Day 5

The Pacific Plate has been moving northwestward towards the North American Plate. The fault is more than 800 miles long and many earthquakes occur here. This is why California has so many earthquakes because of this major fault line. It's possible that California may drift away from the United States and basically form its own land. If an earthquake happens soon it will be a magnitude of over a 5 along the fault. San Diego, Los Angeles, and Big Sur are located on the Pacific Plate. Sacramento and Sierra Nevada are located on the North American Plate. They are moving past each other at least a couple inches a year.

Day 4

The Himalaya Mountains are the highest mountains in the world. The Indian Plate has collided with the Eurasian Continental Plate to form the Himalaya Mountains. They extend 1,600 miles long. It stretches over six different countries. The plates have formed some of the highest peaks. The most interesting thing is that Mount Everest is the highest peak in the Himalayas. It's growing three centimeters apart every year. Although earthquakes do occur here, causing Mount Everest to separate. There is evidence that Mount Everest was once at the bottom of the ocean. They form a wall between Asia and India. There are snowcapped peaks, large valley glaciers, deep river gorges, and rich vegetation. However in India, it is becoming the driest, windiest place on Earth, but yet heavy rains drop straight down on the land part of the year.

Day 3

On the third day I toured the East African Rift Valley. The East African Rift Valley have yielded many of the early fossil material which our theories of the early stages of human evolution are based on. Rifts like the African Rift Valley form in the earth's crust along spreading centers, where two plates slide apart, and rising magma hardens into new crust. Africa's Great Rift Valley is a 6,000-mile crack in the ground. The Rift Valley has alot of lakes and wildlife reserves. The Huge Lake Victoria resides mostly in Tanzania, the smaller and shallow freshwater as well as the water lakes attract the tourists to Kenya. This was a great place to visit and learn about its history and differnt textures.

Day 2

The Columbia Plateau is located between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Range. It's mainly in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The plateau is made of underlying deposits like basalitc lava and interbedded with sedimentary rock. The Columbia Plateau is an important agricultural and grazing area and is a major source of hydroelectric power. It is an arid steppe and grassland. It consists of arid tablelands, intermontane basins, dissected lava plains, and widely scattered low mountains. It formed about 6 million to 16 million years ago. It contains an area of flat land of rolling hills and some small mountains. The Columbia River flows into the plateau and drains into Deschutes River in Oregon. It is 4,000 feet above sea level and its lowest point is about 400 feet.

Day 1

On my trip to Kauai which is one of the oldest islands around Hawaii. The two major active volcanoes are the Mauna Loa and Kilauea. There is a hot spot located underneath the island. Kilauea is the youngest and southeastern most volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kilauea appears as only a bulge on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa, and so for many years Kilauea was thought to be a little satellite of its giant neighbor, not a separate volcano. However, research over the past few decades shows clearly that Kilauea has its own magma-plumbing system, extending to the surface from more than 60 km deep in the earth. Kilauea lies on a curving line of volcanoes that includes Mauna Kea and Kohala and excludes Mauna Loa.