The earth science lab was recreating how the crust of the earth is made and how pretty much every rock inside the earth is made. We were replicating the natural course of how rocks inside the earth are formed on a basic level. We started off by learning about the 4 layers o the Earth which are the core, outer core, mantle, and crust. Basically everything in the earth's core and outer core is nickel and cobalt and the mantle is a mixture of those and silicate. The crust is the rocks formed by silicate and other elements. To start off the project Andrew brought out a couple of elements and pure water. He first measured the water and put some in a beaker and brought out a kind of cement mix or silicate and put the measured amount in the beaker as well. He then mixed the two together and I was somewhat confused but eager to see what would happen.
After he mixed the two Garrett and I watched as Andrew but the mixture into separate vials, quite recklessly I might add, and gave them to each group. Then some groups and Andrew put the elements into the mixture and at first nothing was happening and then all of a sudden the red element shot up and created a little worm looking thing, and the white element created sort of jagged spikes on the bottom of the glass, it almost seemed unreal and that the elements were alive. What I thought was taking place was the element was bonding with the silicate and water and exchanging parts of each element and making the element solidify into some kind of formation. The sodium silicate bonded with the metal chloride, the sodium bonded with the chloride and the metal with the silicate causing a reaction. We watched for a little longer and I was thinking of how awesome our planet is and what takes place inside of it.
This experiment was really cool and I want to see what the Crystals will look like next week but I'm not sure if Braden knocked them over today. I thought this experiment was really interesting because prior to this we hadn't learned about each science much in class so it was interesting to see this take place. Garret and I were pretty stoked to see this happening but the white element took some time to react than the other. What I gained from this is that elements inside the earth work perfectly together to make rocks, formations, and everything and that our earth is so amazing for it is what inhabits all human life and works perfectly on a large or small, however you want to look at it, scale.