PSC Photo Blog

This picture is from June 4, 2025 and taken in Avila. These layers were exposed due to erosion from the weathering and from the human activity. They mostly look like the same kinds of rock and matieral but there's lots of lines in it which look like many were put on top of eachother in different layers. I think it must've taken thousands or millions of years to build up such a tall rock/cliff area.

This week is a volcanic feature! Per Mr. Hollis's advice, my friend and I went to Avila to explore the basalt. I researched a little and it says that this feature formed 16-18ish million years ago from subduction of the Farallon plate under the North American plate. As the Farallon plate went under it melted, which then generated magma that rose through the Earth's crust. In some areas along the coast like Avila Beach, this magma erupted at the surface as lava, forming basaltic flows.Those flows eventually cooled and solidified as basalt. Over the next millions of years, erosion exposed the volcanic rocks along the coastline which is why we can see some at Avila. I think it would make sense that they were intrusive because of their formation.

This picture is from Avila on June 4, 2025. The picture shows a man-made rock wall that is between the parking lot and the ocean. People built this structure to try to slow and stop erosion so that way the resturants and docks and parking lot can stay there for a while. I think that it's somewhat successful but that erosion will always happen and will always win out in the end. I think it would've used to been either rocky shore or maybe some beach, but now there's a built rock wall structure with pipes too so that way the water doesn't keep breaking down the land.

Atmospheric Process!!!!! This photo is from June 2, 2025 and shows the atmosphereic process of clouds forming. It is a giant size scale of miles as far as I can see and so very up high. The conditions for clouds to form has to have moisture and heat. The heat will bring up water vapor gas because it rises because of convection until the humidity is too high and no more water can fit into the air. There will be cooling and create little particles of water that form the clouds that condense. It won't stay forever, only until the temperatures increase and the cloud particles can go back into the air.

Weathering! This is weathering of a rock in my backyard. It's about 1 foot long and half a foot tall. This pictures were taken June 2, 2025 at 5:30pm. This rock is an example of weathering because it has experienced weathering for its whole life. It's definitely expirienced weathering in the past and I think it will continue to. It's mostly physical weathering I think because it gets broken apart from wind, temperature, and water getting in it moreso than chemically being altered. Some evidence is that it's not in any perfect shape and you can see areas of it that looks like it's been cracked and broken apart. I think it probably started as a way bigger rock and has slowly broken down for thousands of years to get to the size it is now.

Single Mineral!!!!! I chose Tantulum as my single mineral. I found it in the Liberal Studies office periodic table display on April 30, 2025. It's commonly found in Austria, Nigeria, and Brazil, as well as other places that have lots of granite and igneous rocks. It's mined from open-pit and underground mines. It's usually extracted from ore minerals like columbite-tantalite, aand is always found in conjuction with niobium. The process of that includes leaching seperation and reduction. It can also be a byproduct from tin mining operations. Though it's pretty rare, it's used in electronic curcits and capacitors which then goes into making TVs, phones, battery chargers, etc. It's useful because it's very durable and hard and has a high melting point which means it has a lot of resistence to heat. Though it's mostly used for electronics, it's used in a lot of other things, too, like jewelry, spacecrafts, superalloys used in tanks and missles. Howeve...