Kathmandu

The next stop on my

tour brings me to the biggest and baddest mountains on the world. I’ve journeyed to Kathmandu, Nepal to see the Himalayas. I’ve seen big mountains before, (after all I am from Seattle) but the Himalayas are so stupendously big it’s mind blowing. I have no idea how the Himalayas came to be, so I did a little bit of research. It turns out the Himalayas are the result of a collision boundary. All the other boundaries I’ve learned about are all semi confusing, but collision boundaries are far easier to understand. Collision

boundaries happen when two plates smash into each other. The two plates hitting is what makes the mountains. They are not volcanoes because there is no magma involved. That is the biggest difference between subduction, and collision boundaries. In subduction boundaries the magma bubbling up from the lower plate creates the mountain. Whereas collision boundaries the plates just run into each other, one doesn’t “sink” under the other. So crazy as this may seem Mount Everest is slowly getting taller. Now for all you readers out there that don’t understand this I will explain. When the two plates hit they don’t just stop, so the plates that created Everest are still smashing into each other. This means that every day Mount Everest gets slightly taller than the day before.

Nairobi

Since I have a minute I decided to write another post. After my incredible experience in Thailand I decided to go to Nairobi, Kenya. Sadly I lost to Chris Paul 21-19 it was very upsetting, but he still gave me season tickets, SCOOOOOORE! Anyways I’m having a super awesome time in Nairobi. It has always been a childhood dream of mine to go to Africa. I’ve always, and I mean always have wanted to go on a safari, and yesterday I got to do that. The safari was located at about 1 degree south, and 36 degrees east. It was so incredible seeing lions, cheetahs, elephants, and all sorts of other animals in

their natural habitats. Usually you just see them in the zoo, but to see them in the wild is far more fascinating. Africa is just such a beautiful place, and I’m puzzled why I haven’t decided to come here before.

One reason I specifically went to Kenya is because it is in East Africa. Now your pro

bably thinking what’s so fantabulous about East Africa? What’s cool about East Africa is that it’s a divergent boundary. This means ever so slowly East Africa is being pulled away from the rest of Africa. So over a lot of time East Africa will no longer be apart of mainland Africa. This also means that some oceans are getting bigger, while others are getting smaller. I

would have to say divergent boundaries are by far my favorite type of tectonic boundaries. Maybe not to you, but to me they are incredibly fascinating.

Chris Paul is Way Cool

Today was one of the greatest day for me! I met my favorite basketball player on the earth CHRIS PAUL!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy to him I almost couldn’t believe I saw him. He even started having a conversation with me. I was so excited I couldn’t even believe it. One question I have is why was he in Thailand? I mean I know it is summer, and they don’t have any games, but what about the Olympics? I’m pretty sure he’s a key part to their team. It’s so awesome meeting him though! He isn’t cocky or anything, in fact he’s actually super done to earth, and nice. Tomorrow we are going to have a one-on-one game, and if I win he’ll give me season tickets to their games! I am freaking out this is so fun. Well I need to stop writing on the computer, and go practice for my game tomorrow. See Ya!

Thailand

The next stop on my magnificent journey was all the way across the world in Thailand! After watching the travel channel 21 best international beaches, I absolutely fell in love with Thailand. The place on the island is located at about 7 degrees north, and 98 degrees east. There’s something about the fact that I have no idea how to speak Taiwanese, and the beaches are incredibly exotic. You know the pictures on TV with incredible beaches that almost look fake, well if you want to see those beaches come to Thailand. They are probably the nicest beaches I have ever been to in my life. Thailand is on a subduction fault line. If you have no idea what a subduction fault line is I am more than happy to explain. So pretty much one plate goes over the other one, and the one on the bottom has a lot of magma that starts to bubble up. Over time the magma starts to bubble up to the surface. Inevitably there is so much pressure from the magma that the volcano erupts.
A lot of people believe that Thailand in time is going to have either a large volcano eruption, or a huge earthquake. We all know that in 2004 Thailand had a massive Tsunami due to an earthquake off the coast in Sumatra. Thailand has seemed to recover from the tsunami incredibly well. Well now I’m gonna go back down to the beach. Sucks for you that you can’t be with me. See Ya!

Stupid Airports

I really love to travel all around the world. Except for one itsy bitsy little thing. The fact that every time you go some where you have to wait forever to board the plane. I mean seriously does it really take 2 hours to vacuum, and fill an airplane with fuel. The worst thing about it is sitting at the gate in an incredibly uncomfortable leather chair, while someone obnoxiously argues with someone on the phone. Every 5 minutes the PA system blares about some flight that is about to leave, and for a person like me it is impossibly hard to concentrate. Not to mention the fact that sometimes when you ask an agent of the airline something they often times have no clue what they are talking about. They blabber on and on about small insignifigant things I couldn’t care less about. Then after asking them over and over again they finally give you the answer you are looking for.
So after sitting in the gate for what seems like forever they finally call you to board on your plane, but oh no you just get on the plane and you fly away you then have to sit in your seat for 45 more minutes extremely bored. I just sit minding my business trying not to get antsy, but inevitably I get really bored of sitting down and begin to move around the plane. At least in the gate you get to see lots of people, and walk around to different places.
Well so much for my rant hopefully your airport experience is better.

Port-au-Prince

After seeing the DR I decided since on the island to drive to Haiti. I went to the capital city of Port Au Prince to see the wreckage. It's amazing to see the sheer devestation of the quake. I feel so incredibly bad for the people of that country. They still have tents that should’ve been taken down within a few months. It’s amazing to see that Haiti is destroyed, and in havoc. Whereas the DR is still in great shape. The place in Port-au-Prince was located at about 18 degrees north, and 72 degrees west.

And So the Journey Begins

The first stop in my tour around the world is the beautiful Dominican Republic. The DR is located in the Carribean, which means it is an island. The DR just so happens to be on the exact same island as Haiti, which we all know was struck by a horrific earthquake.
My parents told me from a young age that it was good to travel as many places as you can in the world. So this summer I decided to go explore the world while away from college. I specifically chose to go to places with earthquakes because that is one of the things I am studying.
The first place I went when I got to the DR was the city of Puerto Plata. From there the locals insisted I go to the beautiful beach Cerca Malecon. I then did some research to try and figure out what kind of Fault line the DR was on. I learned that it is a transform fault line. The nearest fault line to where I was at approximately 19 degrees north, 70 degrees west. The reason there are earthquake's here is because it is because magma is pushing up and slipping and sliding on two huge fault lines. The earthquake on Haiti was a catastrophe waiting to happen in a sense.
Well I hope you enjoyed my first post, hopefully I'll write again soon.