Have you been in an earthquake before? They’re scary. But there are more than one type of earthquake, but they are all dangerous. Wanna find out what they are? Read on!

#1: Push earthquakes. These earth quakes happed when two continental plates push against each other vigorously, causing the earth to shake. During a push earthquake, one plate might get slightly pushed underneath the other.

#2: Pull earthquakes. These earthquakes are pretty much the opposite from push earthquakes. The magma underneath the crust of the earth’s movement causes two continental plates to pull further and further away from each other. During this earthquake, one plate might get pulled under another.

#3: Going-under earthquakes. (Okay, I admit, I made the name up based on what happens.) These mostly happen near the ocean, when plate 1 (the seabed) starts sliding underneath the higher up plate. When the plate underneath slides into the magma, it may cause a volcano eruption as the magma gets pushed upwards.

#4: Strike slip earthquakes. First, there is a big strike from the magma underneath the crust to the point where two plates connect. When the two plates get hit, they start slipping/sliding in opposite directions.

These earthquakes can all have effects. The most unique type is probably the P-wave. When this happens, the middle of a continental plate gets squeezed… Then bounces outward like a spring. It’s like the plate is a spring that got pushed to hard, so it bounces outward really far.

Another type of earthquake effect is the S-wave. This is when the crust ripples like a wave in the ocean. For people who are seasick, this is possibly the worst type. Maybe apart from the Surface wave. The sides of a plate start rolling up and down, making the land bounce up and down.

In my opinion, Tsunami earthquakes are the most devastating. These are double disasters. First, an earthquake rumbles, making a crack in the bottom of an ocean, right next to a city. The crack emits force into the waves, causing them to build up into one colossus. Then, these waves crash down on the city.

But just because these earthquakes may be interesting, don’t go looking for them. They’re dangerous! -Written by EZ

During summer off the coast of California, great amounts of capelin, a small type of fish, gather to spawn. These tiny creatures have some of the most bizarre spawning ways.

Before the capelin arrive, the largest amount of humpback whales gather in one place. They are all waiting for the feast of the year. When the capelin arrive, the humpbacks open their giant mouths and scoop up capelin, hundreds at a time. Then they filter out the water with their brush like teeth and swallow their prey. To make sure the capelin don’t escape to the deep, Cod, on the seabed, drive the spawning capelin up towards the humpbacks, occasionally catching one to eat. Now, the Capelin do one of the weirdest things in the animal kingdom – They leap ashore. They wriggle up onto the beach, covering the shoreline in a blanket of glittering scales. They will lay their eggs under the sand, where they are safer. However, foxes and gulls now take advantage, scampering around the piles of fish, eating as much as they can. For the Capelin, though, it was worth it.

Gorillas are social animals, normally living in groups. There are many special things about these groups.

WHO’S INCLUDED?: In a group of gorillas, there are normally one adult male silverback, up to 3 females, one juvenile male, and 2-3 babies. An adult male has a distinctive hump on its shoulder, with longer front legs. They can up to 250 kilograms and can grow up to 1.6 meters in height. Silverbacks are the senior and leader males.

TERRITORY: A gorilla band’s territory size depends on its ‘population’. A large group may have up to 40 square kilometers, while a small group may only have 5 square kilometers. These chunks of land often overlap, but the bands don’t normally fight.

A group’s territory should provide everything the gorillas need. A male gorilla can eat almost 30 kilograms of leaves a day – as heavy as an 8 year old!

DIFFERENT SUBSPECIES: There are two large subspecies when talking about gorillas. Mountain gorillas and lowland gorillas. Most mountain gorillas are larger than lowland ones, with longer hair to protect them from the wind up a mountain. Lowland gorillas, however, are much slimmer and have shorter hair, not needing that much protection. These two types of gorilla even have different nose shapes. Weird?

CONSERVATION: Mountain gorillas have been declared critically endangered. There are only about 650 of them left in the wild. Most of this was due to habitat loss and poaching. However, there may be up to 2500 eastern lowland gorillas and 40,000+ western lowland gorillas.

Thank you for reading! -Written by EZ

In the animal kingdom, eyesight is one of the most vital senses. However, different species of animal may have different types of eyes, used for different purposes.

For example, antelope or other common herbivores are often hunted by large predators. So, when the lower their head to graze, their side facing eyes are still on the lookout for danger. Once they spot something dangerous, they will snort and alert the entire herd.

Another type of eye is a jumping spider’s eye. As you know, many spiders have more than two eyes, sometimes even eight. For this example, let’s say the spider has four eyes. The forward facing eyes are normally larger. These eyes have very good depth judgement to check how far the spider can jump. The smaller eyes on the side are used to provide a 180 degree view of a spider’s surroundings.

The keenest eyes in the animal kingdom are an owls/eagle’s. They have VERY large eyes for their body size, sometimes even as large as a human’s. These eyes are in front of the head, that provide a very far seeing range. When up in the air, these bird of prey use their far seeing eyes to judge when to dive for their prey. Most big cats also have this type of eyesight.

So, do you know who has the largest eye of all? It’s the Giant squid, with an eye as large a pizza. However, they still can’t see well, so it’s giant eyes are wasted.

Thank you for reading! -written by EZ

A few months ago, I read a book called ‘Horrible Geography, Desperate Deserts’. I learned a few interesting facts about sand dunes in it, and today I’m going to blog about them.

In a desert, there are many types of sand dunes, normally depending on the form of wind.

The most common is the Barchan dune, or Crescent. As the shape suggests, they are crescent shapes. These form when the wind blows over a mountain of sand, then curls around to make a steeper slope on the other side. These dunes often form on Martian deserts as well as Earth’s.

The largest dunes are Transverse dunes. These dunes can stretch up to 300 kilometers long – 12.5K large 18-wheelers. These giants form when when a large dune’s middle is hollowed out by the wind, making a perfect ‘road’.

My personal favorite is the Seif/Sword sand dune. It is a sharp stretch of sand, up to 100,000 meters long. It is formed when wind blows in two directions, front and back of the dune.

Star dunes are probably the most unique sand dunes. The wind blows in from all directions, forming a tall mountain with many points and sides. It is normally found in the Sahara desert. In order to qualify as a star dune, the mound needs to have at least 3 sides.

Dome dunes are the rarest type of dune, with no slip face. (Slip faces are steep sides.) These are round, in a dome shape.

Written by EZ

Yesterday, Federer defeated Stefanos Tsitsiaps in the Dubai open finals for his 100th title. The Swiss star defeated the Greek in straight sets 6-4 6-4. Federer broke early in the first set, and quickly swept it up. Federer broke in the second set at 4-4. The Swiss tied his head 2 head with Tsitsiaps 1-1, with Tsitisiaps prevailing in their first meeting in the AO. This is Federer’s 7th title in Dubai. He is the only player, (after Jimmy Conners), to have more than 100 titles in the ATP.

How do venomous jellyfish activate their sting? Answer: with exploding barbs.

First, a jellyfish bobs slowly around a coastline, searching for prey. Then, a careless tourist might stride into the water, not seeing the jellyfish. If his/her leg brushes against the tentacle, it might touch one of the 3 million stinging cells (per square centimeter). The touch triggers a small barb on each of the stinging cells that fires out at the human. At first, a box jellyfish sting will produce intense pain. Then, it might make you nauseas, and make that section of your skin fell numb. Finally, if the victim is not treated, he/she might go into a coma, or stop breathing.

However, most jellyfish won’t sting humans unless they are threatened. The mostly save their toxic venom for prey that require small amounts. For example, if a small fish wanders across one of a box jellyfish’s 3 meter long tentacles, a small amount of barbs will shoot out. In a chase, box jellyfish can also swim at 8 kilometers per hour – as fast as an olympic swimmer.

Some more dangerous creature facts:

A female rat can give birth up to 5 times a year, with litters as large as twelve. That means, the human population compared with the rat population, it is a 1(human) : 5(rat) relativity.

Everybody knows that poison dart frogs are dangerous. But do how dangerous? Answer: very very dangerous: 0.000002 grams of its poison can kill a full grown human.

Freaky! – Written by EZ

DZ’s sport Report

Up until now, I’ve been blogging about the NBA. Today, I will talk about the ATP. One of the tournaments that are happening right now is the Dubai open. Roger Federer destroyed Borna Coric in straight sets, 6-2 6-2. However, this is not the main topic of today. I am here to talk about how Roger Federer is going to have a rematch with the player that elimintated him in the AO, Tsitsipas. In the last meeting, Tsitsipas prevailed in 4 sets. However, this time, I believe Federer will prevail. (Again, please forgive me if this is biased because I am a Federer fan). Tsitispas has been playing 3 set matches from quarterfinals to the semifinals, and Federer hasn’t played one since the match against Verdasco. Also, Federer seemed to be in top form against Coric, and as you all know, nobody can beat Federer when he’s in his prime.

Have you wondered what is the limit of how deep you can go in an ocean? Well, the answer is 11,035 meters, in the Mariana trench. This trench is located in the western pacific ocean, next to Mariana island and stretches 2550 kilometers long. Throughout the trench, the width varies, but the average is around 70 km. If those are the measurements, then the area of this chasm is around 178500 square km. That enough to fit 75635.5932203 pentagons!

Also, if you were wondering where the longest mountain range was, it’s not the Andes. It’s also in the ocean, called the Mid-Atlantic ridge. This stretch of mountains is up to 11 kilometers long, and the highest points can be 4000 meters tall. Sadly, these giants are two kilometers deep, which means that you’ll (probably) never see them, considering the fact that submarines can barely go that deep.

Two more fun facts:

If you lined up all the coastline in the world, it would create a rope that could wrap the world 13 TIMES!

If you drained the salt from the oceans, it would be enough to bury the earth in a 150 meter thick layer! Salty!

-Written by EZ

Question: which river is the longest in the world? Answer: the Nile river. This giant river is a whopping 6695 kilometers long. This colossus supports more than half of Egypt – 85 million people. The source of this giant is the third largest lake in the world: Lake Victoria. This lake also supports much of the countries around it, such as Tanzania and Kenya. Lastly, approximately 80 billion gallons flow out of the Nile delta in one day. That’s enough to fill 121212.12 Olympic swimming pools.

But where does the Amazon come in? Well, the Nile is the longest river, but it does NOT contain the most water. The Amazon does. It holds 60 times more water than the Nile does, emptying out 25000 gallons PER SECOND! Also, the Amazon holds more fish species than the Atlantic ocean! That’s a whole lot of fish! Also, the drainage basin of the Amazon river is twice the size of India, at 65000000 square kilometers.

So, the Nile river is the longest, and the Amazon is the largest. The Congo is the deepest, at 220 meters, but we won’t specify that. Thanks for reading! -written by EZ.

Shoebills storks are large birds that live near rivers or swamps. Today, I am going to tell you some basic things about them.

The size, weight, and lifespan stats are all here!

Height: 1.2-1.5 meters Weight: 4-7 kg Nest diameter: 1.5 meters Lifespan: 35-45 yrs Birth size: 15 cm

Now, I am going to tell you a few fun facts about these birds.

When these large birds feel like calling, they ‘moo’ instead of ‘caw’ or ‘chirp’. Also, when Shoebills want to mate, they make cac kling noises that sound like a machine gun firing. Also, to keep their eggs warm, Shoebills regurgitate low oxygen water onto them. Speaking of low oxygen, Shoebills hunt in it, because that way, fish will have to surface to breath once in a while, make them easy prey.

Thank you! -Written by EZ

Dz’s sports news

Today, the Celtics received a crushing defeat against the Toronto Raptors. They got their biggest loss of the season in a crushing defeat. In this game, the first quarter was very tight, with the Celtics leading by 2 at the end of the quarter. However, in the 2nd quarter, when Kyrie Irving wasn’t playing much, the Raptors scored 36 points, while the Celtics only scored 13. In the second half, the Celtics managed to stay tight on the scoreboard with the Raptors but didn’t manage to come back. This wasn’t a particularly good game for any player on any team, with no one scoring 30 or above.