MDGilock

01/11/2021

12/10/2021

A reader who has never been to the mountains and has not seen these folds with his own eyes will say with disbelief: it cannot be! Layers of such hard rocks as sandstones, limestones, shales are not paper, not cloth, not leather, which can be bent as you wish. Scientists used to think so and therefore believed that the folds were formed at a time when rocks were still soft and were sand, clay, silt. But the study of the mountains showed that the rocks really curved in the solid state. This can be seen from the fact that the layers have suffered greatly during bending - they are torn by small cracks, in some places even fragmented, and parts of the torn layers are often pushed away from each other. Such torn folds can be seen in the mountains; the shifts sometimes reach enormous proportions.
The bends of hard rocks are explained as follows. The strata, now raised high in the mountains, formerly lay at great depths and were under the pressure of all the layers lying above. And under strong pressure, even solids can change their shape. For example, lead under high pressure can flow through a narrow hole like water, and thick sheets of iron, steel, and copper bend like a sheet of paper. Glass and ice are very fragile bodies, but they can also be bent without breaking if you press on them very slowly and gradually.

In the depths of the earth's crust, rocks could bend very strongly, breaking only slightly; of course, these bends occurred very slowly. But when the force of pressure was already too great, the fold was torn in one place or another and its parts were pushed against each other.

Ruptures of rocks occurred not only from the pressure of the upper layers on the lower. In addition to these pressure forces, layered rocks crumple into folds, and other forces acted to lift the molten masses from the depths of the earth from the bottom up to the Earth's surface. They tore the earth's crust into large cracks, behind which one side rose up or the other fell down. Such breaks and movements of the earth's crust are called discharges; they can often be seen in the mountains and in the mines both near the folds and in areas where there are no folds. Dumps are well known to both miners and miners from bitter experience. Encountering the crack through which the landslide occurred, he sees that the layer of coal or ore with ore behind the crack suddenly disappears, as if cut, and the face rests on the waste rock. The missing extension of the formation or vein has to be looked for at the top, bottom or side.

12/10/2021

How are coral reefs formed?
A coral reef is made up of thousands of tiny animals called coral polyps. Some coral polyps are hard and others have soft bodies. In their bodies, they accumulate calcium carbonate, which eventually forms a coral reef. Coral polyps survive by forming a symbiotic bond with a microscopic alga called zooxanthellae. Polyps offer shelter for algae, while zooxanthellae create energy through photosynthesis, which corals use as food. Waste polyps serve as food for zooxanthellae. Corals are predators, they lengthen their tentacles at night and capture tiny organisms (zooplankton, small fish). Then the captured prey is moved to the mouth of the polyps and digested in their stomachs. There are three types of coral reefs. Fragmentary reef, which grows directly from the shoreline, is the most common type of reef. The barrier reef grows parallel to the shore, but has lagoons or wide bodies of water between the reef and the shore. An atoll is a type of reef that grows in a circle around a large deep lagoon. The growth rate of corals is very slow from 0.3 to 2 centimeters per year, depending on the size that would form a coral reef takes from 100 thousand to 30 million years.

12/10/2021

How are swamps formed? Why are swamps not formed everywhere?
The swamp is an area of ​​land that is characterized by excessive moisture, low soil fertility, high acidity and the emergence of running or standing groundwater. However, a constant layer of water on the surface is not observed. They are the main part of the hydrosphere.

They differ from other water bodies in that their surface is overgrown with higher aquatic vegetation and mosses, as well as in the swamps there are constant processes of peat formation. It is the thickness of the peat layer that distinguishes bogs. Thus, if the layer of this mineral is more than 30 cm, then such a landscape is called a swamp, if less, then such an area is called wetlands.
Causes of swamps
The main reason for the formation of swamps is waterlogging of the soil or overgrowing of water bodies. Waterlogging occurs solely through human fault. For example, this process is influenced by the construction of dams or dams for reservoirs and ponds. Less often, the activity of animals such as beavers contributes to waterlogging.

Another prerequisite for the formation of these reservoirs is excessive humidity, and constant. Therefore, it is not surprising that the swamps are mainly located either in the lowlands, or in places where groundwater and various precipitation flows; or in lowland areas where there is no runoff. All these conditions lead to the formation of such minerals as peat.

Swamps are formed by overgrowing lakes. First, sand, clay, and silt brought by rivers and streams settle to the bottom of the lake. Accumulating at the bottom, they slowly fill the lake basins. The lake is shrinking and shrinking. Reeds, hornbeams, and sedges grow on the shoals, which after some time spread to almost the entire lake. When they die, their remains are deposited on the bottom. Over time, they accumulate, compact and turn into peat. This is how a swamp appears on the site of a lake. Also, the swamp can be formed due to waterlogging of the land with shallow groundwater.