Fourth Location: Sturge Island (Balleny Islands)

Well, I'm in a weird place now.

Guess where I am... Antartica! Well, not really the main continent. I'm on one of those islands around it called Sturge Island (67°27'40.33"S 164°42'3.78"E), and man, I thought Mt. Everest was cold. This place is torture! It was also really hard for me to get here because the only airline that went to Antartica was this really shady one called Antartic Airlines... Sturge Island is southeast of Australia and is located in the Southern Ocean. And sadly, this island is uninhabited by people. But thankfully, there are penguins!

Sturge Island

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joe_ruffles/4725777350/

Sturge Island is one of three islands in the Balleny Island group and is the biggest of the three. The other two islands, Young and Buckle, are northwest of Sturge and form a mini Hawaii. I also discovered that these islands are close to a divergent boundary! Finally! But how these islands relate to the boundary is a little more complicated. As said in my previous posts, a divergent boundary is when two plates move apart and leave a gap in the middle. Molten rock from the mantle then flows within this gap to form new, young rock. These areas are called hotspots. The nearby divergent boundary created a hotspot called the Balleny Hotspot. As molten rock flowed into the hotspot, it hardened and created the Balleny Islands. Because the islands are right on top of a hotspot, the molten rock under the rocks constantly heats them up and generates volcanic activity.

Not the hotspot in the middle of the Mid-ocean ridge.

http://gomyclass.com/geology10/files/lecshare1/html/web_data/file50.htm

Wait a second, couldn't all of this information be used to prove that divergent boundaries exist? This is perfect for Jimmy! Then, out of the corner of my eye, I finally saw Jimmy Lin! He achieved his dream of finding proof of a divergent boundary and can finally go home. We are going to go back to Seattle on that sketchy airline, and I will have to end this series of blog posts. It was interesting to learn so much about plate tectonics as I was looking for Jimmy. This was really a trip worth going on!

Goodbye! Jerry Wu.

Third Location: Mt. Everest

Its Jerry Wu again!

Mt. Everest is as cold as it is tall. I can't believe how some people live out here! Some people even manage to climb to the top. How is that even possible? Maybe I will be able to do that someday... Anyways, what I am really curious about is how this is a tectonic boundary. Mt. Everest (27°59'15.72"N 86°55'30.98"E) is located in the middle of Asia and is part of the Himalayan Mountains. It is also the tallest mountain in the world and probably the most well known. But the question still is how does it relate to a tectonic boundary?

Mt. Everest

http://claudiadchristian.com/blog/2010/12/whats-your-mt-everest/

As it turns out, this type of boundary is quite the opposite of the divergent boundary I am looking for. The Himalayan Mountain range is an example of a convergent collision boundary. A collision boundary differs from a subduction boundary because neither of the two plates goes under the other in a collision boundary. As I said before in my previous post, a subduction boundary is when two plates smash together and one of them sinks into the mantle and under the other plate. In a collision boundary, the plates just press together and "fold" upward, forming large mountains that includes the Himalayas. The Himalayas formed when the Indian subcontinent smashed into Asia about 50 million years ago and created a convergent collision boundary. When the two land masses crashed into each other, the land bent upward and formed the tallest mountains in the world. 

When plates collide...

http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/tectonics/tectonics-collide.html

Well, theres absolutely no hope of finding Jimmy here since Mt. Everest is the opposite of what he is looking for. I really need to think about where I am going next before I leave the Himalayas. I'm running out of travel money! I heard of a divergent boundary close to Antartica, but I never thought about going there. This is a desperate situation however, and dire problems require dire solutions.

So Antartica, here I come!

Second Location: San Andreas Fault

Hi again, its Jerry Wu!

I'm on the West coast of California near San Francisco studying the infamous San Andreas Fault line. Before this, however, I was enjoying myself in the big city of San Francisco where I ate more food and learned how to surf. It feels good to be back in the United States!

http://jimcoda.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/san-francisco-skyline-and-alcatraz/

Well anyways, back to business. The San Andreas Fault line (39° 0'14.25"N 123°41'48.00"W) turned out to be an entirely different type of tectonic boundary! This boundary is neither a divergent or convergent boundary. Instead, it is known as a transform boundary. Whereas divergent boundaries consist of plates moving apart and convergent boundaries consist of plates smashing together, a transform boundary involves plates sliding against each other. Imagine the two sides of a road. On the right side, the cars are moving forward, and on the left, the cars are moving the other direction. In a transform boundary, the two plates are moving like the cars on the road. One plate is heading one direction, and the other is moving in the opposite direction. However, they are not moving apart. Instead they are moving side by side. This diagram ought to explain the differences of the boundaries clearly:

http://brittanyrutter.wikispaces.com/Transform+boundaries

The San Andreas Transform Fault line has been known to be the cause of many notable earthquakes in the past. This boundary also caused the famous San Francisco earthquake in 1906 that killed over 3000 people to occur. More recently in 2004, it caused another earthquake that had a magnitude of 6 to be felt throughout most of California. Although all of this information about transform boundaries and earthquakes is very intriguing, I still haven't found out anything about Jimmy's whereabouts! He must be at a divergent boundary. The problem is, I don't know where one would be! Using my basic knowledge of plate tectonics, I reasoned that the Himalayas were some sort of tectonic boundary. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that it is a boundary that Jimmy would go to!

Bye for now, Jerry Wu.

First Location: Shizuoka Prefecture

Well, here I am in Shizuoka!

This city is very different from Seattle. Shizuoka is a city located in the southern area of Japan. A lot of the locals here are very interested in rugby! Who would have guessed? Also the sushi and ramen noodles here are AMAZING. Anyways, after some research, I found that earthquakes occur in Shizuoka (34°58'32.02"N 138°22'57.94"E) about every hundred years. In fact, it happens so periodically and consistently that the earthquakes have been given a name and are called the Tokai Earthquakes. The Tokai Earthquakes are known to be of disastrous proportions. In March of 2011, the Shizuoka Prefecture was hit with another supposed Tokai Earthquake that had a magnitude of 6.2. Although the initial earthquake did not hurt the city too much, another earthquake with a magnitude of 9 hit a week later and devastated the city of Shizuoka. Luckily, the city has been doing well in recovering from the impact and is faring well today.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6354.html

After more research, I found that the cause of the earthquakes is not a divergent boundary, but rather a convergent subduction boundary. In a divergent boundary, two plates move apart and leave a gap for molten rock to fill in and form a boundary. Convergent boundaries are the opposite. In the case of a convergent boundary, the plates smash together and form an entirely new type of boundary. A convergent subduction boundary is a special type of boundary in which one of the plates slides under the other plate and moves into a lower layer of the earth, known as the mantle.

A diagram showing a subduction boundary

http://www.geo.cornell.edu/hawaii/220/PRI/PRI_PT_subduction.html

Shizuoka is very close to a subduction boundary. The subduction boundary is probably what causes all of these massive Tokai Earthquakes. As the plate slowly moves under Shizuoka, it causes earthquakes in the city that can be felt every hundred years or so. This solves the mystery of the recurring earthquakes in Shizuoka, but I still have no idea about my friend Jimmy! Knowing him and how he pursues his dreams, he probably went to search for a divergent boundary. After talking to a Japanese professor, I learned of another type of boundary in San Andreas, California. Maybe Jimmy has traveled there to find proof of a divergent boundary! Well, California, here I come!

See'ya around! Jerry Wu

Introduction

Hi guys, I need some help.

My name is Jerry Wu, and I am currently attending Bellevue College. My friend, Jimmy Lin, mysteriously disappeared when he was traveling across the Pacific to Japan. Jimmy is researching plate tectonics and dreams about finding proof of a divergent boundary and discovering the effects of it. However, its been months and months, and I still have no idea where he is! Before he left, he told me he was going to Shizuoka, Japan, to research a strange phenomenon of recurring earthquakes in that area. Could these earthquakes prove that divergent boundaries exist and satisfy Jimmy's dream? I don't know, and in order to find my friend and learn more about plate tectonics, I will first travel to Shizuoka where I might find some hints of Jimmy's whereabouts.

Bellevue College

http://lmnarchitects.com/work/parking_facility_bellevue_community_college

Wish me luck, Jerry Wu.