We recognized that the big earthquake on Everest back in 2015 could possibly be the cause of the mountain growth and shift (maybe even the decrease in height, too)! So we decided to start with this possible cause since other mountains experience earthquakes, too! We watched a few videos to see firsthand what experiencing an earthquake might be like:
These videos allowed us to see lots of interesting things, including cars rumbling/shaking of the ground, and really heavy things like cars "rolling in place." We agreed that "closer" earthquake would be good to investigate since Mt. Everest is really far away! Mrs. Brinza found a closer earthquake at a pretty similar magnitude in Ridgecrest, CA.
We were mesmerized by how long both earthquakes were (like over 20 seconds), and about how much force was needed to get these big things (like mountains and cars) to move. |
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Not only did we have videos to see, but some pretty interesting photographic evidence from the Ridgecrest Earthquake in 2019.
There were so many things to see from these photos! From large cracks/splitting in the earth's surface, to the layers below, we also are seeing that there are different colors in the layers. Students are also wondering if the split road is because something (maybe a plate) went up, but is it because the other part/plate went downwards. From the satellite pictures, we see an obvious change in elevation (a careful toggle between pictures shows a light/dark comparison in the middle). Gosh we have so many questions! We turned to our investigation ideas after seeing these pictures! We are wanting more information on earthquakes since these photos seem to show us a LOT!