Week 1 Lab

The map on the right is a geothermal map of the United States. The map can be found at http://smu.edu/geothermal/heatflow/heatflow.htm. The geothermal map here shows the heat of the earth under the surface by multiplying the well temperature gradient times the thermal conductivity. It is interesting because there is lots of talk in technology circles and the media about harnessing geothermal energy and by the looks of this map, it is apparent that the best place for this technology to be implemented would be in the Colorado Rockies and along the coast of California. It is also interesting to note that the east coast and mid-west has very little geothermal heat (comparatively) and implementing geothermal energy may be difficult and less efficient there.



The map on the right here is a map of the world population, broken down by each country and formatted to resemble how the landmasses of each country actually look. It can be found at the URL: http://sun-bin.blogspot.com/2005/12/map-world-population-and-gdp-scaled.html. It is interesting to compare this map with an actual scaled map of the land of the world and compare the countries that have a large population on this map with their actual land size. China obviously has a large population, but by looking at a land map, it also occupies a large landmass. Also, Australia has a large landmass but a relatively small population by looking at this map. Russia too comparatively has a small population when compared with China, but also has lots of land for further development in the country by looking at a landmass map.

The map on the right here is a map of how each district in California voted in the 2004 Presidential Election. Red districts are the ones where a majority voted for George Bush and the Blue districts are the ones where a majority voted for John Kerry. The map can be found at the URL: http://theelectoralmap.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/12-09-california-congressional.jpg. It is interesting to note in this map that a majority of the districts that Kerry carried in California were in larger urban areas like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego. Also, these districts tend to be along the coast of California (with the exception of a few like Sacramento that is blue and the Orange County areas where are red). Also, all districts along the Nevada border voted for Bush and also the state of Nevada voted for Bush as well, maybe implying that the local political thoughts are border-less along the state line. However, it should be noted that Kerry did win the popular vote in California and all of its electoral votes, even though just by looking at the landmasses of districts that voted for Bush, they cover more area.