Miners

       Explosions in coal mines are caused by rock and gas outbursts, methane ignitions that can set off when there's a build up of loose coal and dust, inadequate ventilation and poor maintenance or functioning of water sprays. But they're also caused by federal safety rules that aren't being followed or poor/nonexistent monitoring systems.

       Families in the United States were compensated for their relatives' deaths with $1.5 million but Chinese families only received (approximately) $1,577 for victims and $105,000 for those whose family members died. Safety conditions in China are much worse, than in the U.S., most likely because they don't care as much about safety. They're more focused on the production in the mines than the safety and health of the workers making the production happen. That's also why they have poorer air conditions than us and they don't strive to prevent the pollution.

Deepwater Horizon disaster

        I think that there are many at fault for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. There's the government, all of the consumers, constructors and supervisors. In my opinion, I think that the consumers and any supervisors are the most responsible. If consumers didn't create such a demand for oil in the first place, workers wouldn't need to go to such extremes to invent and produce a process that would keep; one that would never fail. But I believe that the government should've kept a closer eye on the project and what the workers were really constructing. You also need to keep in mind that they have a lot to supervise and focus on concerning the entire country. When they are unable to concentrate on these jobs though, the supervisors hired are trusted to do their jobs and regulate what is going on. Those in charge should've directed their attention to each step done in the process.

        Consumers should have to cut down on their demands. Acquiring such a large amount of oil is unmanageable and unreasonable. If we all cut back by even a smidge, it'll make a dent. But cutting back on oil and changing to alternate sources of energy like solar panels or windmills, will make a much larger impact. As for the supervisors, I think that this should be a warning to them. They need to realize that anything they do or don't do affects the entire community and in some cases the country. They are responsible for monitoring their work and projects that they are involved in and should know it.

Turkey 7.2 Earthquake

The two tectonic plates that interact to cause earthquakes in Turkey, the Arabian and Eurasian plates, are a convergent boundary. The most powerful earthquake that has struck Turkey in the past century is a 7.8 magnitude quake in Erzincan in 1939 that killed approximately 33,000 people.

Myitsone Construction

The communities and ecosystems that depend on the Irrawaddy river system would have benefited from the dam and power plant. But the people of the region opposed the construction because Burma does not have any environmental protection laws. There was also much less study and planning for the Myitsone (versus the Three Gorges Project). The Irrawaddy Dam, in the event of an earthquake, could flood about 750 kilometers of forested area and cause irreversible damage to Burma's river system because the dam is located less than 100 kilometers from a major fault line. This could result in landslides and weaken the dam structure. If the dam were to break it would endanger the people of Myikyina, which is the largest city in Kachin State. Groups also oppose the dam because of environmental impacts and threats to the cultural sites that could materialize. The opinion of the author is against the project because their perception is to raise awareness of the threats to the Irrawaddy River. Also some of the possible risks, as a result of the construction, were displayed in a biased manner to influence people to vote down the continuing construction for the dam. The website authors were making an effort to convince their readers that the possible consequences of the dam weren't possible, but that they were definite. 

Steno's Principles

Layer 1 was deposited 5

Intrusion 2 formed 3

Intrusion 3 formed 6

Layer 5 was deposited 2

Layer 4 was deposited 1

Earth cracked at fault B 4

Layers 4, and 5 were the first to happen because before layers can be deformed they have to be deposited (principle of initial horizontality). The order of the layers is 4 then 5 (then 1) because the oldest layers are always on the bottom (principle of superposition). Then intrusion 2 is formed and after that is the fault B. Intrusion 2 was formed before the fault occurred because the intrusion was altered and shifted from its original placement, as did layers 4, and 5 due to the fault (B). Layer 1 happened just before intrusion 3 because it was not impacted by the fault (occurring after the fault) but was broken through by the intrusion. (principle of cross-cutting relationships) The last thing to happen was intrusion 3. You can tell because the path of intrusion 3 shows that all the changes that occurred from fault B happened before the intrusion did. The path of the intrusion swept over all the other disfigured layers.

Age of Earth

Early geologists might have suspected that the Earth was older than 6000 years because of the natural architecture on the Earth. Places like the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon have such detailed and crafted layering and shaping that could not have been as young as 6000. The layers of strata develop by a certain number of years, the number of layers reflecting how old that area of the Earth may be. It's as if we could dig and dig and dig until we reached the first stages of Earth. Each pile of dirt we bring up represents however many years ago. Every shovelful brings us one scoop closer to the beginnings of Earth because everything we're digging up is older and older, every time we're digging deeper. Geologists can look at the strata from places around the world like the Colorado Plateau and use it to measure how long ago the Earth was "born".