Photo by Andy Hares

This could be a good picture to accompany a prompt of:  How can rocks tell the history of an area?  Hopefully they will make the connection that each layer represents different types of sediments that existed in that area for a period of time.

Photo by Ron Schott

This is a great example of the scale of erosion and Earth movements that can occur over a long period of time.

Photo by Walter Parenteau

This picture clearly shows the bedding (layering) that can occur in sedimentary rocks.  Students could also hypothesize about how this rock rose to the visible surface.  The water in the picture should be a clue from which they could make an inference about erosion.

Went out looking for some piers to shoot with the storm clouds, but couldn’t find any decent ones that weren’t “private”, so I moved onto the Skillion at the Central Coast – got a few shots in, but discovered the amazing rocks in the area, just back from where I usually shoot seascapes.  So many different textures in a small area – I went crazy shooting macros on nearly all the rock areas… gorgeous way to spend a windy, cold and rainy afternoon…

This week’s photograph features rocks. Rocks are common and they tend to get photographed a lot, probably because they offer such diversity in shapes.

Rocks can be classified into 3 different types: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, and are all derived from the lithospere, which is earth’s outer layer.

When I was strolling out on the beach in Semiahmoo, looking for interesting subjects to photograph, I was intrigued by the soft lighting on this sea of rocks. The soft lighting seemed to just accentuate the shapes and textures of these rocks, hence it was just too irresistible to NOT photograph them!

Until next week…

To view: Rock Symmetry

Notebook

• pg. 140 – BrainPOP Rocks- Fill in the blank notes
• pg. 141 – Types of Rocks Power Point and notes
• pg. 142 – Types of Rocks Power Point and notes
• pg. 143 – Types of Rocks Power Point and notes
• pg. 144 – BrainPOP Rocks – Graphic Organizer
• pg. 145 – Rocks Vocabulary Cut ‘n Paste
• pg. 146 – Color the Rock Cycle Notes & ppt
• pg. 147 – Ride the Rock Cycle Activity, Comic to hand in
• pg. 148 – Igneous Rocks, ppt
• pg. 149 – Metamorphic Rocks, ppt
• pg. 150 – Sedimentary Rocks, ppt
• pg. 151 – Rocks terms (pg. 21)
• pg. 152 – Rocks and Minerals Crossword Puzzle (pg. 22)
• pg. 153 – BrainPOP FYI: Grand Canyon
• pg. 154 – Law of Superposition Notes, ppt
• pg. 155 – Practice – Law of Superposition

As part of our Rocks Unit, I set up a stations lab where the students learn more about the three different types of rocks and research 4 of each kind. The kids work at their own pace and can look at the rocks in any order they want, as well as travel with a partner or small group of 3. For two class periods, the kids learn about each rock and ways to remember how to identify them.  At each station, I have a rocks and minerals identification book to help with their research for each rock.

When they are done, they practice naming the rocks and categorizing them into igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. I set up a couple of practice stations with index cards and have 12 samples at each station. The students have to place the correct rock onto the index card. Then they have to place the rocks into the three groups by sliding the index cards and rocks around. I leave this set up so that students can come in and practice identifying the rocks until our rocks test.

On the third day, we go over what we learned about each rock with a power point that I made up.

Notebook:

This paradox was first formulated in the early 1970’s by Carl Sagan and George Mullen: we have evidence that 4 billion years ago large areas of liquid water existed on Earth; however, we know that 4 billion years ago the sun was only 70 per cent as luminous as it is now. If the sun was that dim, only ice not liquid water would have existed on the Earth’s surface: hence the paradox. More recently with the evidence of free flowing water on Mars in its early history; the paradox has strengthened since Mars is substantially farther away from the sun, and consequently receives less heat than the Earth

Quite a few questions go begging. We have evidence that …etc. What evidence? This is where the rocks of Greenland come in. It is home to some of the Earth’s oldest rocks, which date back nearly four billion. Samples of these rocks contain rounded “pebbles” that appear to be sedimentary—laid down in a liquid-water environment. Rocks as old as 3.2 billion years exhibit mud cracks, ripple marks, and microfossil algae. Strongly indicating that early Earth must have had an abundant supply of liquid water in the form of lakes or oceans.

How do we know that the sun was less luminous 4 billion years ago? Our model of how stars form, how they generate light and heat through nuclear fusion, how they evolve appears to be pretty successful in predicting the observed behaviour of stars , including our own sun. Once the fusion process begins, the star doesn’t light up to full luminosity immediately – it takes time.

So there’s the paradox. What’s the solution, is there one?

If you wanted to be radical you could suggest that the geological evidence, or our interpretation of it, is wrong. The rocks aren’t that old, or what we take to be evidence of sedimentary disposition, and therefore evidence of flowing water, is something different. Or we’ve got our seller evolution model wrong; and with it our nuclear fusion model etc, etc.

However, be warned. If you suggest either of those possibilities you’ll be asked to provide alternative models to explain much of the natural world that is explained by theories, research, and reasoning that underpin our estimates of the age of the Earth, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics.

Since the 1970’s scientists have come up with a number of theories – one of the strongest candidates preys in aid greenhouse gases. It’s suggested that during the period we’re concerned with the levels of green house gases were significantly higher than today. For this to work the gas carbon dioxide would need to have made up 30 percent of the earth’s atmosphere; that compares with 3/1000th percent now.
Ignore for the present how this level of gas came about; how can we get anywhere near finding out what were the CO2 levels billions of years ago?

This is what the interview on the radio programme was about. Recent research on Greenland rocks examined the composition of features called banded iron formations (BIFs) that formed in abundance when the Earth was young, but not since. These BIFs contain certain iron-rich minerals that give clues as to the atmospheric environment in which they formed. Analysis of these minerals suggests CO2 levels higher than now but nowhere near the levels required by “Greenhouse Gas” postulate.

An alternative proposed on the programme was a) the land mass of the earth was less than now – more ocean. Ocean absorbs sunlight better than rock – so more heating for less sun. And b) there was less cloud cover to block sunlight from reaching the oceans. Again, lots of questions qgoing begging and considerably more work on the formation of the earth’s crust is required including the formation of BIFs.

But for some they do not have to wait on further empirical evidence and solid theories. For them the Bible eliminates any paradox. Answersingenesis.org cuts the Gordian knot, by setting out what it sees at the multitude of contradictions implicate in scientific explanations. These contradictions point to the statement that the earth is only 6000 years old, as believed by Creationists, is true! Therefore the “faint sun paradox” does not arise; the sun’s not had time to warm up (or put it another way be less warming than it is now).

You don’t have to believe to be impressed by the literature inspired by religion. Anyone reading George Herbert or John Milton would testify to that. So it is with much pleasure that I refer you to The Reluctant Messenger. The writer accepts the geological age of the Earth, but seeks to reconcile it with the account in Genesis. His conclusion is that billion of years passed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. He interprets the text not that God created the world in 7 days but how he renewed it after a cosmic war with Lucifer. The Devil froze over the seas and God had to come down personally to unthaw the Earth and replenish the Earth. The writer has the imagination of a Philip Pullman.

It’s a pleasure to have discovered you whoever you are.

Welcome back.  Have you missed me?  I’ve been taking a break to look at other people’s blogs, tweets, websites, Facebook pages – look at and admire.  What a talented, committed, creative lot you are!  You’re absolutely divine – which brings me on to the subject of my next umpteen posts – the creative divinities of ancient Egypt.

If you dig back through the sedimentary layers of the last thirty posts, you’ll find, right at the beginning, that I made you a promise.  I promised that you’d learn how to vary some of the elements of the offering formula, to suit the person for whom you were writing it.  For a start, I promised to give you a selection of gods, so that you could swap one of them for Osiris if you prefer.

After all, Osiris may not be the patron you would select for that particular colleague.  You may feel slightly diffident about invoking the god of the dead for someone on the eve of retirement.  They might even curse you. (Maybe we’ll do curses later.  The Egyptians had some good ones.)  If ideal god or goddess who encapsulates your feelings about your colleague were rattling around the celestial vault unsummoned, and I hadn’t told you about them, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. 

So here I am, back, with a selection for you. We’ll look them over together, and see whether they remind you of anyone in work.  The Egyptians were a very organised people, and they arranged their gods in a hierarchy which often seems eerily familiar when you’re looking at it over an office keyboard. 

It’s a family firm.  At the top of the organisation is the creator god, Atum, the founder of the organisation.  Beneath him are two of his offspring, Shu and Tefnut, and beneath them two of theirs, Geb and Nut (like all family firms, it’s pretty incestuous).   They basically form the chair and non-executive directors of the firm, the solid, conservative old guard.  There are four executive directors – Osiris, whom we know, Isis, Seth and Nephthys; two married couples constantly at each other’s throats (and other body parts).  The Chief Executive is Isis and Osiris’ son, Horus – the young blood brought in in controversial circumstances.  Does any of this sound like anyone you know?

Around the family gathers a wider organisation of illegitimate offspring, distant relatives, hangers-on and their spouses and kids.  The convolutions of their turbulent lives!  The sex!  The fighting! The exotic locations!  The ships!  The festivals!  I can’t wait to go to work, can you?

Pupil Friendly Levels

Literacy PowerPoint

Assessment for learning PowerPoint

Assessment for learning Questions (levels3-6)

Assessment for learning Answers (levels3-6)

‘true or false’ PowerPoint

Additional PowerPoint

‘wordsearch’

science quiz

word search

crossword

Level Assessed Task

Pupil Friendly Levels

Literacy PowerPoint

Assessment for learning PowerPoint

Assessment for learning Questions (levels3-6)

Assessment for learning Answers (levels3-6)

‘true or false’ PowerPoint

Additional PowerPoint

‘wordsearch’

science quiz

word search

crossword

Level Assessed Task

© katepedley

   #mce_temp_url#

© katepedley

   #mce_temp_url#

“Sandpipers”
Nikon D70s, f9, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 105mm equivalent (click to enlarge)

Sedimentary my dear Watson! Approaching the above cliff towards the end of a beach walk brought back happy memories of Geography field-trips at school. I find it absolutely fascinating to think how cliffs like these were formed. Look at all the different undulating layers, they’ve been twisted and turned over with unimaginable force and power. The rolling rippled rocks in the foreground look like a fossilised beach. Petrified sand – one day it’s a beach then somehow in someway it gets turned into stone! I don’t even begin to know or understand half of what has gone on here (my A-level Geography career ended nearly twenty years ago now ;-) Of course things such as this fill me with awe and draw me closer to God. It is almost sacramental, a masterpiece of the Creator’s hand almost magnetically drawing the observer who will see into a state of humility and even worship.

As I pick up a handful of sand and let the tiny grains roll over my fingers, I consider the mind-bending truth that there are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on this tiny little blue planet of ours…

Reminds me of a verse from Romans:

But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. (Romans 1:20 Message)

And also Bob Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand”

In the fury of the moment
I can see the Master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles,
in every grain of sand.

Oh and for those who don’t get excited by a bunch of crumbling rocks, the second picture of some Sandpipers might do it for you!

I’ve had a couple of sales from subscriptions, but the earnings increase of $0.06 on top of the usual $0.30 isn’t really much to shout about.
This is the Second exclusive sale I have had from credits:

© Photographer: Pdtnc | Agency: Dreamstime.com

And this was the first exclusive sale from credits:

Its not bad I guess, and the more levels the image goes up the better commission it will pay. *fingers crossed for more sales*

Combined Keywords:
animal, background, backgrounds, creature, fossil, fossils, geological, imprint, invertebrates, layers, mineralized, natural, paleontology, prehistoric, rocks, sea, sedimentary, shells, strata, texture, textured, abstract, aged, antique, chest, dirty, grain, grime, grunge, layer, messy, old, overlay, paper, parchment, past, rotten, rotting, rough, scar, spotted, stained, tea, texture, textured, weathered, worn,

Description:
Rocks with embedded fossils in Whitby north yorkshire – Exclusive stock photo

Keywords:
animal, background, backgrounds, creature, fossil, fossils, geological, imprint, invertebrates, layers, mineralized, natural, paleontology, prehistoric, rocks, sea, sedimentary, shells, strata, texture, textured,