Blog #7

So through this entire semester we have learned about many things that actually connect to our everyday living. We learned that the earth takes twenty four hours to rotate around, hence how we have day and night. It takes a full year for it to orbit around the earth, and the earth tilts toward and away from the sun and that is how we have longer days than nights on certain parts of the year and vice versa.
We also learned about the times of the year when we reach the peak (or equinox of a season). The circulation of wind is caused by different types of air pressure, and with wind, comes different weather patterns. I learned that violent storms are usually a Cold Front storm and calmer more gradually spread out storms are more of a warm front.
I learned that there are different climates of weathers and that the northern part of California is a Mediterranean biome.
The different layers of the earth are made from different things, from solid rock, to plastic, to liquid magma, to solid iron. The outermost layer of the earth is the crust and it is made of plates that move and is constantly, yet slowly changing the face of the earth, as countries and continents will forever be moving.

Blog #6

Recently we started to discuss the building and breaking down of mountains. Living in Sacramento we do not get to see actual mountains. However I have driven all up and down the westside of this country and I have seen the Rockies, Sierras, and Grand Canyon. A lot of the Rockies is sedimentary rock, and the Sierra Nevada's are Limestone. This building up process of these mountain ranges has taken years, and since they are still young and the plates are still constantly moving, they will continue to grow higher and higher. But due to the active movement of our Pacific plate, there are extreme differences in California. Death Valley ( the lowest point in the United States of America) and Mount Whitney ( the highest point in the United States) are literally only about one hundred and fifty miles apart.
This active movement might be another reason our weather patterns have slowly changed. Along with global warming, these two factors have to be the two biggest reasons why we are still having seventy five degree weather in Northern California, in December. As the plates move further north, so will the weather patterns, but since the north is getting warmer, so will we.

Blog #5

So we are in December now, and still have clear sunny skies out here in Sacramento and California in general. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I know it is still freezing cold to me at night time. I get sick a lot living in Sacramento. It is a dry cold, until it rains and that makes me more vulnerable to get sick.
This far into the winter season usually consists of cold, rain, and the flu. Once December hit last year, I was in layers and layers of clothes, along with a beenie and tube socks. This year i'm still in shorts, and a hoody.
I plan on moving to Southern California in the Fall of 2010 for the remainder of my college career. From what I hear, Southern California is a lot sunnier throughout the entire year. Winter included it is still in the Mid 70s for the most part of the calendar year. This is the type of weather I can get used to. I love living in the Bay Area, and can tolerate living in Sacramento, but it is too wet and cold for me.

Blog #4

The past week and a half we have been discussing platectonics and the movement of the plates within our earth. Growing up in the Bay Area, we were constantly reminded about the possibilities of having "the big one" and what that can do to the state and it's economy and how many people can possibly be injured in such a catastrophic event. Living in Fremont, we had two major faults run straight through our city. The Hayward fault, runs through the south part of the city and actually runs right underneath the police station. While, the San Andreas fault runs through the western part of the city. Fremont can be a major spot for an earthquake because of this. Living in Sacramento, we are virtually in an earthquake safe zone because of the hills between the valley and the faults. However, this doesn't mean that we may not feel some of the tremor if the earthquake was large enough.
Overall, the state of California is highly vulnerable to an earthquake, because the mass part of it's population and sources of economy live along the entire coast from San Diego to San Francisco. This means that we need to take major precautions in how we design our buildings, homes, bridges and overall infestrucure in California. This is a main reason why the Bay Bridge has continually been worked on since early September, in order to maintain the highest safety standards, but we truly won't know how well any of our infestructure can withstand one, until that "big one" really occurs.

Blog #3

I went back home to the bay area this last weekend. I noticed the difference in the air quality and smog along with the level of humidity and moisture in the air. When I first arrived in the bay, I noticed how the air was fresher because of the constant bay breeze coming through the shore. I also noticed the intensity of the sun is a lot less extreme. This was difficult to adjust back to after living in Sacramento for over a year now. When it hit night time the fog began to roll in. Now I have lived in Sacramento for long enough to get adjusted the the climate out here. I noticed the fog is still thicker in Sacramento, but it only shows up in the winter times unlike the bay area where it is there year round. I also noticed a difference in the air also. When the breeze comes in, in the bay area it is a cool refreshing breeze. While Sacramento and the entire valley is more of a frozen and nippy wind. This has been one thing that has taken some time to adjust. Last winter I got sick constantly because I was not used to wearing many layers during winter. In the bay area I wore shorts and long sleeve shirts during winter and was just fine.

Blog # 2

For the past two days the entire state of California has experiencing a cold front system working into our weather patterns. This cold front storm was a violent, wet, and windy storm that lasted about two and a half days long. This caused many power outages and car accidents around the city of Sacramento. Because this was the first storm of the season of course all the oils on the streets and highways were causing the roads to be a lot slicker than normal. Along with these accidents and power outages came flooded areas around Sacramento and the entire Central Valley, and caused many trees to be knocked over by the heavy waters and violent winds.
Back in the Bay Area, where my family still lives, there was just as violent storming dumping out there. However, the major difference I have noticed since living in the Bay Area as compared to Sacramento, is that the roads are a lot better designed for the raining season out in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. I did receive a phone call from my family informing me that all the rain had triggered an earthquake back home, the magnitude however I am unaware of.
This violent cold front storm is exactly what we were told would happen in class. It was only two and a half days long. But it was violent, wet, windy, and extremely colder than it was during the constant temperature of the last few weeks.

Blog Assignment 1

I've noticed that as we've gotten closer to the autumn equinox, the days have gotten shorter and the nights have progressively gotten longer and longer. During the peak of summer the days were extremely long, with sun rise coming around 6am and not setting till nearly 9pm. Now the sun is starting to rise around 7am and is setting around 7pm. We are now only two days away from the autumn equinox and even though the weather is still really hot, the nights are still getting colder and longer.
I just returned from a trip to Los Angeles and I noticed the same thing out there. Even though the Troposphere and Atmosphere in Los Angeles is polluted and dirty, the days were still hot yet it was getting dark alot sooner than it was over the peak of the summer months. Along with that, I also noticed the change of temperature from an inner city area as compared to an open rural area. In downtown Sacramento and Los Angeles I noticed that it felt warmer and slightly more humid as compared to the Elk Grove area and the Laguna area of Los Angeles. This now makes more sense to me on what we were talking about in class with the population density and the wind patterns changing the temperature of an area.