Science disscusion

In my Science class we had a table discussion about ocean minerals. My thoughts while doing this had not been changed at all. That is because we all had the same or very similar answers. I think right once we started doing the discussions it was a bit rough but once we got into it a bit more.

Here is they summery  we wrote at the end of each question.
Why are these minerals so valuable?

We think that the reason minerals are valuable is because they have many uses, and they are hard to get
to and require a lot of money to get to, and we do not know who owns the minerals

Who should have the right to receive them or the profits?

We think that whoever gets them should have the power them, but should barging with other countries
that are poor and cannot afford t mine in the trade for the Oceans minerals. Also that the Ocean does
not belong to anyone, but for example maybe Cleveland want some minerals, and it is a landlocked state
so it gets permits from California to mine in the ocean that borders it. That country has money so they
do not have to make deals, but maybe Iran is poor and is landlocked so they can make a deal with a
country that borders an ocean and in return give them oil, because they are rich in oil.

What are the problems with mining in the Ocean?

Mining for minerals is deep and it costs a lot of money to get down there and if you get down there,
there may not be minerals and then you would have wasted a lot of money and time. It is also risky
because it can be life threatening. With its costs a country can lose a lot of money and then not be able
to gain it back, because there may not have been minerals down there and cannot sell them to gain
more money or even the money they spent on it. That can then put a country in an economical crisis if it
makes the same mistake a few times.

Who owns the Oceans minerals?

We think that no one owns them, and if they can go there they can mine there. Also have to have the
money for it and then the can split the funds. Also that no one owns them because there are no borders
on the oceans.

What are the rights?

We think that the rights are who goes there, mines there, if they have money, and then they can trade
with other countries so that it is available in other countries.

Quartz

      Quartz is one of the most mined mineral in America. To mine them you pull them out of a big hole. Sometimes you need dynamite in this equation. Quartz is surface mining. That means you mine at the surface or very close to it. You can say in one way that it is valuable because it has many uses, but there is so much of them so they are not rare. You use them for; radios, jewelery,  sandpaper, glass,  soap, and many, many more. They can be transparent or opaque.  You cannot say America only depends on quartz because there are many others that we need but they do play a big role in our life.  For all almost all minerals you you export them to get others. I think you should not export quartz the most but you should because quartz is very abundant.

Who Owns the Ocean's Minerals

There are some rich and poor countries as you know. Some can be next to minerals in the ocean but they cannot afford mining so other rich countries just take it all. It is a bit more cheap to mine at the continental shelf, but lower costs a lot more and needs more high tech equipment. I think that now that the minerals should be distributed fairly, not just one taking it all.

In 1994 the treaty that international sea's would stay but they made limits to how much a country could claim. One country could never have a whole entire ocean to itself.An International waterway is just another word for international waters. However the little bit of water in between two bits of land are still counted as international water, because they are so useful. E.E.Z. or exclusive economic zones are extending the right to get minerals offshore.They also made laws not to test nuclear weapons in international waters. In WWII people used the continental shelf as a thing to use as a land grab.

This is the Arctic

Now that there has been so much pollution so the world is heating up the Arctic is starting to melt. In some minds of the greedy that might be a good thing but in my mind I still think that it is horrible. That is because there, there is a 25% untapped oil and natural gas. However it is a underneath the ocean floor. While the Arctic melt the people who want them it is good because it is easier and cheaper. The consequence is that the shore lines  which will push the Arctic way from the resources. There are confluences for mining in water because if you are getting oil it could kill many animals if it spills.

In the Pacific ocean  they have a lot of one in particular. That mineral is salt. Mexico extracts the most salt. That now is very important, because we use it almost every day. We use it to, change the taste of food and to keep the meat fresh there are still more uses. We also extract Lead, Bromine, and Magnesium.

In the Atlantic ocean some of the minerals are calcium and limestone. They  also have chemical grade dolomite.Those are a lot of minerals. People from all different countries would be fighting for them because they all have multiple values in them. For example, you use calcium for chalk and some building.

You might ask, if there are minerals in the ocean who should get them. The way I think it should the happen is that the large countries should help the others then they should split the minerals. To others it is the coastal nations. The right of all minerals under the ocean floor always has to be changed.

In conclusion, all countries should help the others out and share the minerals. The oceans don't belong to anyone. There is only  a bit of water masses you can own for your country. This world is a complicated thing we want to learn more about.
 

Minerals

In my science class we needed to take notes on some questions. First question is, "What are the kinds of rocks" and my reply was Sedimentery, Igneous, and Metamorphic. Sedimentary rock is made when sediments harrdens together.Igneous rock is formed when a volcano erupts and some of the magma gets into something called a magma pool and then it cools, it can also happen outside of the volcano. Metamorphic rock is made when and igneous or sedimentary rock is under high pressure and great heat.  Here is a diagram of the rock cycle

 

A mineral must have all five of these traits, a solid, naturally made occurring, inorganic, fixed composition, and crystalline form. You might think a rock can't be a mineral but they can if they have all five of these traits. Iron is the most precuis mineral because it is vital for humans because we use it to build things like homes. Here are three minerals with a fact: iron which is used to build things, dimond forms at high pressure and heat, aluminum is a light meatal. Here are three rocks and a fact about them, granite which is used a lot in houses, scoria which has many holes, and halite which is made of cubes.

Here are the sites if you need them.

 

Mineral Density

Here is a lab we did in science class to see if the density of minerals depend on the size of them
Guiding question:

“Does the density of a mineral depend on the size of the mineral sample?”

Hypothesis:

“I think that if you take a big mineral it is more likely to be less dense than a smaller mineral of the same kind because the small one is more compact.”

Controlled Variable:

The amount of water in the graduated cylinder that you put the mineral in is the controlled variable.

Manipulated Variable:

The manipulated variable is the size of a mineral.

Responding Variable:

The responding variable is the mass, weight, and the density.

Materials:

In the lab we used a balance scale, Pyrite, Galena, and a graduated cylinder.
Procedure:

1.  Get all of your materials.  

 2.  Get two big and small minerals of each. 

3. Weigh them all one at a time and copy them down.

4. Put one into a graduated cylinder and then see how much the water rose, copy that down and do the same for each of them. 

5. Now you have the mass(weight) and volume, you divide mass by volume: Mass/Volume. 

6. The answer to that problem is the density, so now you get the average for the big and small minerals and you have the answer to the lab. (If the number is higher it is denser) 

Record and analyze: 

While we were doing this experiment I noticed that we needed a smaller graduated cylinder because with the small minerals the other one was too big to see a difference. Also I saw that the small minerals have smaller volume and mass so when you divide them they should be the same as the bigger minerals. Another thing that I noticed while doing the tests is that when they are heavy that means that they are denser.

  Data Table:

Big    Minerals                                                     Mineral Mass Volume Density Pyrite1 87.5g  20 ml 4.375 Pyrite2 65.7g 15 ml 4.38 Galena1 92.6g 10 ml 9.26 Galena2 84g 15 ml 5.6 Average Density 5.90375

Small Minerals
Mineral	Mass	Volume	Density
Pyrite3	15g	4 ml	3.75
Pyrite4	8.9g	2 ml	2.225
Galena3	47g	6 ml	7.83
Galena4	14g	4 ml	3.5
	Average	Density 4.32625

Graph:

Data Analysis:

From the graphs I can tell that the densities do not have too much of a difference to say that there is a certain size denser than the other size. From the results I would say that the size does not matter. I researched the actual data and some of the answers we got were not so far away from the correct answer.

Conclusion:

Now from the tests we did I can see that my hypothesis was incorrect. The density does not rely on the size of a mineral. I thought about how you come up with mass divided by volume, and I think the answer is quite simple. I think you take the volume so you know how much there is of the object, then you get the mass to see how much weight there is and when you divide it you get density because you know the space in it so the mass tells you how much is in the space given so when you divide them you get density.  I also realized that the little difference does not change too much, if the number are close enough it does not make too much of a difference.

Further Inquiry :

I think in this project I did well. However I know there are many ways to improve. For example, we could have used a few more minerals to get more accurate data. The actual density of Pyrite was close in the big ones but the small ones were quite of-- it is actually 5.01. Before I made the conclusion I wanted to know the actual density so I can give a correct conclusion. The correct density for Galena is 7.6. Some of the answers I got were a bit close to it, and I would say that when you are not that old and do not have such high-tech materials that we did well.

Sites I used to get the true densities

http://www.mindat.org/min-3314.html

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geophys/galena.html 

Mineral notes

Minerals must have all five of these traits. They are; is a  solid, formed in an inorganic process, has a crystalline shape, naturally occurring, and a  chemical composition. A solid is self explanatory,  not a liquid or a gas. Naturally occurring is when are found in nature and not man made. Being inorganic means the item is and never was alive, so not people, trees, plants, and animals. A fixed composition has a formula like AU(gold) and  has two or more elements. Last but certainly not least is a crystalline shape which is like it sounds it has a definite shape that the have atoms arranged. Almost every single mineral is a compound, but not all.

Volcanoes

In my science class we had to research volcano and  a topic on that volcano. In my group of three we had the volcanoes "Mt. Aso and Mt. Kilauea" and the topic that had to be connected to the people was when do restrictions come up and a bit extra on the people, I was getting the information about the people. Once we had all of the data we had to make a presentation of our choice, we chose to make a movie. I think our presentation was considerably well considering that we are only in sixth grade and it was the first movie. I think our movie could have had a bit more information in it.And in the last scene the volume was a bit to soft so we had to say it.Something good we did was that it was not boring because we put a bit of a story into it. I think if I gave myself a grade out of six it would be a five. I would give myself that because there was a difficulty hearing the video but we did have good data. The whole time we were watching others presentation I learned quite a bit. I learned some people actually live around volcanoes, there are three volcanoes in the Philippines, a caldera is a big hole made by a big explosion by a volcano, Mt. Etna is in Italy,and many other facts.  A lot of people are affected by living by volcanoes. The volcano may give them good soil so they could be planting crops there, they have to be careful if the volcano erupts, the SO2 level gets to high, and if the volcano starts releasing CO2.I also learned how volcanoes affect the world the in the following ways; smoke released destroys the ozone layer, the volcano helps soil, and they can simply be a great thing to look at.