Riley Coleman - PSC 103

 This week I hiked Bishops Peak, which happens to also be a volcano plug. This volcano plug formed about 20 million years ago and when it was active, it basically looked like any old volcano. The rocks I observed around the area and at the peak would most likely be intrusive since when a volcanic plug is formed, the magma from a volcano solidifies and created a rock formation. I really liked this hike and the geological features on this hike were very cool! The first photo I took on Wednesday around 3pm at the peak and the second photo is me driving next to it earliar today since I forgot to take a picture of myself at the top. 

 For this week's blog, I decided to take picture of my lava lamp! This fun little light has a really hot lightbulb at the bottom which heats up the wax inside so that it can flow throughout the lamp. Lava lamps use convection in the sense that the hottest wax floats to the top while the cool wax sinks to the bottom. While turned on after heating up the wax flows around and it looks super cool! Below I've included some pictures that I took on Sunday night around 10 pm. Have a great week!

 This week I went out to Laguna Lake in San Luis Obispo for my blog post prompt. This reservoir off the fairly busy Madonna Road is one place where humans have significantly manipulated the landscape. As you may be able to see in the photo this body of water is significantly large and the progression of this reserve is managed by a construction team in SLO. In addition to the body of water being managed by humans, the surrounding park has also been influenced. This park contains a frisbee golf course, in addition to a park, and some parking lots scattered around the area. For example, in order to create a frisbee golf course, flat ground is required, therefore humans have changed the topopgraphy by cutting down trees and such in order to produce the ideal environment for this activity. Each of these are non natural aspects that have been added to the landscape by humans and have manipulated the topography. Below I have included some photos! 

 This week, I went for a little nature walk with my roommate, Claire, to find some natural examples of buoyancy. We were lucky enough to stumble upon a small creek, where there were some sticks floating. This was a great opportunity to take a picture for this project. The stick I placed in the water was able to float due to the fact that it is less dense than the water, therefore it is able to stay on the surface. I took these photos today, April 25th, at around 2:30 pm on a trail behind my apartment complex at Cal Poly. 

This Saturday around 2 pm, my roommate, Claire, and I went on a cool little drive down by Avila Beach here in San Luis Obispo. Here, we pulled over along the road to find a cliffside that seems to have a prime example of erosion by water and/or air. As you may be able to tell, this rock formation seems to have a multitude of cracks and crevices in which could have been formed by flowing water or by gusty winds. As you also might be able to tell from these photos, is that there are parts of broken rocks also below the cliff, which indicates that this cliff also could have been broken apart by natural causes. 

This week I was lucky enough to be able to take a trip down to my hometown of San Diego to get my second Covid vaccine! Along the way, I spotted some great examples of erosion along Highway 101. This first photo depicts a highly eroded mountain along the freeway near the city of Camarillo. Some evidence that shows the side of this small mountain has been eroded is the fact that there are deep crevices and caves within the mountain itself. In addition, the rocks seem to have very broken edges which could indicate that they have been broken or chipped at through weathering. The second photo is of the side of a cliff near Ventura. This cliff seems to have been eroded due to the apparent rock and sand slides along the side in addition to what looks like areas where water could have previously flowed. In both photos, it seems the weathering has been occurring for probably hundreds, even thousands, of years. Since their formation, each of these larger examples of erosion have probably been f...