A tornado is a violent cloud that goes in a circular manner as it touches the ground, as it collects dust, debris and other earthly objects that it can carry.

As the tornado starts to form a funnel-shaped wall cloud that descend on the ground as it collects dust and debris and possible, other objects it comes across. This cloud may come in different colors particularly in a bluish-gray hue, depending on the amount of moist and the location. As a whole, the tornado becomes more visible when there is sufficient moisture and when the wall cloud touches the ground. One can see a tornado forming on the ground as dirt and debris whirls around and eventually moves with the storm. This is when the maturity starts and from there it remains stable until it becomes severe. The more severe a tornado goes, the more it becomes wider. Large tornadoes usually appear wider when the funnel decreases towards the ground.

The tornado shows its direction once it moves with the storm and the base tilts away from the wall clouds or from the ground it descends. It is difficult though, to determine the direction of the tornado if it is not visible so it its determined only by the observation at the wall cloud and the base.

The most dangerous and last stage of the formation of a tornado is the “rope” stage, so named because it appears like a rope. Although this is the weaker stage of a tornado, it is also the most unstable and still the most dangerous. Since it is unstable, it is difficult to determine its path too.

Because tornadoes have a variety of its severity, a scale that measures them was invented and called the Fujita scale. It measures the tornado from F0, where it is the weakest and F6, the strongest in terms the damage it may inflict. Although no tornado has reached F6, the strongest damage that has occurred was F5 which has been observed in the US. As F5 intensity has measured, it was tracked at 22 kilometers long and reached up to 1.6 km in width.

Since tornadoes are known to be one of the most dangerous natural calamities, it is always necessary to take special precautions whenever it is sited in a location. Most people who live in areas where tornadoes occur on quite a regular basis have underground rooms in their homes where they can run for safety during these times.

Right through the entire history of volcanoes it had both captivated and terrified. The term “volcano” is derived from the small island of Volcano which is situated in the Mediterranean Sea. Many decades ago, the citizens living in this region supposed that the Volcano was the chimney of the forge of Vulcan - the blacksmith of the Roman gods. They believe that hot lava and the clouds of dust which is blowing up from Volcano is coming from Vulcan’s forge as he bang out thunderbolts for the Jupiter, who is the king of the gods, and the weapons for Mars, the god of war. In Polynesia the people credited eruptive motion to the gorgeous but furious Pele, the Goddess of the Volcanoes, whenever she was annoyed or unpleasant. Today we all came to know that the volcanic eruptions are not super natural thing but it can be easily studied and interpreted by scientists.

People who are having a very little interest in science & knowledge are aware that there are many kinds of volcanic eruptions. Most television audience has seen the dramatic footage of the tangential eruption of the Mount St. Helens in the year 1980. The latest destruction of the Wahaula Visitor Center, the Volcanoes National Park, the Royal Gardens subdivision, and the village of Kalapana brought the Hawaiian volcanic eruptions to the attention of world. Leading newspaper columnist has described the discovery of a large underwater volcanic field on the floor of Pacific Ocean. This illustration demonstrates the variety in different types of volcanic eruptions which is reported by the press or online media.

Looking to the statistics of the number of people who are interested in collecting science based knowledge are looking for information on recent volcanic eruptions and volcanoes which are erupting presently, it looks reasonable to set up a stage or an online website that provides the latest information on this exciting subject. World of Volcano is a shared higher education, K-12, and public outreach project of the North Dakota and Oregon Space Grant Consortia which is governed by the Department of Geo sciences at Oregon State University.

Mt. Mazama, Oregon

Archaeologists have found sandals and other artifacts buried under layers of ash, dust, and pumice from this eruption approximately 7,700 years ago. This created what’s known as Crater Lake. Its depth of 1,943 feet (592 meters) makes it the deepest lake in the United States, and the seventh deepest in the world.

Mt. Vesuvius, Italy

Mt. Vesuvius is the best known volcano on earth. It is a typical example of a volcano in a volcano made by an outer broken cone, Mt. Somma (1133 metres) with a crateric belt most of which is destroyed. The slopes, which vary in their steepness, are furrowed by profound radial Mt. Somma grooves produced by the erosion of the meteoric waters.

Mt. Fuji, Honshu, Japan

The crater on the flank was created by the 1707 eruption. Mount Fuji is the archetype of the stratovolcano and probably rivals Vesuvius for the best-know volcano. The volcano rises about 3,500 m above the surrounding plain. Fuji has erupted at least 16 times since 781 AD. Most of these eruptions were moderate to moderate-large in size. The most recent eruption was in 1707-1708 from a vent on the southeast side of the cone.

Mt. Tambora, Indonesia

Tambora is a stratovolcano, forming the Sanggar peninsula of Sumbawa Island. The diameter of the volcano at sea-level is about 38 miles (60 km). The 1815 eruption formed a caldera about 4 miles (6 km) in diameter. The 1815 eruption of Tambora was the largest eruption in historic time. An estimated 92,000 people were killed by the eruption. About 10,000 direct deaths were caused by bomb impacts, tephra fall, and pyroclastic flows. An estimated 82,000 were killed indirectly by the eruption by starvation, disease, and hunger.

Llullaillaco, Argentina-Chile

Llullaillaco is the second highest active volcano in the world, surpassed only by Ojos del Salado. Llullaillaco I, the ancestral volcano, which has a history dating back to the Pleistocene (1.5 + 0.4 Ma), is now represented by two deeply eroded cones and associated lava flows; some of which are up to 20 km in length and are distributed mainly to the west.

Mt. Pelee, Martinique

Mount Pelee towers above the island of Martinique, in the West Indies. Since 1902, it is one of the most famous volcanoes on Earth ; its eruption led to the destruction of the entire city of Saint-Pierre, with its 28,000 inhabitants.

Mauna Loa, Hawaii

The Hawaiian name “Mauna Loa” means “Long Mountain.” Rising gradually to more than 4 km above sea level, Mauna Loa is the largest volcano on our planet. The enormous volcano covers half of the Island of Hawaii and by itself amounts to about 85 percent of all the other Hawaiian Islands combined.

I suggest trying a light bulb science project at your next science fair. It’s an easy quick science project . There are many experiments you can do using a standard light bulb. I have created a list of experiments you can try.

Can switching to a different brand/type of light bulb save you money?
Does turning on and off a light affect its lifespan?
Which blub shines farther, xenon or halogen?
What type of bulb product more heat?
What type of bulb is most efficient?
Should you leave a light bulb on when leaving the room to save power?

Please take proper electrical safety precautions when performing these tests. The first electric light was made in 1809 by Humphry Davy, an English scientist. He experimented with electricity and when he connected wires and a piece of carbon to a battery, the carbon glowed, producing light. Thomas Edison tried thousands of experiments when he was inventing the incandescent light bulb before creating a long last bulb.

Make Your Own Light Bulb

Materials you will need to make a bulb:

* One small jar
* Cork stopper for a lid
* Three feet of shielded copper wire
* One 6-volt battery
* Thin iron wire

This is the basic layout of Thomas Edison’s light bulb experiments. To create a vacuum use a vacuum pump or let a candle burn inside the closed jar until it goes out. Repeat your experiment with or without vacuum or oxygen in the closed jar.

How is gold formed and what does gold look like?

Gold is an element, so it was formed at the beginning of the universe, just like all other elements. Gold reaches the surface of the Earth through cracks in the earths surface where superheated water contains dissolved gold. As the water cools down, the gold forms veins in the rocks.

To find gold, most people pan or dig for it. The process of panning consists of placing the material that you want to process into your pan and shaking it left to right underwater to cause the gold, to work its way down toward the bottom of your pan. The lighter materials, like dirt and mud are worked up to the surface of the gold pan where they can be washed away.

This article covers facts about copper such as who discovered copper, what is copper used for and where is copper found.

This discovery of copper has been led back to ancient man. No, David Copperfield did not invent copper. Copper was a prehistoric metal. Copper was first mined in that area by an ancient vanished race between 5,000 and 1,200 bc. It was fond uncombined and ancient peoples used it for jewelry and spear tips. Copper has been led back to the indians of the upper peninsula. The first mineral boom in the USA occurred in 1843 when people from all over the states began to chase the copper, silver and iron of Michigan’s upper peninsula. These mines were in operation for more than a hundred years.

What is copper used for? In architecture copper sheets are used for roofing. Brake lines & brazed copper-brass radiators are used in cars. Almost all electrical building wires, power lines and phone lines are copper. I could spend hours decribing all of the uses for copper because they’re truly endless but I think I covered the most popular uses. An average single-family home uses 439 pounds of copper in places such as building wire, plumbing & appliances.

Where is copper found? Copper is usually found in nature in with sulfur. Pure copper metal is generally produced using multiple stages. First the mining and concentrating of low-grade ores containing copper sulfide minerals, then smelting and electrolytic refining to produce a pure copper cathode. The atomic symbol of copper is Cu.

I have compiled a list of links to help you find science project topics. Real science involves researching to find out what is already known, finding out what techniques to go and where to look, getting the equipment that is needed, and so on. You will need to do the same, because every science project is real science.

You might be looking for an easy quick science project or science project titles. You will probably find something there that triggers you to think of a topic of your own, based on an idea you see in one of these links. Begin with something you would be like, something that you are interested in, or something you know a fair amount about.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis@ozemail.com.au/scifun/projects.htm

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/pages/sciencefairzone/topics.asp

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/category0.html

http://www.rossarts.org/naples/ideas.htm

http://www.terimore.com/

Like about a zillion other people, I was up far too early that morning to catch today’s lunar eclipse. The weather in Silicon Valley was perfect. The especially cool part was watching the moon turn a beautiful red (sunset red, literally) when it was total. I had a hell of a time (ultimatly failing) trying to get the totality picture in proper focus.