Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Geology

Wood Diseases: Defects, Alterations, and Protection

Understanding Wood Defects

Wood can exhibit various issues that impact its quality and structural integrity. These can be broadly categorized into problems, defects, and alterations.

Common Wood Defects

• Problems: Knots, heart offset, and similar issues that occur during the tree's growth period.
• Defects: Modify the structural order, such as bark inclusions and double sapwood.
• Alterations: Include cracks, decay, and other forms of damage.

Qualities of Good Wood

A high-quality piece of wood typically possesses the following characteristics:

• Straight grain
• Regularity in the annual rings
• Fresh smell
• Absence of cracks
• Shiny and smooth surface when ripped

Specific Wood Defects Explained

• Knots: A localized anomaly

Landforms and Geological Agents

Forms of relief are shaped by geological agents and influenced by weather patterns.

Factors Influencing Landforms

• Weather
• Human population density
• Vegetation and fauna
• Ground viewpoint
• Subjective aspects

Geological Agents and Relief Modeling

Geological agents, such as rivers, play a crucial role in modeling relief:

• Rivers: Modeling river waters originates wild streams, U-shaped karst waters.
• Coastal wind: Wind modeling.

Climate is a significant factor influencing the type of landscape.

Geologic agents include weather, vegetation, wildlife, and human activities.

The atmosphere influences weather phenomena, climate temperature, and rainfall. Air tends to flow from anticyclones towards depressions, causing wind.

Weathering Processes

Weathering... Continue reading "Landforms and Geological Agents: Shaping Our Environment" »

Environmental Terms Defined

Environment

It's the natural world that surrounds us.

Drought

It's the lack of water and it's related to environmental problems.

Supply

It's the place where I obtain certain resources.

Population

People that live in a determinate place.

Dams

Constructions that are prepared to contain water.

Recycling

It is the process by which you use old material to create a new product.

Environmental Problems

Pollution

It's when the air, water, or earth are damaged or spoiled by gases, toxic waste, or garbage.

Famine

When there is a lack of water.

Species Becomes Extinct

The species disappear completely.

Deforestation

When trees are cut down massively.

The Greenhouse Effect

The gradual warming of the Earth's surface caused by an increase in pollution... Continue reading "Environmental and Weather Terms Defined" »

Psychology of Space

The psychology of space provides insight into how the proper environment makes a person feel and perform. Design elements like lines, space distribution, materials, color, textures, lighting, and installations all play a crucial role.

Lines in Design

Different types of lines can make spaces easier or more difficult to navigate, create dynamism or stability, unity or confusion within an environment. A predominance of vertical lines in a room makes the ceiling seem higher. Upholstered chairs with vertical stripes also produce a sensation of added height, while horizontal stripes make it seem lower. Parallel lines are always harmonious and characteristic, conveying a sense of pleasure and repetitive tranquility. Curved lines can... Continue reading "Space Psychology & Design Elements" »

Materials: A Historical Perspective

Material is anything used to create something, any conglomeration of matter and mass. The history of civilization is linked to the history of materials.

The Stone Age

The Stone Age is the prehistoric period in which humans created tools from natural materials like stone, leather, and wood.

The Bronze Age

The Bronze Age marks the period when humans developed and created the first metal tools.

The Iron Age

The Iron Age represents a significant leap forward, with humans creating more advanced tools and weapons like spears and knives.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution, spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, was driven by discoveries such as plastics, silicon derivatives, computers, and textile fibers.... Continue reading "Materials: History, Types, and Properties" »

Lithosphere Dynamics: Creation and Destruction

Oceanic vs. Continental Lithosphere

In the oceanic lithosphere, processes involving creation at divergent boundaries and destruction at convergent boundaries (subduction zones) generally balance each other. In contrast, the continental lithosphere is typically older because its creation rate is faster than its destruction rate, and growth primarily occurs at divergent boundaries.

Consequences of Plate Tectonics

Climate and Living Things

The movement of tectonic plates varies the arrangement of continents and oceans. This variation determines local climates and the distribution of different climatic zones across the planet, significantly impacting living organisms.

Geological Processes

The movement of... Continue reading "Lithosphere Dynamics, Plate Tectonics, and Seismic Activity" »

Elements of a Topographic Map

• Contours: These are the lines connecting points at the same altitude.
• Dimension: Sea level is the reference altitude.
• Equidistance: The difference in elevation between each contour line and the next.
• Scale: The relationship between the real size and the represented size.
• Orientation: An indication of the direction in which North lies.

Factors Influencing Water Erosion

• Climate
• The type of materials
• The slope
• Vegetation

Torrent

A stream with a fixed channel, short length, steep slopes, and irregular flow.

• Receiving area
• Drainage channel
• The alluvial fan

River Erosion

• Flow: A river erodes more when its flow is greater.
• The speed of the water: The more slope, the more erosion.

Transportation of Materials

• In solution
• In solid form: rolling,

Patagonian Andes and Fueguinos

They are isolated, separated by wide valleys. From Pino Hachado to Staten Island, they form two high-elevation areas (3,000 meters), separated by a sector with peaks not exceeding 2,500 meters above sea level. Key peaks include Lanín volcano and Tronador.

The last glaciation greatly influenced this landscape. Remnants persist as continental ice fields and glaciers like Perito Moreno.

Rivers originating here have great power, harnessed for hydroelectricity (e.g., Futaleufú Dam).

Temperature varies with altitude. Prevailing westerly winds bring heavy rainfall, especially in winter. Slopes are forested, with trees over 20 meters tall and an understory of shrubs and Colihue reeds.

Introduced plant and animal species... Continue reading "Patagonian Andes and Fueguinos: Mountains, Glaciers, and Wildlife" »

1. Structure of the Atmosphere

1.1. Lonosphere

Here, equi-rays and gamma rays are absorbed. Comets appear.

1.2. Mesosphere

It contains clouds of ice and dust.

1.3. Stratosphere

The ozone layer is located here.

1.4. Troposphere

It contains 80% of the total mass of Earth. It is where meteorological phenomena occur.

2. The Weather and the Climate

2.1. Weather

Weather refers to a series of atmospheric phenomena that occur at a specific moment in a specific place.

2.2. Climate

Climate refers to the main atmospheric phenomena in a specific region over a long period of time.

3. Atmospheric Phenomena

They occur in the troposphere and are responsible for changes in the weather. The wind and water in the air can cause these phenomena.

3.1. Atmospheric Phenomena Caused