Goodbye!

Thanks for coming on this tour with me! I learned so much about plate boundaries, and got to see amazing sights and take lots of beautiful pictures. I’m heading back to the United States now to show National Geographic the photos that I took. Here are some that remind me of all of the places that I visited:

Picture 1: http://www.cruise-addicts.com/
Picture 2: http://www.islandvulnerability.org/
Picture 3: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech
Picture 4: http://www.rodsbot.com/?c=706

Red Sea

I just arrived at the final stop of my tectonic plate boundary photo journey: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea (21 degrees north, 39 degrees east) and a major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. I decided to take a walk around, and was amazed by the amount of artwork everywhere! During the oil boom in the late 70’s and 80’s, there was a focused civic effort to bring art to Jeddah, which is why it contains a large number of modern open-air sculptures and works of art. Most of this art is situated in roundabouts, making Jeddah one of the largest open-air galleries in the world! But now I am done with my walk, and ready to learn about the Red Sea! According to my research book, it was formed by the African Plate and the Arabian Plate splitting apart. It is a divergent boundary, and is actually still being formed. The weaknesses between the diverging plates fill with molten rock from below. Seawater cools the molten rock, which quickly solidifies and forms new oceanic lithosphere. This continuous process builds a chain of volcanoes and rift valleys. A number of volcanic islands rise from the center of the Red Sea. Most of them are dormant, but Jabal al-Tair Island, located at the mouth of the Red Sea, erupted in 2007, and an eruption among the Zubair islands followed in 2011.

Picture 1: http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/pltec/diverge.html

Picture 2: http://www.vulkaner.no/v/volcan/zubair.html

The Himalayas

I am now in India, to visit the Himalayan Mountains! I was sad to leave New Zealand, but where I am now is truly incredible. I am at Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India! I am positioned at about 30°22′33″N 79°58′15″E, according to the map in my research book. This thing has been really useful on this trip! The tectonic boundary that formed the Himalayan range is a continental collision, which means the plates pushed so hard against each other that they both pushed up and formed mountains. This causes earthquakes, and the Himalayas continue to grow every year. The last major earthquake occurred in September 2011. There are no volcanoes in this area because you need magma to come up in order to form a volcano, which happens when two plates are moving apart, or one plate is moving under another. I can’t resist taking some photos! I’m captivated by the line of the jagged peaks, and I can’t wait to explore the valleys, glaciers, and rivers that surround me.


Picture 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanda_Devi

Picture 2: http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/tectonics/tectonics-collide.html

Southern Alps

Next stop: South Island, New Zealand! I was a bit jetlagged because of the time change, so I decided to take a nap at my hotel this morning. I am staying in the town of Arthur’s Pass, located at 42 degrees south, 171 degrees east. Now I’m all rested up and ready to explore. I am currently in the Southern Alps at the Alpine Fault, which runs almost the entire length of South Island. The Alpine Fault forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate, which means the two plates are sliding past each other. This type of boundary causes many earthquakes and changes in the earth. This is how the Southern Alps were formed. The most recent earthquake at the Alpine Fault was in 2009 in the region of Fiordland. No injuries or fatalities were reported, but landslides in the Fiordland National Park cleared large tracts of forest and the earthquake moved South Island thirty centimeters closer to Australia. I’ve been taking lots of pictures today. A kea, which is a large parrot, even flew by and almost took my camera! It’s a good thing I grabbed the camera before it was too late, otherwise my assignment would’ve been over before it really even started! I’m heading back into town now, maybe I’ll walk around a bit or go out for dinner. More photos and discoveries coming soon!

P.S. Maybe I should go camping while I’m here!


Picture 1: http://goaustralia.about.com/od/animalsandbirds/ig/Animals-and-Birds/Kea.htm
Picture 2: http://www.gweaver.net/techhigh/projects/period1_2/Yellowstone/Plate%
20Tectonics.html

Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc

The first stop of my tectonic plate boundaries journey is the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc. It is a collection of volcanic islands on the eastern side of the Caribbean Plate, in contact with the South American Plate. I looked in my research book, and found out that this eastern boundary is a subduction zone, where oceanic crust of the South American Plate is being subducted under the Caribbean Plate. This process has formed many volcanic islands, from the Virgin Islands in the north to the islands off the coast of Venezuela in the south. This area contains seventeen active volcanoes! I am staying at a little hotel on the island of Guadeloupe, where I can visit La Grande Soufrière: the highest mountain peak in the Lesser Antilles and located at 16°03′N 61°40′W. The last time it erupted was in 1977. This resulted in evacuation, but no loss of life. I arrived early this morning, and didn’t waste any time. I went straight to La Grande Soufrière to begin taking pictures for National Geographic. I’m off now to get some shots of the sunset, just for fun- I’ll post them later!


Picture 1: http://blog.esl-languages.com/en/esl/volcanoes-read/
Picture 2: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2000/ofr-00-0365/Fig3.htm

Welcome!

Hi, and welcome to my blog on plate tectonics! I am a photographer for National Geographic, and I have just been given my first major assignment. My task is to travel around the world to different sites that are tectonic plate boundaries. I'm going to be taking lots of pictures, and trying to learn as much as I can about plate tectonics along the way! I have my research book and my camera, and I'm ready to explore some new and very interesting places. I hope National Geographic likes my photos, too. Wish me luck, and stay tuned for my discoveries!


Picture: http://www.americanhiking.org/partners/corporate/


Disclaimer: This blog is not based off of a real trip. It is purely a fictional assignment to learn about plate tectonics in my earth science class.