Tornadoes in Missouri

A tornado hit a town in Missouri last month. It killed many people and caused a hospital to catch on fire. Schools, fire departments, large stores and churches, along with lots of houses, were also ruined. The tornado was very strong, but they weren't able to figure that out very well beforehand because it was surrounded by rain. This makes it hard to tell how bad the damage will be.

I've never experienced a tornado or anything like that personally, but stories of them always seem shocking and scary, because nobody can do anything to prevent them. People can only warn areas of disasters, but since the disasters are not caused by people, we can't stop them happening. Anything uncontrollable like this is terrible when it hits an area with lots of people.

Acid Rain in Pennsylvania Questions

1. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are the gases that cause acid rain.
2. In Pennsylvania, most of the sulfur dioxide comes from power plants that burn coal (the coal has a lot of sulfur in it). Nitrogen oxide comes from power plants too, but it mostly comes from other sources: cars, fertilizers used in farming, lightning, etc.
3. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere mix with water to form different acids. The acids then mix in with rain, making acid rain.

Mudslides in Guatemala

In Guatemala they are having lots of mudslides that kill people and ruin homes, crops and more.

Some natural things that cause the mudslides are earthquakes, hurricanes, and lots of heavy rain.

One thing that humans do that makes the soil more susceptible to mudslides and also makes more room for them to happen is that they cut down trees.

The Alliance for International Reforestation is helping by planting more trees in the area. They also give people stoves that don't need much wood so they won't need to cut down as many trees.

Global Temperature Graph

This is a graph showing global temperature over 1,030 years, approximately from 1880 to 2010. Each mark shows ten years. The vertical axis shows the temperature. Each mark on it is one tenth of a degree Celsius, from -.4 to .6 (one degree total). The graph shows the mean for each year and the mean for every five years. The page it came from says the data came from “air and ocean data from weather stations, ships and satellites” and also that it came from NASA. 

Global Warming/Global Temperature

These are some questions about global temperature. I have no idea what the answers are so I'm guessing at what I think.

What do you think the global average temperature is? I have no idea what the global average temperature is, because there are so many different areas with very different temperatures, but I'm guessing it might be between 40°F and 80°F, definitely less than 80°.

How much do you think the average global temperature has increased in the past 100 years? In the past 100 years I think the global temperature might have increased 10-20 degrees or less.

What do you think is the hottest the Earth has ever been?How about the coldest the Earth has ever been? I think the hottest the Earth has ever been might be around 80°F or higher. The coldest is probably below -1 to -10°F because of the ice ages.

Are you concerned about "global warming?" I am a little concerned about global warming because it could change a lot of things, but I'm not sure if it will happen while I'm alive or not.

Grassland soil and forest soil

Apparently, if an area has a lot of rainfall, it can have forest soil, but if it doesn't get as much rain that makes it a grassland soil. This is because if an area has a lot of rain, it makes very good soil and trees can grow there. It's wet enough in these areas so trees can survive. In grassland areas, there might be enough rain to produce good soil, but only enough so that grass can grow. Grass doesn't need as much water as trees, so if there is less rain trees can't grow, but grass will, making it a grassland. More water in an area means that the rocks weathers more quickly and forms more topsoil faster, which is better for growing things.

Mass Movement (Soil Creep)

Soil creep is soil moving down a hill very slowly, usually less than an inch a year, because the ground is freezing, and then thawing out. When it freezes the ground is pushed upward and when it thaws it drops down a little lower on the slope than it was. Soil creep can move fences and things like that a little bit.