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Use this diagram to help you when creating a model of the solar system in class!

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Ten Freaky Forces of Nature

Nature can be unbelievably powerful. A major earthquake can topple huge buildings and bring down entire mountainsides. At Niagara Falls, more than 500,000 gallons (1,892,705 liters) of water crash down 18 stories into the Niagara River every second-enough to fill nearly 50 Olympic-size swimming pools in a minute! And everyone knows about hurricanes, blizzards, avalanches, forest fires, floods, tidal waves, and even thunderstorms. But if you thought Mother Nature didn't have many surprises up her sleeve, think again. Nature has a load of other powers that, while less well-known, can only be described as, well, freaky.

The Mother of All Tornadoes

The fastest wind speed ever recorded-318 miles an hour (511 kilometers an hour)-occurred during a tornado near Oklahoma City in 1999. Scientists classify tornadoes by the damage they can do. A tornado with wind speeds of 70 miles an hour (113 kilometers an hour) can sweep away entire houses and hurl cars through the air like missiles. But a tornado with wind speeds of more than 300 miles an hour (483 kilometers an hour) has the power to derail train cars, tear grass from the ground, and even rip pavement from the street.

Gassy Situation
When a volcano erupts, a glowing sea of molten lava often flows down its sides, destroying everything in its path. A lava flow is unbelievably dangerous. But a volcano can produce something even deadlier: a pyroclastic flow, which is a cloud of gas and rock that can reach temperatures above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (537 degrees Celsius). The flow crashes down the side of a volcano like an avalanche. While most people can easily move out of the way of most lava flows, they can't escape a pyroclastic flow so easily. These flows typically reach speeds of more than 50 miles an hour (80 kilometers an hour).

Snowball Factory

You head outside after a snowstorm and see dozens of drum-shaped snowballs. These rare creations are called snow rollers, and Mother Nature makes them all by herself. Snow rollers form when wet snow falls on ground that is icy, so snow won't stick to it. Pushed by strong winds, the snow rolls into logs. Maybe this is nature's way of saying it's time for a snowball fight.

Deep Sea Jacuzzis

Vents on the ocean floor, more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) below the surface, gush what looks like clouds of black smoke. They're surrounded by a variety of freaky life forms never seen before the first vents were discovered about 30 years ago. These underwater hot springs, called hydrothermal vents, occur when water seeps through cracks in the ocean floor after being heated by magma inside the Earth. The scalding water can shoot back into the cold ocean at temperatures hotter than 700 degrees Fahrenheit (371 degrees Celsius), carrying a black or white stew of dissolved rock and chemicals. Amazingly, these vents support large communities of bizarre sea creatures. These life-forms rely on millions of bacteria inside them to turn poisonous chemicals rising from the seafloor into food.

Mystery Waves

Imagine you're on an ocean liner when a wall of water ten stories tall races toward you like an unstoppable freight train. It's not a tsunami, caused by an undersea earthquake. Tsunamis are tiny in the open ocean and become enormous-and deadly-as they approach the shore. No, what you're witnessing at sea is a rogue wave, also called a freak wave. Scientists aren't sure what causes these waves, but they do know they can appear without any warning in the open sea, even in the clearest of weather. As recently as 15 years ago these waves were thought to be a myth. But scientists now know they are very real-and very dangerous to even the largest ships.

Great Balls of Fire

During a thunderstorm, a glowing ball the size of your head suddenly appears. It hovers a few feet above the ground, drops down, dances across the yard, and then darts up into the air before it fades away. This freaky phenomenon is ball lightning. Sometimes it disappears with a small explosion. Some scientists think that when normal lightning strikes the ground, it vaporizes a mineral called silicon found in soil. They think this silicon forms a kind of bubble that burns in the oxygen around it.

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Ten Freaky Forces of Nature Nature can be unbelievably powerful. A major earthquake can topple huge buildings and bring down entire mountainsides. At Niagara Falls, more than 500,000 gallons (1,892,705 liters) of water crash down 18 stories into the Niagara River every second-enough to fill nearly 50 Olympic-size swimming pools in a minute!

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Science: §112.13. Grade 2,

(8) Earth and space. The student knows that there are recognizable patterns in the natural world and

among objects in the sky. The student is expected to:

(A) Measure, record, and graph weather information, including temperature, wind conditions,

precipitation, and cloud coverage, in order to identify patterns in the data;

(B) Identify the importance of weather and seasonal information to make choices in clothing, activities,

and transportation;

(C) Explore the processes in the water cycle, including evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, as

connected to weather conditions; and

(D) Observe, describe, and record patterns of objects in the sky, including the appearance of the Moon.