Dynamic Earth!!!

Within Inner Earth, find out the layers of the Earth and what they are like inside. First it’s the Crust, it is cool hard. Then it is the Mantle and it is gooey. After that it is the outer core, it is made up of Iron. And last the core; it contains hot lava, fire and magma. All the layers go from colder to hotter. The crust is the coldest, and the core is the hottest.

In the Unreachable Frontier, find out what meteorites may tell us about space. Once fragments of asteroids land on Earth as meteorites, we glimpse the raw materials that formed pur planet and the secret of its crust. Like the Carbonaceous Chondrite that fell in Mexico. Meteorites are composed of the solar systems original dust.

Also, visit the rocks section in Unreachable Frontier.  Discuss how the special rock called peridotite can give us clues about the Inner Earth. The periodites come from the upper Mantle layer of the Earth. Not that it only tells us what the upper Mantle is made of, it will keep a record of what is happening in this inaccessible layer of Earth.

 How do diamonds grow? Diamonds are made of carbon. The carbon atoms are tightly linked to form the hardest material known.

Where are they found? The first diamonds were found in ancient times in India.   Large diamond deposits were found in Brazil around the 1720's.  Huge diamond fields were discovered in Siberia in 1956.  In the 1860's,  diamonds were found in South Africa.  This led to a diamond rush in the Kimberly Fields.  Now, most of the world's diamonds come from South Africa. 

In  1906, diamonds were found near Murfreesboro, Arkansas.   A boomtown called Kimberly was formed along the road to the mine.  Today the town of Kimberly is gone and the diamond mine is owned and operated by the state of Arkansas.

How do they get to the surface of earth? Diamonds come to the surface when magma from far below the Earth’s surface begins coming up. Since diamonds are found at such incredible depths – three to four times deeper than the depth at which a normal volcano originates – magma upsurges deep enough to bring them to the surface are relatively rare. Once this magma cools, it forms a rock known as kimberlite – or sometimes lamproite – which may be used as an indicator that diamonds may be found in that area.

Where do rocks come from? Anyone who has ever picked up a shimmering quartzite or perfectly smooth gypsum knows that a rock is a treasure. That rock in your backyard may have traveled hundreds of miles frozen in the ice of an ancient glacier. Or maybe it was once molten rock that spewed from a volcano. All rocks come from the earth’s crust.

 How are they formed?  Rocks can be formed by wind and water (sedimentary rocks), volcanoes (igneous rocks), and pressure (metamorphic rocks).

Why are there so many different rocks and colors? Having different types of rocks and colors depends on how deep in the ground the rock or how hot or cold it is at that location. There is different colors and rocks also because they are made up of different materials and surroundings.

What is a mine and how does it work?  A mine is like a cave where you can find all kinds of expensive and useful stuff. There are gold mines, coal mines, diamond mines and many more. Mining can be done by several different techniques, depending on the situation involved and the type of mining being done. Some techniques and tools are relatively simple, so much so that nearly anyone could do it. Other techniques can be very detailed and tough, taking a great deal of knowledge and specific mining equipment.

Why do we need mining? Mining is needed for getting versatile ore types which are used for raw materials production, electrical energy production (coal fired plants), for manufacturing industrial products in many industries (chemical, automotive, electronic, pharmaceutical, jewelry, energy sector (nuclear plants), some ores are being used for weapons productions (nuclear bombs).   

What do we get from mining? From mining we get ores such as: iron, aluminum, copper, coal, gold, silicon, uranium, phosphor, silver, platinum, these are only the mains ones, but there is a lot more.   

How are the rocks processed after dug out from a mine? Depending on what type of rocks have been dug out from a specific mine, certain types of technological processes are applied for transforming certain rocks (ores) into the adequate raw materials (products).