Astronomy/Geology 1070: Earth: Its Physical Environment

Written Homework 5, Originally Due October 20 but extended to October 25, 2011
20 points

Please submit your work to me by the beginning of class.

Part 1: HTML (0 points)

Again, this is for your own good, not for a grade.

Read my second HTML tutorial.  This tells how to put more in your web page than just plain text.  It explains how to structure an HTML file, how to make HTML commands known as tags, and how to display special characters, such as “&.”  Best of all, it tells you how to make links, such as this one to a set of plate tectonic animations, that connect your web page other resources.

For practice, make an HTML file structured using headings.  Include in the file at least one “entity” character and one working link to a real web page.  Upload your file to the “Assignments” tool on Sakai so that I can see it.

Again, this is not for a grade, so you will not be penalized if you don’t do it or if I do not consider your HTML file to be perfect.  However, I will not give feedback for files I do not see!

• Here is the gateway to my HTML tutorials.
• Here is the second tutorial in the series.

Part 2: Geology (20 points)

These questions are for you to combine different ideas and apply them to situations not directly addressed in class or in the textbook.  Think about the situation, and about the science that applies to it.  See me for help if you are stuck.

Do one, and only one, of the following:

1. Shorelines.

The Earth is thousands of millions of years old.  Over time, wave erosion wears away beach headlands and deposition fills in bays.  Why, then, are many modern shorelines irregular rather than straight?

2. Volcano shapes.

Different types of volcanoes have distinctive shapes.  Stratovolcanoes have have concave profiles that steepen toward the peak, shield volcanoes have convex profiles, cinder cones are straight-sided, and caldera volcanoes are enormous holes in the ground.  Explain how and in what contexts these different shapes are created.

3. Volcano locations.

In general, stratovolcanoes form near subduction zones and shield volcanoes and cinder cones form in rift zones.  Why is this?  What about the structure of these locations, the processes occurring there, and the materials found there control the creation of these two types of volcano?

4. Scientific progress and continental drift.

Critics of science like to cite continental drift as an idea that was widely rejected by the scientific establishment before it was eventually embraced.  In being slow to accept continental drift, did the scientific establishment act appropriately or foolishly?  Explain and defend your position. Use specific examples.

Take your choice of these tasks.  Do not submit answers to more than one of them.  Just choose one, and submit it.  Your answer should thoroughly address all points of the question.  An adequate answer will be several paragraphs long.

I beg you: If you turn in a hard copy answer, do not turn in paper that has ragged edges!  If you write your work in a spiral-bound notebook, trim the edge before submitting it.  Papers with ragged edges will be returned unmarked.

You may also submit your answer using the “Assignments” tool in WyoSakai.  If you wish to submit it as an HTML file, so much the better!