Geology 2400: Solar System

Geology 2400 is a course where students are taught different examination of the earth such as the solar system, interior surface of the earth, atmosphere, and relationships of earth systems such as natural disasters. Three essential concepts I mastered was: earthquake’s wave, the planets, and minerals. First, one scheme of a natural disaster is an earthquake. An earthquake is the violent shaking of the ground which sometimes causes great destructions. Earthquakes happened due to seismic waves. A seismic wave is a wave in the earth that is produced by an earthquake. In addition, body waves play a big role in earthquakes. Primary wave (P), is the fastest and it is compressional meaning it can pass through liquids gasses and solids. A secondary wave(S) is the second fastest wave that is shearing, meaning it can only go through solids. Nest, the surface waves also known as the L waves, travel along the surface. For example, these types of waves look like “ripples” moving vertically up and down in motion. On the contrary, love waves (LQ) are horizontal waves and

usually these are the waves that everyone can feel during an earthquake. The amplitude of a wave is then measured by the Rickter scale which defines the magnitude and amplitude of a wave. For instance, the magnitude of waves are in units of 30 and amplitude of waves are in units of 10. The Rickter scales, however, becomes useless after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake because the shaking does not get worse.
The solar system is composed of the sun, an average star, and the nine planets.

All planets orbit within 3 of the plane of the ecliptic. In addition, all planets also orbit in a prograde orbit which means they all orbit in the same direction. There is a total of four terrestrial planets and 5 Jovian planets. A terrestrial planet is a rocky planet that is composed of rocks or metals. For example, Mercury, Venus earth, and Mars are examples of terrestrial planets because they are small rocky and contain an atmosphere. Earth and Mars, for instance, has a thin atmosphere whereas Venus has a hot thick atmosphere. Jovian planets are the giant planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto all have big gasses and many moons. Jupiter, for instance, is a big gas ball mad up of the elements Hydrogen and Helium. All five planets also have rings which mean the planet has a disc orbiting around the

planet.
Minerals are naturally occurring minerals not made by man. It is inorganic which means it is not made by plants, Minerals are crystalline solids meaning atoms are arranged in a certain manner. Also, minerals have the definite chemical composition which means they have very specific properties in order to be identified. There are two types of minerals: felsic minerals and mafic minerals. Felsic minerals are light colored minerals and silica-rick. Silica is a mixture of both elements, silicon, and oxygen. Felsic minerals also are less dense and have a lower melting temperature. For instance, granite rock is one of the most known Felsic minerals. On the contrary, a mafic mineral is a dark colored and iron rick. It is also denser and has a higher melting point. For example, a common mafic mineral is the basalt rock which is a rock which is dark colored usually found in the lava flow.
Geology is a subject matter that can be integrated with history, art, and math. Explaining the history being concepts such as rocks and earthquakes is important for student understanding. Therefore, a teacher can incorporate history as well as math when finding magnitudes or amplitudes of different rocks and waves.