Week 4 Lab
SCI 207
Our Dependence Upon the Environment
Week 4 Lab
Introduction
The most important things to know about this topic is that even if we completely stopped human emissions the seas would continue to rise for some time. “Recent studies by many groups, including Solomon’s own, have shown that even if human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide were to stop entirely, their associated atmospheric warming and sea-level rise would continue for more than 1,000 years” (Chu, 2017, para. 5). This is something that we must pay attention to. Reducing greenhouse gases is not something that can be done overnight, and even when they are reduced they continue to affect the sea level for a long period of time.
The main purpose of this lab was to see the differences between Sea ice and Glacier ice melt and how that affects the sea level.
Activity 1. I do not think that either house will be under water when the ice melts. Because the ice is already in the water the water level should not rise as the ice changes from a solid into a liquid.
Activity 2. As the ice melts the water level will rise. I think the house on the south side will have water over the side a little bit because it is on the shallow slope which will be more affected by the water level change.
Materials and Methods
For both activities I used the same model. I took some clay and rolled it flat, I then used the cutout of the topographic map from the lab kit to place on top of the clay. I traced the outline of the map on top of the clay with a pencil and then removed all the excess clay and placed my traced-out piece of clay in a plastic tray. I repeated this process with 4 layers of clay, by the end of that I had a clay representation of a topographic map. Once this was completed for activity one I placed two dimes on the north and south side of my clay island. I then took 150ml of water and poured that into a plastic cup and mixed in 1 tsp of salt and mixed until it was all dissolved. I placed on of the dyed ice cubes I had made previously and put it in the bottom of the try where it would not touch the clay island. I then carefully poured my salt water into the model but did not pour it on top of the dyed ice cube and filled the tray till the water covered the second layer of the island. I then estimated the depth of the water in meters and then measured the depth in centimeters. I did these measurements every 10 minutes for 60 minutes and recorded my readings and observations. For activity 2 I simply dumped the water out of my model and reused it. The only difference between activity one and two was the placement of the dyed ice cube, this time the ice cube was placed on top of the island. I then estimated the depth of the water and took a measurement every 30 minutes for a total of 2 a half hours.
Results
Data Table 1. Sea Ice
| Time (min) | Estimated Depth (m) | Measured Depth (cm) | Observations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1500 m | 1.0 cm | Ice cube began to melt quickly and started turning all of the water red very quickly. |
| 10 | 1520 m | 1.1 cm | Ice continued to melt. No real changes with water level. |
| 20 | 1520 m | 1.1 cm | Ice continued to melt. No real changes with water level. |
| 30 | 1520 m | 1.1 cm | Ice continued to melt. No real changes with water level. |
| 40 | 1520 m | 1.1 cm | Ice almost completely gone. |
| 50 | 1520 m | 1.1 cm | Ice seems to have completely melted and water level is now stable. |
| melted | 1520 m | 1.1 cm | Water level remained stable. |
Data Table 2. Glacier Ice
| Time (min) | Estimated Depth (m) | Measured Depth (cm) | Observations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1500 m | 1.0 cm | Ice started to melt but at a much slower rate than before. |
| 30 | 1510 m | 1.1 cm | The surrounding salt water started to become red from the dye melting down the island. |
| 60 | 1525 m | 1.2 cm | As the ice cube becomes smaller it seems to be melting faster. |
| 90 | 1540 m | 1.4 cm | Water is starting to rise over the third layer of the island now. |
| 120 | 1550 m | 1.5 cm | Ice cube is now considerably smaller but seems to be melting a little slower now. |
| 150 | 1550 m | 1.55 cm | The coin on the south side of the island now has a little bit of water over the lower edge of it. |
| melted | 1570 m | 1.6 cm | Ice is now fully melted and water level has stabilized. The south coin is still the only one with water over it. |
Activity 1.
Activity 2
Discussion
I accepted both of my hypotheses. The experiments proved that I was correct.
The biggest thing I learned from this lab is the long-lasting effects that greenhouse gases can have on sea level rise. Going back to what Chu mentioned, “Recent studies by many groups, including Solomon’s own, have shown that even if human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide were to stop entirely, their associated atmospheric warming and sea-level rise would continue for more than 1,000 years” (Chu, 2017, para. 5). If we are not careful well will create problems that we will not be able to fix ever.
The biggest challenge for me was finding something that I could roll out the clay with. I ended up having to get a metal pipe out of the garage because that clay was so tough to manipulate.
I would say to make it more realistic you would need to use a larger model. If you could base the model on an actual island and have all the dimensions be to scale that would make the experiment more accurate.
References
Chu, J. (2017, January 12). Shot-lived greenhouse gasses cause centuries of sea-level rise. Global climate change. Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2533/short-lived-greenhouse-gases-cause-centuries-of-sea-level-rise/
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