Destructive natural phenomena Essay Example for Free

Destructive natural phenomena Essay Among the most destructive natural phenomena caused by nature and known to man are earthquakes. Earthquakes are not only considered as one of the most destructive, but among the most frightening, traumatic and violent as well. In addition, earthquakes are beyond man’s control. They are also unpredictable. This paper aims to answer the following questions: How do earthquakes occur? What causes earthquakes? Based on its scientific definition, an earthquake is the result of a sudden movement of the earths crust due to the stress released from geologic faults or by volcanic activity. Sometimes it is also called as seism or temblor (â€Å"Earthquakes†). We often think that an earthquake is merely the shaking of the ground based on what we experience and what we see in the news. What we are not really aware of is that an earthquake happens everyday. It is reported by the United States Geological Survey that over 3 million earthquakes occur yearly which means every 11 seconds, an earthquake takes place. That’s around 8,000 earthquakes a day. Most of the time, the majority of these quakes are and cannot be felt. What alert us are the stronger earthquakes that happen in highly populated areas. In order to determine an earthquake’s strength, scientists measure earthquake strength by using a seismograph. The information gathered by the graph is then calculated. The unit of measuring an earthquake’s strength or ‘intensity’ is the Richter scale which is in turn used to rate the energy released by the quake which is known as the magnitude. When an earthquake occurs, it continuously produces waves referred as seismic wave. There are several types of seismic waves but the waves responsible in the first few strikes of movement during an earthquake are called body waves. These waves often travel at the earth’s inner part (Harris, 2001). With the help of the P waves and the S waves, which are the types of body waves, scientists are able to determine where an earthquake took place. P waves also known as primary waves can travel through different mediums. It can travel through solids, liquids and even gases. It travels faster and hit the ground first. On the other hand the S waves or the secondary waves follows through making the ground also shake. Apparently these waves helps scientist locate an earthquake’s epicentre of location. Through the help of seismographs, the amount of time between the P waves and the S waves are then recorded which is called seismogram, this will then determine how far away the earthquake was from the location. Most of the time it takes 3 seismographs to locate the epicenter or the exact direction of the earthquake which is called triangulation (Wald, 2008). During early times, natural causes were accounted with the anger of the gods that were displeased with mans action. Today, natural disasters are no longer accounted to ancient gods anymore. Instead, man explains such occurrences based on modern science. There are many causes of earthquakes. These can be attributed to volcanic eruptions or even explosions created by humans but the most frequent potential cause of this is the seismic plate movement. The plate tectonic theory states that the surface layer of the earth called lithosphere is comprised of different plates. Through the advent of the plate tectonic theory, different phenomena and facts that were formerly unknown were finally understood. Facts such as the movement of the continents and volcanic activities were just among the few facts that plate tectonics had unveiled. Since plates tend to slide on the region below the lithosphere, any of the three different things can happen at the boundaries between these huge plates: (1) the plates can move apart- whenever this occurs, hot, molten rock called magma, flows up. Magma will then appear on the surface, an activity that mostly happens on the ocean floor turning it into lava which in turn cools down and fills the gaps when it hardens. The area where this occurs is called the divergent plate boundary. (2) The plates can push together- an occurrence where in one plate is pushed under the other one which is called subduction. When the plate is then pushed beneath, it melts down in the lower mantle layers. Although plates have the tendency to subduct with one another there are certain boundaries wherein neither of these two plates would be able to do so thus, the tendency of each plate is to push one another and form mountains. The convergent plate boundaries are an area where plates are more like to push against each other. The plates would slide against each other- when this happens the plates are then pushed tightly together building a great tension in the transform boundary (Harris, 2001). We all know that earthquakes may occur anywhere and anytime but there are certain areas that are close enough where frequent actions of tremblors take place. The ring of fire is a zone where frequent earthquakes as well as volcanic eruptions occur. It is said that almost 90% of earthquakes in the world is experienced in this area. Countries like the United States, Indonesia, Canada, Brazil, Colombia and Chile are some of the areas that are prone to tremblors (Crystal, 2008). An earthquake brings fear and devastation is alarming. Furthermore, the inability to predict an earthquake makes it even more fearful. Though scientists are still looking for ways to minimize the devastating effects of an earthquake, knowledge and the understanding earthquakes are man’s best defence. Earthquakes education serves as the best protection and the hopes and continuous researches provides more security and helps in devastation prevention. References Earthquakes. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth edition. Retrieved June 11, 2008, from http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/earthquakes Harris, T. (2001). How Earthquake Works. How Stuff Works. Retrieved June 12, 2008, from http://science. howstuffworks. com/earthquake. htm Wald, L. (2008). The Science of Earthquakes. U. S. Geological Survey. Retrieved June 12, 2008 from http://earthquake. usgs. gov/learning/kids/eqscience. php Crystal, E. (2008). Pacific Ring of Fire. Crystalinks. Retrieved June 12, 2008 from http://www. crystalinks. com/rof. html

Abortion: How Does He Really Feel? :: Essays Papers

Abortion: How Does He Really Feel? In the article, â€Å"End of the Road† by Rebecca Paley, she raises an interesting point of why Dr. William Rashbaum does what he does as an abortion doctor. This article was published in Mother Jones in the Sep/Oct 2003 issue. The setting of this article is placed around modern times. Even though abortion was made legal about 30 years ago, the thought of whether or not it is right is still an issue. This article takes an in depth look inside the life of an abortionist named Dr. William Rashbaum. The audience Paley is targeting are probably people that are for and have had abortions. Paley describes Dr.Rashbum as being an unruly, mad, sometimes compassionate, and doing it because it’s his job type of doctor. She says these things because he doesn’t care about what anyone says. Paley interviewed people that know him personally to give credibility of how he really is. She asked a second-trimester abortion provider who trained under Rashbaum what she thought of him. She stated â€Å"A person who is more concerned with what people think of him than doing the fight thing wouldn’t last. He cares more about doing the right thing than what people think of his personality.† The main argument that Paley is stating is that Dr.Rashbum feels convicted for what he does but, he is only doing it because it’s his job. He even admits that it is hard to do sometime. She makes sure she incorporated plenty of that in her article. Paley also makes this article a little confusing because she jumps back and forth between sides . She tries to justify him by putting little pieces of information that make him not seem so bad. In the next paragraph or two, she makes it seem that he is so wrong for what he is doing. She doesn’t do this directly, but indirectly. The tone Paley uses is a tone that is upset about abortions, but also making excuses for him. She should pick one side so it wouldn’t be too hard to find her argument.

Understanding Aerospace: How To Fly An Aircraft

1. The complicated task of piloting an aircraft can be broken into two broad categories. The first is keeping the aircraft flying. The second is arriving at a given destination. The second is always being effected by the first. Unlike a car, small deviation in course can over great distances cause the aircraft to arrive hundreds of miles from the target destination. To successfully accomplish the task, safe arrival, the larger tasks can be sub-divided into three categories. The first is the Procedural Tasks. These are the maintenance task that must be accomplished every time in a certain way at a certain time, i.e. take off and landing checklists. The next is Decision and Judgement Tasks. Problem solving is another way to look at it. The crew will react based on past experience to a given situation. The last is Communications and Resource Management. This is how the crew communicates with each other while problem solving, either poorly or well. 2. The pilot uses visual cues such as rate of flow of texture outward from or convergence of parallel linear features to visually fly the aircraft. Estimates of speed are derived from global optic flow (GOL). This is the rate that texture flows over the optical area. This can be effected by elevation, at higher elevations underestimation of true speed will occur. Approach path distortions occur when there is a slope before the landing strip or other visual features such as dwarfed trees. The human eye is not designed for conditions found in flight. Planes that are a collision course have no apparent movement to them. This takes the natural attraction to movement out of play. Because of the lack of visual stimulation the eye will focus only a few meters in front, so distant objects are unfocused. The scanning of instruments provides a source of input that allows the pilot to visualize the position of aircraft in flight. The novice pilot will scan all the instruments in a given pattern. While the experienced pilot will look at all the instrument that will give them feedback on the action that occurred. Of the main instrument the most useful is the attitude direction indicator (ADI). This is the instrument most referred and the one that most novice pilot will get fixated with. It is also the only one that resembles an aircraft and provides information in a format other than an analog circular dial. 3. Situational awareness is the ability to keep track of your surroundings and what they mean. Then predict how any change in them will effect your actions. This is measured the best, according to the author, by adding a task that can be performed well only when surrounding events are well know. The types of displays that best support awareness of position is best conveyed via 3-D. Speed of the aircraft is interpreted with a higher degree of accuracy in 2-D displays. Heads up displays (HUD) have been used for some time to give pilots information in away that allowed them to keep their attention outside of the cockpit. The thought is naturally to add more information to this already useful instrument. This would most likely result in the loss of information due to cluttering. Some information is lost in the HUD because of overlap with dominant terrain features. This might be avoided using a heads down display (HDD) type. They both have advantages and disadvantages. These may both be used to some extent with types of automation. The pilot may end up monitoring the flight only being called on when there is a problem. This results in the pilot being dissociated from the situation that they are to solve. Thus loosing time needed to solve the crisis trying to reorient themselves. A better way may be to use automation to provide information pertaining to the situation, i.e. filtering information.

Words of War for Spanish Students

Looking for a different perspective on the news of the world? If so, check out one of the many Spanish-language news sources and get an idea of what people in Latin America or Spain or other Spanish-speaking places are reading. If the news is about war, you may find this vocabulary list helpful. War Vocabulary List Alphabetized in Spanish Words below are alphabetized in Spanish; see the next section for the same words alphabetized in English. el alto el fuego — cease-fireel arma, las armas — weapon, weaponslas armas de destruccià ³n masiva — weapons of mass destructionatacar — to attackel ataque — attackla baja — casualty (death)base (aà ©rea, military)  Ã¢â‚¬â€ (air, military) basela batalla — battlela baterà ­a — batteryel blanco (militar) — (military) targetla bomba — bombbombardear — to bombcivil — civilian (noun or adjective)el/la comandante — commanderel combate — combatel/la (no) combatiente  Ã¢â‚¬â€ (non)combatantel conflicto — conflictla Convencià ³n de Ginebra — Geneva Conventionel/la coronel — colonelel criminal de guerra — war criminallos derechos humanos — human rightsderribar — to shoot down, to bring downdestruir — destroyel ejà ©rcito — armyencontrarse cautivo — to be taken captiveestar en control, encontrarse en control — to be i n controlla explosià ³n — explosionlas fuerzas aà ©reas — air forcelas fuerzas aliadas — allied forceslas fuerzas armadas (FF. AA.) — armed forcesel/la general — generalel gobierno — governmentla granada — grenadela guerra — warel helicà ³ptero — helicopterherido — injuredherir — to injurelas hostilidades — hostilitieshumanitario — humanitarianla inteligencia militar — military intelligencela invasià ³n — invasionla marina — navymatar — to killmilitar — military (adjective)el/la militar — soldier, fighterel misil — missilela muerte — deathel objector de conciencia — conscientious objectorla ofensiva — offensivela patrulla (patrullar, estar de patrulla) — patrol (to patrol, to be on patrol)la paz — peaceel/la piloto — pilotel preso de guerra, el prisionero de guerra — prisoner of warla propagan da — propagandaresguardar — to protect againstla resistencia — resistancesacudir — to strike, to hitsangriento — bloodyel/la soldado — soldierel tanque, el carro de combate — tankel territorio — territoryel/la terrorista — terroristlas tropas — troops War Vocabulary Alphabetized in Enlish air force — las fuerzas aà ©reasallied forces — las fuerzas aliadasarmed forces — las fuerzas armadasarmy — el ejà ©rcito(air, military) base — base (aà ©rea, military)attack — el ataqueto attack — atacarbattery — la baterà ­abattle — la batallato be in control — estar en control, encontrarse en controlto be taken captive — encontrarse cautivobloody — sangrientobomb — la bombato bomb — bombardearcasualty — la baja (death), el/la herido (injured person)cease-fire — el alto el fuegocivilian (noun or adjective) — civilcolonel — el/la coronelcombat — el combate(non)combatant — el/la (no) combatientecommander — el/la comandanteconflict — el conflictoconscientious objector — el objector de concienciadeath — la muertedestroy — destruirexplosion — la explosià ³ngeneral — el/la generalGeneva Convention — la Convencià ³n de Ginebragovernment — el gobiernogrenade — la granadahelicopter — el helicà ³pterohostilities — las hostilidadeshumanitarian — humanitariohuman rights — los derechos humanosto injure — heririnjured — heridoinvasion — la invasià ³nto kill — matarmilitary (adjective) — militarmilitary intelligence — la inteligencia militarmissile — el misilnavy — la marinaoffensive — la ofensivapatrol (to patrol, to be on patrol) — la patrulla (patrullar, estar de patrulla)peace — la pazpilot — el/la pilotoprisoner of war — el preso de guerra, el prisionero de guerrapropaganda — la propagandato protect against — resguardarresistance — la resistenciato shoot down, to bring down — derribarsoldier, fighter — el/la militar, el/la soldadoto strike, to hit — sacudirtank — el tanque, el carro de comb ate(military) target — el blanco (militar)territory — el territorioterrorist — el/la terroristatroops — las tropaswar — la guerrawar criminal — el criminal de guerraweapon, weapons — el arma, las armasweapons of mass destruction — las armas de destruccià ³n masiva