Day 2

Today I stayed on Saipan but continued my tour, I learned there are 11 major land volcanoes 9 of which are considered “active” and 42 submarine volcanoes on and surrounding the Mariana Islands. The Pacific Plate subducted beneath the Philippine Plate, this is because the Pacific Plate is denser than the Philippine Plate.  (the reason for this is that the Pacific Plate is really big and so the crust material at its western edge has had millions of years to compact and become dense) Lots of earthquakes occur around the Mariana Islands because they are near a plate boundary; they occur because strain builds up along the boundaries and when the strain becomes too great the plates fracture and move causing earthquakes.  The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the ocean and the lowest elevation of the earth’s crust, at about 35,994 ft or close to 7 miles. It stretches 1,580 miles and is (on average) 43 miles wide. It’s almost 37 times as long as it’s average with! I learned some crazy stuff today; I hope the rest of my cruise is this interesting! Check out the pictures I got from the plate tectonics museum below…

http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/definitions/stratovolcano?page=1

This drawing shows how the subduction boundary works between the Pacific and Philippine Plates.

 http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=33775&tid=441&cid=89661&ct=61&article=57366

This map shows exactly where the Mariana Trench and the Mariana Islands are.

 http://www.fws.gov/marianastrenchmarinemonument/

This is a vent at the Northwest Eifuku Volcano a submarine (underwater) volcano, formed along with the Marina Islands. It produces almost pure liquid carbon dioxide and is one of only two in the world.

Will post again soon!

-Love Nancy