Room 611: Friday, March 7. 2025

Today's schedule is BADC

B Block Criminology - Today we'll watch the Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit episode "Closure" This episode deals with the short and long-term effects of a sexual assault on a victim. From TV.com

"Benson does her best to help a rape victim who is able to describe her attack in perfect detail, yet unable to properly identify her attacker when push comes to shove. When the detectives revisit the case a few months later, they find the woman even less willing to talk about what happened, as she claims she has moved on."

I want you to think hard during this episode and pay careful attention to what happens with Harper's character. What are the short and long term impacts on victims of sexual violence? I want you to think hard during this episode and pay careful attention to what happens with Harper's character as it will form a base for your blog entry on Monday. Try to take notes and have a discussion on what the short and long term impacts the sexual assault had on the character Harper in the episode.

In the remaining time please finish your sexual violence questions from this week:

Explain the three types of rapist according to Groth (anger-retaliation; power reassurance and assertive; and sadistic)

After, I need you to answer the question:

Identify and explain the causes for sexual assault

You'll need to look at evolutionary and biological factors (remember Sigmund Freud's Thantos and Eros or instinctual drives that allowed species to be successful)? Look at modern male socialization (boys are taught to be aggressive, forceful, tough, and dominating...think about how boys play when they're young) and then at hypermasculinity (where some men have callous sexual attitudes and believe that violence is "manly"). Lastly consider both violent experiences (remember that those boys who were exposed to violence in the household are more likely to commit violent acts when they grow older) and sexual motivation (social, cultural, and psychological forces that convey messages to people in society)

A Block Physical Geography - Today we'll watch the Discovery Channel Raging Planet Volcanoes episode...Sweet!

From Geology.com

The primary eruption characteristic used to determine the volcanic explosivity index is the volume of pyroclastic material ejected by the volcano. Pyroclastic material includes volcanic ash, tephra, pyroclastic flows, and other types of ejecta. The height of the eruption column and the duration of the eruption are also considered in assigning a VEI level to an eruption. The VEI scale begins at 0 and goes up to 8, with each step in the scale representing an explosivity increase of 10x. So, a VEI 5 is roughly ten times more explosive than a VEI 4. Two steps of the scale is an increase of 100x in explosivity, so a VEI 6 is roughly 100 times more explosive than a VEI 4. For context the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcanic eruption in January 2022 was somewhere between a VEI 5 and a VEI 6 (closer to 6, I mean it blasted millions of tons of water into space after all)

Volcanologists classify eruptions into several different types. Some are named for particular volcanoes where the type of eruption is common; others concern the resulting shape of the eruptive products or the place where the eruptions occur.

In a Hawaiian eruption, fluid basaltic lava is thrown into the air in jets from a vent or line of vents (a fissure) at the summit or on the flank of a volcano. Strombolian eruptions are distinct bursts of fluid lava (usually basalt or basaltic andesite) from the mouth of a magma-filled summit conduit. The explosions usually occur every few minutes at regular or irregular intervals. A Vulcanian eruption is a short, violent, relatively small explosion of viscous magma (usually andesite, dacite, or rhyolite). This type of eruption results from the fragmentation and explosion of a plug of lava in a volcanic conduit, or from the rupture of a lava dome (viscous lava that piles up over a vent). Vulcanian eruptions create powerful explosions in which material can travel faster than 350 meters per second (800 mph) and rise several kilometers into the air. Check out the Anak Krakatoa eruption video from 2018! The largest and most violent of all the types of volcanic eruptions are Plinian eruptions. They are caused by the fragmentation of gassy magma, and are usually associated with very viscous magmas (dacite and rhyolite). They release enormous amounts of energy and create eruption columns of gas and ash that can rise up to 50 km (35 miles) high at speeds of hundreds of meters per second.

We'll figure out the differences between explosive and effusive volcanic eruptions (think silica and gas).

When it comes to liquids, viscosity is a measurement of how thick or flowy it is. When lava has low viscosity, it can flow very easily over long distances. This creates the classic rivers of lava, with channels, puddles and fountains. You can also get bubbles of lava filled with volcanic gasses that burble and pop on the surface of the lava. When lava has a high viscosity, it’s very thick and doesn’t flow very well at all. Instead of rivers of lava, you can get crumbling piles of rock flowing down hill. It can also clog up the volcanic vent and form blocks that resist the flow of lava. Viscous lava will trap pockets of gas within the rock, and not let them pop as bubbles on the surface.

The types of magma produced in the various volcanic settings can differ significantly. At divergent boundaries and oceanic mantle plumes, where there is little interaction with crustal materials the magma tends to be consistently mafic (which is a low viscosity magma). At subduction zones, where the magma ascends through significant thicknesses of crust, interaction between the magma and the crustal rock—some of which is quite felsic (which is a high viscosity magma)

For more on the differences between explosive and effusive eruptions see:

Open Geology Text: Explosive Volcanic Eruptions or Effusive and Explosive Eruptions
Volcano World "Volcanic Gasses"
Lumen Earth Science Volcanic Eruptions