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

Key Concepts in Geography and Geomorphology

• Altitude: In any system, this refers to the topographic height of a place above sea level.
• Archipelago: This means a group or set of islands that are scattered nearby in a sea.
• Badlands: A geomorphological phenomenon that develops in soils formed by inconsistent material, where there is no plant protection, and which alternates between long hot dry periods and heavy rains.
• Bay: A portion of the sea that enters the land, with smaller dimensions than those of a gulf, formed by the effect of sea erosion.
• Cape (Cabo): A portion of land extending into the sea; it is often located at the end of a bay.
• Campinas: Large clay areas characterized by soft modeling, with alternating ridges, hills, and valleys, formed

Legal Definition and Classification of Crimes

The Penal Code of 1982 defines a crime as an act committed voluntarily, freely, and maliciously, or an omission that is prohibited by law and punishable by a penalty. Crimes are actions or voluntary omissions punished by law.

Classification of Crimes

Crimes are categorized into serious penal infractions and faults, with faults being minor penal infractions. Crimes are classified based on several criteria:

1. Manifestation of the Action: How the criminal act is expressed.
2. Relation to the Problematic: Distinguishing between formal and material crimes.
3. Nature: The inherent characteristics of the offense.
4. Determination of the Subject: Who commits the crime.
5. Active Order of Prosecutability: The process by which

The Organization

The organization is a graphical representation of the formal structure of a company. Classes of organization are divided according to:

• Information: Intended to provide an overview of the company.
• Structure-analytical charts: Designed to understand the total structure, including organizational units, reflecting the integrated relationships.

Extension

• General organization: Reflects the overall organizational structure of the company.
• Organization: Concerns a specific business department.

Content

• Organizational Structure: Represents the various units of the company and its relationships.
• Organizational Functionals: Represents the functions of each organizational entity.
• Personal: Indicates the units represented, their rank, and the name

Energy in Spain: Sources, Consumption, and Dependence

Energy sources are the resources that provide useful energy for various applications, such as industry. Spain exemplifies a balance of energy sources and significant energy dependence, as its energy consumption consistently exceeds domestic production.

Increased energy consumption in Spain, driven by industrialization, reached its peak from 1960 onwards. This surge was a direct result of rapid urban development, industrial expansion, and the growth of energy production for transport. The production of energy in Spain takes place from sources such as coal, nuclear energy, hydroelectric power, oil, and natural gas.

Primary Energy Sources and Their Classification

Energy sources are classified based... Continue reading "Spain's Energy Landscape: Sources, Consumption, and Dependence" »

Cantabrian Slope Rivers and Climate

The Cantabrian slope is characterized by rivers and a regular, heavy-rain oceanic climate. These rivers are typically short and fast due to the close proximity of the Cantabrian Mountains to the sea. They possess significant erosive power, carving steep slopes, gorges, and ravines before emptying into estuaries.

Notable rivers include the Bidasoa, which forms the border between Spain and Portugal, the Nervión, flowing into the Bilbao estuary, the Sella, emptying near Ribadesella, and the Nalón in Asturias.

Atlantic Coast River Systems

Galician Rivers and the Miño Basin

Galician rivers, particularly within the Miño basin, exhibit significant water volume due to abundant rainfall and low evaporation rates. The... Continue reading "Major River Systems of the Iberian Peninsula" »

Bathroom Safety Zones

Understanding V0, V1, V2, and V3 Zones

V0 Zone

With Bathtub or Shower Head: Inside the bathtub or shower enclosure.

Without Shower Head and with Fixed Plate: Bounded horizontally by the edges of the plate and vertically from the floor to 0.05m above the floor.

With Movable Shower Head: Bounded by a vertical plane with a 1.2m radius around the water outlet, effectively enclosing the area intended to be occupied by the user.

With Fixed Shower Head: Bounded by a vertical plane with a 0.6m radius around the shower head.

V1 Zone

Extends horizontally 2.25m from the V0 zone and vertically from the floor to 2.25m above the floor. This includes the space accessible without tools.

With Movable Shower Head: Limited by a vertical plane with... Continue reading "Bathroom Safety Zones for Shower and Tub Installations" »

Stone Age: The materials Palaeolithic people used to make their first tools belonged to a set of rocks and minerals with little variety, but with certain properties in common: hard, tough, fragile, and exhibiting a conchoidal fracture. The variety lies in their composition of silicon compounds. In some areas where materials were inaccessible, siliceous stems were used, such as caliza. At first, these tools were crude, but later the technique was perfected to fabricate more complex tools. In the Lower Paleolithic, fire was discovered. This allowed humans to move from simple exploitation and the precarious nature of processing activities. With Homo sapiens came the apogee of Paleolithic technology, developing "carving techniques" and using other... Continue reading "Stone Age to Metal Age: Tools, Materials, and Technological Advancements" »

Solar Photovoltaic Applications: Powering Our World

Solar photovoltaic (PV) devices can supply a wide range of electrical appliances. These applications are broadly classified into two main groups:

1. Isolated Network Applications (Off-Grid PV)

These are stand-alone installations where electricity generation is used for self-consumption. Within this category, you can find:

• Space Applications: Powering satellites and spacecraft.
• Rural Electrification: Individual systems providing power to remote areas.
• Lighting: Stand-alone solar lighting solutions for various environments.
• Photovoltaic Water Pumping: This is one of the major applications of photovoltaics. Its main advantage is that it often does not require batteries, as solar energy is directly transformed

Mechanisms of Heat Transfer

Conduction

The process by which heat passes through a solid is called conduction. In this process, there is no mass transport of heat energy. It only occurs when different parts of a body are at different temperatures.

Convection

Convection is the process by which heat is transferred through a fluid by the movement of the fluid itself. For example, as water is heated, the warmer, less dense portion rises while the cooler, more dense portion sinks, establishing a convection current.

Radiation

Radiation is the process by which an energy source emits and transmits energy in the form of electromagnetic waves, which do not require a material medium to travel. Any body with a temperature above 0 Kelvin (absolute zero) emits... Continue reading "Principles of Heat Transfer and Matter Transformation" »

Catalonia's Geological Formation: Paleozoic Era

During the Paleozoic Era, the area that would become Catalonia was part of a large oceanic basin where argillaceous materials were deposited. These materials, subjected to intense pressure, metamorphosed over millions of years into gneiss, schists, and slates, which now outcrop in the coastal mountains and the Pyrenees Axial Zone.

The Ebro Massif occupies much of the central depression. The Hercynian folding gave rise to the Catalano-Balearic massif, which joined the Ebro Massif, forming a gulf open to the southwest.

Mesozoic Era

During the Mesozoic Era, the sea again invaded most of the land, a condition that persisted until the Cenozoic Era. This period saw the deposition of calcareous materials... Continue reading "Catalonia's Geological Formation: A Deep Dive into its Origins" »