<p>Possible Topics (or come up with your own) </p><p>Astronomy/Space Science Topics </p><p>Was there water on Mars? What is a black hole?</p><p>Why isn’t Pluto a Planet? Elliptical Orbits</p><p>Halley’s comet What are comets?</p><p>What are potentially hazardous asteroids? The Asteroid Belt</p><p>What killed the dinosaurs? What is the Oort Cloud?</p><p>What causes the auroras? What is a meteor shower?</p><p>What is a supernova? The International Space Station</p><p>How did we get to the Moon? Geostationary Satellites</p><p>Why are there Moon Phases? The Milky Way</p><p>The moons of Jupiter The Big Bang</p><p>Probes that have explored Mars Solar Cycle (Sunspot Cycle)</p><p>Fusion on the Sun Planets Beyond the Solar System</p><p>Space Shuttle Program Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo Programs</p><p>Animals in the Space Program How do telescopes work?</p><p>Why are there tides? Why do eclipses happen?</p><p>The Tunguska Event Scale Model of the Solar System</p><p>Spectral Analysis Radio Astronomy</p><p>The Contributions of Galileo (or other scientists) What causes seasons?</p><p>Apollo Missions The shapes of orbits (planets, comets, etc.)</p><p>Geology Topics</p><p>Geology of Mt. Helena The ancient Elkhorn Volcano</p><p>Leonoard the Mummified Dinosaur Formation of the Little Rockies</p><p>What happened at Lake Nyos? What goes on at Ash Grove? Mass Wasting in the Gates of the Mountains Montana during the Cretaceous Period</p><p>Formation of the Madison Limestone How did the Helena Valley form?</p><p>Helena area faults and earthquakes East Helena Lead Smelter</p><p>East Helena Superfund Site The Boulder Batholith </p><p>Egg Mountain Fossil Site Mammoth Fossil Site in SD</p><p>Ashfall Fossil Site in NE Labrea Tar Pits</p><p>Belt Meteor Crater and other sinkholes How do varves form?</p><p>Glacial Lakes of Montana Floods of Glacial Lake Missoula</p><p>Why does Montana have so much coal? Where does electricity come from?</p><p>What’s so unusual about Chief Mountain form? Lewis and Clark Caverns</p><p>Copper Mining in Butte during the early 1900’s How do gold deposits form?</p><p>Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationships How do unconformities form?</p><p>Mt. Mazama’s Ash in Montana The K-T Boundary</p><p>What is paleomagnetism? Tsunamis</p><p>Greatest Pre-historic Eruptions Did Toba cause a volcanic winter?</p><p>Past Eruptions of Yellowstone The Bodies of Pompei</p><p>Frost Wedging Chemical Weathering</p><p>The Alaskan Pipeline Pipelines in Montana</p><p>How does porphyry form? Helena’s Famous Brownstone (rhyolite)</p><p>Types of Fossils What is limestone used for?</p><p>Seismic Waves Madison Canyon Landslide</p><p>Helena Quakes of 1935 Helena Area Liquefaction Concerns</p><p>The Casdadia Earthquake of 1700 Volcanoes of the WA/OR</p><p>Are granite counter-tops really granite? Alfred Wegener (or other geologists)</p><p>Refraction of Seismic Waves Native American Use of Boiling Stones Meteorology Topics</p><p>Why are Chinook winds warm? How do clouds form?</p><p>What are microbursts? Tornadoes in Montana</p><p>Super-Cooled Water/Latent Heat How do barometers work?</p><p>What’s a dew point? How does a psychrometer work?</p><p>What causes wind? (convection) What is a temperature inversion?</p><p>What is a tornado? Cold Fronts and Warm Fronts</p><p>What is the greenhouse effect? The Recent Ice Age</p><p>Snowball Earth Climate Feedback Cycles</p><p>The Carbon Cycle How do wind generators work?</p><p>Why is Livingston so dang windy? Lake sediment cores</p><p>Tree-Ring Analysis What do ice cores tell us?</p><p>Japanese Balloon Bombs of WWII Weather Balloons and the Jet Streams</p><p>How does RADAR work? Weather Satellites</p><p>What is a storm surge? Why does it get colder as you go up?</p><p>The Contributions of Fujita (or other scientists)</p><p>Hydrology Topics</p><p>Montana Drainage Basins The Helena Valley Watershed</p><p>The Helena Valley Aquifer Floods of 2011</p><p>How do septic systems work? Thermal Pollution</p><p>Giant Springs: An Artesian Situation What causes saline seep?</p><p>What is a watershed? Tailings and Acid Mine Drainage Removal of the Milltown Dam The Berkeley Pit</p><p>Coal-bed Methane Concerns How does fracking affect groundwater?</p><p>How do dams generate electricity? Salmon Migration on the Columbia</p><p>Where does your water come from? Sewage Treatment in the Helena Area</p><p>What is hard water? Montana’s Snotel System</p><p>Oil Spill on the Yellowstone River Nitrate Contamination of Groundwater</p><p>The Mississippi Delta Montana’s Deadly Flood of 1964</p><p>Oceanography Topics</p><p>What is El Nino? What is La Nina?</p><p>Why is the Oceanic Conveyor Belt important? Density Currents </p><p>Western Interior Seaway El Nino’s impact on Montana</p><p>What if the conveyor belt stops? The Coriolis Effect</p><p>Tsunami Debris Headed Toward USA The Significance of Upwelling</p><p>Tsunami Warning System Ocean Acidification</p><p>IMPORTANT</p><p>You can choose a topic from the list, or you can come up with your own. Possible sources for topics include the Internet, your text book, and www.formontana.net. </p>