, solid layer made of rock.
·Mantle: This layer is the intermediate layer is almost 85% of the Earth´s volume.
·Core: The core is the deepest layer.
·Magma: Is molten rock.

What temperature can be reached in the core of the Earth?
It can reach 4.500ºc.

Who was Alfred Wegener? What is Pangaea?
He made the pangaea theory.  According to this theory, 200 millions years ago there was a single continent called Pangaea and it was surrounded by a single ocean called Tethys Sea.
The Pangaea broke up, forming the continents. These continents are not fixed, but they are moving, because the crust is divided into several plates, called tectonic plates.

The relationship between tectonic plates and earthquakes:
The tectonic plates are not fixed, and they are moving slowly over the mantle. When a plate collides with another one earthquakes and eruptions of volcanoes are caused. The most important tectonic plates of the Earth are the Euroasian plate, the African plate, the North American and South American plates.

How many continents do we have in planet Earth?
 Earth has six continents: Asia, America, Europe, Antartica, Africa and Oceania


The most important oceans of the world:
The Pacific Ocean, the Atlanctic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, Souther Ocean.


The relief is the result of Internal Forces and External Agents. Now I will write an example of  the action of internal forces. I will name the external agents that cause the erosion and modeling of the Earth´s relief. 
The relief is the result of  the internal forces of the Earth, like plate movements, volcanoes and earthquakes, and external agents are wind, rain, rivers and lakes. The internal forces are responsible for the origin and the elevation of topography and external agents cause the erosion and the modeling of the Earth´s relief. 

Now I will write definitions for the following concepts, and I will paste some images related to those definitons.                             ·Mountain: A mountain is a land mass that rises high above the area around it.
·Plain: Plains are large flat tracts of land.
·Valley: They are sunken land and they are surrounded by mountains. In valleys rivers can flow.
·Plateaux: Plateaux are large areas of high land. They are higher than plains.
·River: A river is a natural stream of water that flows in a channel.
·Delta: Low-lying plain composed of stream-borne sediments deposited by a river in it´s mouth.
·Estuary: A flow of water in a channel, like a small river.
·Glacier: A glacier is a large mass of ice.
·Groundwater: Is water that occurs below the surface of the Earth
·Lake: Lakes are standing waters that occupy an inland basyn.

What is a volcanic eruption? What consecuences does it have? 

 A volcanic eruption is a huge  eruption of ash, melted rock and smelly gases. A volcano forms above the ground. However the eruption of a volcano is a single event. Along with an eruption, comes major destruction.

An earthquake is caused by the movement of tectonic plates.