GLACIATION AND ISOSTASY

            Glaciation is a process of accumulating snow into a large block of ice. This block of ice is called glaciers. This process of glaciation occurs commonly in cold environment that has a sufficient amount of snowfall. Although most Glaciation take place in the polar region, glaciation also appeared in the high mountains of tropical areas.

            Isostasy is the concept of floating Earth’s crust to maintain gravitational equilibrium. The concept is similar to a floating wooden block above water. Since water is denser than the wood, it makes the wooden block float. When woods float, another behavior is also observed. The thicker wooden block floats higher than the thinner ones. It also has deeper root that are covered by water.

            Glaciation is related with the concept of isostasy in two ways. First is the effect of glacier’s presence on the continent. Second is the glacier’s behaviour when floating free in the oceans as icebergs.

1.        Continental thickening

Glaciers covers approximately 10 percent of the total land area on Earth. Most of them are located in Greenland and in Antartica. Glaciers at this place are so thick they can reach the thickness of 4300 meters in Antartica. In addition, glaciers of Antartica covers around 80 percent of world’s ice. So if they melt, sea level worldwide would rise to 70 meters.

This huge block of ice give additional weight to the underlying crust. Because of the massive size, additional weight is sufficient enough to cause uplifting of the crustal root. Meaning that the crust in these area have deeper root to maintain balance with the additional ice weight.

2.        Floating icebergs

In Greenland, lots of glaciers melts and brakes into large icebergs. Those iceberg than floats south-wards to the Atlantic Ocean. Free floating iceberg are nightmares to sailors. The most famous one is the sinkage of Titanic a century ago.

Icebergs cause accidents as only small portion of the ice are floating above water level. Meanwhile huge block of it is covered underneath. Thus iceberg is not very visible from distance. Sailors may only realize the iceberg as they approach near.

The behaviour of iceberg here is also similar to the uplifting of crustal root in antartica. Both behaviour take place in order to maintain gravitational balance.

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SAVING GROUNDWATER

Ground water is the main fresh water resource that can be used by humans. Although Ice Sheets that are available in the poles contains much more fresh water than any other place, they are not usable. That way ground water acts as the main fresh water resources in this planet.

As time goes by more human roam around planet Earth resulting in the rise of fresh water demands. Every year more and more people are using water for agriculture, daily needs and industry. At the same time the amount of fresh water abundant in nature stays the same.

The problem with ground water is not only they are limited they are also effected by human activity.

1.Polluted ground water.

Human create waste that are being dumped in landfill. These dumps contain liquids and chemical which may absorbed into the soil. If too much of these harmful material goes into the soil, they may not be well filtered when entering the ground water below. Thus the ground water of that area will be polluted and can’t be used. If they are being used the human will get the deceases.

Pesticides in agriculture may also pollute ground water. As they are spread out to crops using water, pesticide also got into the soil and polluted the bellow ground water reserve.

2.Unbalanced water cycle.

Ground water is closely related with the water cycle, which are also being effected by human activity. If the water in-land is being pump without control, too much water will be taken out of the ground water reserve. Ground water table will fall and rainfall may not get the previous water level back.

This will result to scarce water reserve and in some case may lead to land collapse.

Humans have to be wiser in using these resources. Ground waters are located below us unseen, thus contamination or scarcity could not be observed immediately. It is not impossible that if not taken care properly, human may have to look for an alternative to ground water like refining sea water to fresh water.

But before this happens humans must treat ground water resource as un-renewable resource. 

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FLOOD IS EVERYBODY’S RESPONSIBILITY

Flood is one of the most common natural disasters that threats human. Every year flood destroys human settlement, sometimes costing lives. Flood itself is a natural process. But even so, the development of human civilization also play a great role in the making of flood. Thus human need to put effort in order to minimize flood.

There are many reasons for a flood to occur. Natural causes of flood might come from rapid ice melting in the mountain summits or heavy rain. Both reason trigger massive water current which the river or steam could not handle. As a result water level rise and water finally spills to villages nearby.

The first two reasons though, don’t really harm human since it is naturally occurring. Unfortunately causes that are resulting from human growth, add the list of flood causes.

Urbanization

As people move to the city, more and more building are being built. As more building appeared, more open land is being covered by concrete blocks. The covering of these open land results in less water infiltration. So when flood occur the water could not go into the Earth.

2.       Deforestation

Cutting of trees might not get rid of open areas as in the case of urbanization. However the open area left after deforesting leaves soil vulnerable to erosion. Tree roots, which used to hold together soil, disappear. More soil eroded to the river decreasing the river’s volume. Thus flood will occur more often.

 

3.       Dumping the river

Similar to deforestation, dumping in rivers also decreases the river’s ability to transmit water. But dumping is also more dangerous because the dumps are toxic. When flood occur, contaminated water spread throughout the human settlement, very often causing deceases.

4.       Dam failure

This reason might be the least common but very dangerous when it occur. Huge amount of water which are held back behind the dam wall suddenly burst-down the stream.

Engineers have come up into brilliant solutions to flood such as canalization. However it will not become a permanent solution if humans are still dumping rubbish to the river or cutting too much trees or building too much concrete block without leaving any open space.

The four reasons mentioned above should be taken into everyone’s mind. Because preventing flood is not only the duty of certain job. Everyone must take their part, even children. 

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METALLIC ORE MINERALS AND HUMAN

            For centuries human have been using metallic ore minerals to support their civilization. Before metal was introduced to the human society, stone were the most common means of making tools. But as human evolves they discovered that metals are stronger and much more practical as it could be crafted into varies shapes.

            The first metals that were used by humans were bronze and iron. Both were widely used in almost every aspect of life. Glass, spoon, forks, kettle, cooking utilities are good examples from household utensils. From political aspects, metals were used to equipped soldiers with weapons and shields. Metals were used for trade when gold became the major means of exchanging. Travel and many other aspects of life were also dependent to metals as well. The usage of metals increased until the time of industrial revolution.

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THE ROLE OF EARTH SCIENCE ON HUMAN LIFE

                When one student come and study in the University, he or she has little and very limited information about the campus. That time, accidents such as going to the wrong class or being late to a particular lesson happens frequently. As time goes, he or she learn and adapt with the environment around. He or she then gains the knowledge about where the classes are, how the grades are given, what to avoid in the campus or even as simple as where to find the toilets. This knowledge makes it possible for him or her to study comfortably, efficiently and confidently. So what about humans who do not only study but live a life on earth? They also need the knowledge about the place where they are living. This knowledge or as it is known as Earth Science, will help humans to live a better and safer life from some natural hazards.

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MUSIC AND ITS INFLUENCE

Music had always been a part of our daily life. Every day and in almost every place at anytime, you’d probably hear music. It doesn’t have to be a song. It can be simple things like school bells, car horns or ambulance’s siren.

So what is music anyway? How did it start? Does it have a very strong influence on human beings? These question were for me and Rizal to answer on 5^th May’s GIA. The presentation was based on both what we’ve read and our own experiences. Rizal and I we’re not professional musician though, we just happened to love music so much.

Before we get in deep to music, we shortly explained what music actually defined as. Well according to Oxford’s Dictionary was the art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

As far as we knew, music was born at almost the same time human was born. Why is that so? It’s because human use sounds to communicate with each other. This makes them have the potential to develop music.

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ARABA MI UÇAK MI?

Ülkemiz on yedi bin adalıdır, iki yüz milyon nüfusludur. Adalararası insanlar nasıl ulaşır, bu gerçekten bizim büyük problemimiz. Devlet on yedi bin köprü yapamaz. Onun dışında, toprağımız çok dengesiz olduğu için yollar sürekli bozuluyor.

Endonezya halkının yarısı Java adasında yaşıyor. Orada ulaşım gelişti. Arabalar, motosikletler şehirden şehire kolayca geçer. Ama başka adalarda öyle bir şey yok. Mesela Kalimantan ve İrian adaları yüzde seksen orman olduğu için sadece doğu taraftaki şehirlere ulaşabiliyor.

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TEKNOLOJİ HEP GÜZEL DEĞİL

Bugün herkesin hayatı çok rahat geçer. Çoğu insan fark etmez ama biz gerçekten çok dinlenerek yaşarız. Otobüsle okula gidiyor, cep telefonuyla konuşuyor, kredi kartıyla ödüyor vb. Şimdi ben size bir soru soruyorum. Şimdiki dünyamız eskiye göre daha iyi mi, daha kötü mü?

Beş yüzyıl önce herkes atla ya da yürüyerek yolculuk ederlerdi. Mektuplar gönderir aylarca beklerdi ve bazen alıcıya varmazdı. Televizyon, radyo ve gazeteler yoktu. Haberler sadece ağızdan ağıza yayılırdı. Böyle bir hayat şimdiki zamana getirilse herkes deli olabilir. Bütün akıl hastanelerisi dolu olabilecek.

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