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December 16, 2007
Breanna V
December, 3 2007
The President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC
Dear Mr. President,
Hello, my name is Breanna and I am writing to you about my work that I
have done about earth quakes. I have done some recording for 21 day and
I have some information that you would be interested in. Certain areas
are prone to earthquakes for different reasons. In this paper I will
answer the questions that you asked about 21 days earlier.
The recent earthquakes that have occurred are in Chili, Alaska, Japan,
Indonesia, Mexico, Papa New Guinea, Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, and
Tonga. These areas are near subduction zones or slip-strike areas. In
some areas earthquakes are to happen more in particular locations
depending on how much time the plates have time to build pressure
before they snap causing vibrations (earthquakes).
It is, in a way, possible to determine what parts of the world are more
prone to earthquakes. We all know that California is very prone because
of the large fault that can be seen from many miles away. The multiple
earthquakes that those in California experience everyday, ones that can
be felt and the ones that are only known about on a seismograph. But
Japan has an under water subduction zone of a great size it is harder
to tell because maybe another fault or subduction zone is affecting the
data but this why the more experienced scientist have a sure fire way
to find the epicenter of the earthquake by making circles and
connecting the dots.
Volcanoes and earthquakes are very strongly related but perhaps in ways
you might not have heard of. For one thing, if you take a look at a map
of earthquakes over the Earth, and compare it to a map of volcanoes,
you will see that they match very closely. Does that mean that the
volcanoes are causing the earthquakes or the earthquakes are causing
the volcanoes? No. Both earthquakes and volcanoes occur at the
boundaries of the tectonic plates that make up the surface of the
Earth.
What is causing earthquakes happens deep with in the earth and core.
Tectonic plates are sliding on a gooey mantel made of melted metals,
and the plates hit the other plates and collide, spit apart, or slide
past each other. When the plates are sliding past each other it is
called a transform or slip-strike fault. When the jagged edges of the
plates catch the build pressure b/c they still want to move. When they
build so much pressure, they will slip or break away and that will
cause vibrations other wise known as earthquakes. The real magic
really happens in the mantel and core. Radio active decay and heat from
the core make convection currents move the plates in the direction of
current. Convection currents are rotations of hot magma that start by
heating close to the core and rise to the middle mantle and when they
reach near the crust they cool and start to sink and the process is
repeated many times.
Thank you for having the time to reading my paper answering your
questions and for assigning me this job. I’m very thank-full for this
opportunity. I hope that I would be of use in the later future and any
other experiments.
Sincerely,
Breanna Vogel
Lead scientist-USGS