Explain Why Did The Alaskan Way Viaduct Collapse

Why does the Alaskan Way Viaduct Collapse? The Alaskan Way Viaduct hasn’t really collapsed yet. Even though it hasn’t collapsed yet we know what is going to cause it. It all starts with the layers of the Earth. When the layers of the Earth move it causes the tectonic plates (aka: plate tectonics) to move which causes the Alaskan Way Viaduct to collapse. The layers of the Earth are the inner core, outer core, mesosphere, asthenosphere, upper rigid mantle, oceanic crust, and the continental crust. The Density Column lab showed how things can have different densities like the layers of the Earth. It also showed how things that are most dense stay more towards the bottom and least dense stuff stays more towards the top.

The Density

It shows how heat travels from the inner core to the other layers of the Earth. When heat reaches the layers it changes their densities. When the density changed it made the particles rise to the top since it became less dense like the particles in the asthenosphere. Eventually they would become more dense since they were away from the heat source which would make the particles sink to the bottom and start the whole process start over again.

After doing the Density Reading it showed us that when atoms or particles get heated they spread apart which make them less dense. When atoms are cold they sink because they are more compacted and don’t move around as much.

Sink or Float was a lab that showed about temperature and density changes. With the cold water we saw it sink and just stay at the bottom of the container without moving. When the hot water was added it made it rise to the top of the container and spread. That showed us that the bottom layers would be hotter and the top layers would be colder.

The asthenosphere is making convection currents. Since the convection currents are always moving it causes the asthenosphere to move and bend because it is ductile. When the asthenosphere moves which is under the tectonic plates it will cause an earthquake or more specifically the Alaskan Way