Assignment#1 Lab 1A

Monthly Average Stream Flow

United States Map

 USGS Current Stream Flow http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/index.php?id=mv01d

 This map is found in the USGS website, it is a representation of the hydrological cycle throughout the United States, it focuses on the monthly average stream flow throughout the country. The details or descriptions on the map are represented by dots of different colors, which represent percentiles of stream flow. These percentiles are categorized from bright red representing 'low' stream flow; being the lowest value measured, dark red representing 'much below normal' stream flow, orange representing 'below normal' stream flow, light green representing 'normal' stream flow, light blue representing 'above normal' stream flow,  dark blue representing 'much above normal' stream flow and black representing 'high' stream flow; the highest value measured of stream flow for the month.  This map shows a lot of activity in the Mid-East all the way to the East-Coast. Although, there is a lot of normal stream flow activity it can be concluded that the month of December 2012 shows signs of a decreased stream flow in this area. The west coast doesn't seem to be affected by low stream flow activity, instead it shows that the stream flow activity north-west is above or much above normal for this month. What is most interesting is that there are a couple of states in the Mid-North of the United States that are blank and are not dotted instead show up as 'not ranked', this also includes most of Alaska and most of Hawaii. This only shows that in these parts of the United States there is insufficient historical data or no stream flow that is being measured.

Seismic Hazard Map

USGS National Hazard Seismic Map (2008): http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/products/

This map is found in the USGS webpage, the map provides an overall image in the United States where Earthquakes can be most hazardous. It is a colorful map that shows that the highest level of activity of seismic data can be found west of the United States, the west coast being the most hazardous points where an earthquake would do the most damage. The dark red colors on the map represent the highest hazards in those parts of the country as the colors lighten up to  a blue color the percentage of hazardous activity lowers, reaching  a white color, which represents the lowest hazard areas in the country. It is also very interesting how the states in the Mid-North all the way to the Mid south of the United States have the lowest seismic hazard percentile. What is also really interesting about the findings in this map is that California, Oregon, and Washington as well as Alaska are states that would become affected throughout the states, in some parts at an incredible high percent compared to others. This type of map is really resourceful, in that it allows states to take the best Earthquake measures possible for their population.

Social Barrel http://socialbarrel.com/world-map-of-social-networks-shows-facebook-as-top-social-network-in-127-countries/48397/

This Map was obtain from another social media webpage called Social Barrel. technological advances has allowed the population nationwide to connect with each other through a variety of online social networking. In this map it is striking how Facebook has become one of the top used social networking sites. With the exception of three countries Facebook is the popular choice for the population nation wide. That is extremely impressive, specially since there are billions of people on earth. It is also interesting how all these people can instantly connect with one another from one side of a country to the other without a problem. There are five different popular networking sites in this map, the second most popular being odnoklassniki.The results that show up in this map allow me to assume that in a few years Facebook will find its way in, into the population in those countries that at the moment don't seem to be using Facebook as the primary social network.