Lab 09: earth: igneous rocks

MigrationBelieve it or not, you are standing on igneous rock (unless you are standing on a coral head, which is illegal).

The Big island is one huge igneous rock, so pick up a piece and melt it with the sun.

MAKE SURE YOU USE THE DARTH VADER HELMET OR GREEN GLASSES 

Your goal is to focus the sun's rays on a small spot using a large fresnel lens (like a normal lens in progressa forcamera, but made of grooves in a plastic sheet) and determine the melting point of igneous rocks on our island.

Cooking cookies with sunlight:

Unmigrated media: IMG_1965.jpeg (image/jpeg, 9.3 MB)

Steps:

1. find a darth vader welding helmet: some have fixed dark glass, others are "clear" until you see something bright like the sun.
   
2. test your helmet by looking at the sun-if it is a cloudy day, you might be able to ignite wood, but you will need a clear full-sun day to melt igneous rocks to magma
3. get the large plastic sheet that focuses sunlight-be careful handling it, and don't allow the focus to burn your feet or clothes
4. start by holding the lens perpendicular to the sun-you will need two people working together to make this possible
5. raise and lower the lens until you see a small bright dot on the ground
6. put a piece of wood where you see the dot, and try to ignite it, measuring the temperature with the scanning thermometer
7. repeat with burning the asphalt of the road (you will not be the first to do this), measure the temperature 
8. repeat with an aluminum can, measure the temperature 
9. If it is a full sun day, patiently aim at a piece of rock from around the elab-DO NOT use concrete or coral, concrete can explode if heated, coral is just nasty
10. continue until you can see the rock bubbling (it will turn red first) and measure the temperature 
11. we have two types of cooled magma: a'a and pahoehoe-which did you create?
12. what is the difference between each of these, and why?

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