GSA EarthCache - An Introduction. How to Have Fun & Learn about the Earth at EarthCache™ Sites Visiting an EarthCache site is a great way to learn more about our wonderful world. It can take you to many places that you would not normally visit, and teach you about why those places are special or unique. EarthCache sites can also teach you and your family important skills such as navigation and map reading. What better way to learn than to have fun exploring on this wonderful planet we call Earth! What do I need to visit an EarthCache site? You need a Global Positional System Receiver (GPSr or GPS for short). How do I find my first EarthCache? Once you have your GPS unit and have practiced entering latitude and longitude coordinates, just go to the EarthCache listings.
Print out that page. Enter the latitude and longitude for the EarthCache site into your GPS. Your GPS should be able to place you within 20 feet of the EarthCache site. Now I have found my EarthCache site, what do I do? Can I develop my own EarthCache site? Science Education News: HHMI Debuts EarthViewer App for iPad. EarthViewer shows continental arrangements as they shift through time—including Pangea from 215 million years ago.Have you ever wanted to go back in time to see what the Earth looked like 400 million years ago? You can with the EarthViewer, a free, interactive app designed for the iPad, that lets users explore the Earth’s history with the touch of a finger by scrolling through 4.5 billion years of geological evolution.
The app, developed by HHMI’s BioInteractive team, tracks the planet’s continental shifts, compares changes in climate as far back as the planet’s origin, and explores the Earth’s biodiversity over the last 540 million years. It combines visual analysis with hard data, and helps students make connections between geological and biological change. Download the HHMI EarthViewer app from the App Store.
We're very interested in how the app can be used in formal education. Dennis Liu “We're very interested in how the app can be used in formal education. U.S. National Park ServicePhotos & Multimedia. IcEarth a CNL World Program. USGS Education. Geological Society of America - Educational K-12 Teacher Resources. AMNH.tv. Oceans Alive! | The Water Planet | Physical Features of the Ocean. Animations. Each series of animations below contains text, graphics, animations, and videos to help teach Earth Science fundamentals.
Click links or scroll down to view the available animations. Check out our Earth Science Videos pages. Animations Hazards Orphan tsunami How will 3 buildings, engineered equally, on different bedrock react to an earthquake? Plate Tectonics Tectonics & earthquakes of Alaska—More than just plate boundaries NEW! GPS - Understanding Future Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest Solomon Islands Regional Tectonics Gulf of California tectonics Sumatran Tectonics What is a hotspot? How do Earth's tectonic plates interact? Do subducting plates slide smoothly past one another? How is stress stored between tectonic plates? Do faults break all at once, or in many short segments? What are the 4 basic classes of faults?
What happens when the crust is stretched? GPS -- Measuring Plate Motion Earth Structure Stratigraphy Same earthquake, different stations; why do the seismograms look different? Volcanoes. What is a glacier? Donjek Glacier in the Saint Elias Range, Yukon Territory, Canada. 1985. —Credit: Natural Resources Canada. Photograph by Douglas Hodgson. Copyright Terrain Sciences Division, Geological Survey of Canada. Glaciers are made up of fallen snow that, over many years, compresses into large, thickened ice masses. Presently, glaciers occupy about 10 percent of the world's total land area, with most located in polar regions like Antarctica and Greenland. Within the past 750,000 years, scientists know that there have been eight Ice Age cycles, separated by warmer periods called interglacial periods. Water on, in, and above the Earth - USGS Water Science for Schools. The USGS Water Science School A Beta version of the new USGS website has been released for public comment.Use the "Feedback" button at bottom of every Beta page to tell us what you think.
As the saying goes ... "water, water, everywhere. " Well, how much water is there; where is this water; how does it move around? Use the diagram below to find out (select "Menu of all Earth's Water topics" to see a more complete list). Investigate the water cycle (in many languages!) Water Cycle Game. Learn about Water Discover Water Project WET. Forces of Nature. Wegener's Puzzling Evidence Exercise (6th Grade) Although Alfred Wegener was not the first to suggest that continents have moved about the Earth, his presentation of carefully compiled evidence for continental drift inspired decades of scientific debate. Wegener's evidence, in concert with compelling evidence provided by post World War II technology, eventually led to universal acceptance of the theory of Plate Tectonics in the scientific community.
The following files are needed for this exercise and can be downloaded in pdf format (Teacher Overview, (For Teachers) Wegener's Key to Continental Positions for grade 6, Student Puzzle Pieces, Key to Wegener's Evidence sheet, and Student Map of the World Today). If students need additional hints beyond those provided below, there is a Puzzle Outline Hint to be used as a base for the puzzle. Objectives Students will observe and analyze scientific evidence used by Wegener. The Student Puzzle Pieces and Legend To start this activity the teacher will present background information on Wegener.
Virtual Volcano : Pompeii. How Landslides Work" See more pictures of natural disasters. When it comes to natural disasters, the tornadoes and tsunamis of the world tend to get all of the attention. Rarely do landslides seize as many headlines as the volcanoes and earthquakes that can cause them. But when the ground literally rips downhill, the effect is often more damaging than the trigger. The force of landslides can cave houses, dam rivers and annihilate entire towns. Worldwide, landslides were responsible for more than 30,000 deaths in 2005 [source: Petley]. Landslides are a form of mass movement, a term used to describe any sort of gravity-induced movement of sediment down a slope.
There are many different kinds of mass movements categorized by the type of material involved, the way it is moved and how fast it moves. Although the word landslide often is used (incorrectly) to encompass many types of mass movements, a landslide is actually something more specific. Seismic Waves" This content is not compatible on this device. Click the play button to start the earthquake. When P and S waves reach the earth's surface, they form L waves. The most intense L waves radiate out from the epicenter. When you toss a pebble into a pond, it creates radiating waves in the water. An earthquake does the same thing with energy. There are several types of seismic waves. Primary waves (or P waves) are the fastest moving waves, traveling at 1 to 5 miles per second (1.6 to 8 kilometers per second).
Secondary waves (also called shear waves, or S waves) are another type of body wave. Unlike body waves, surface waves (also known as long waves, or simply L waves) move along the surface of the Earth. How do scientists calculate the origin of an earthquake by detecting these different waves? Earthquake Science Explained--A Series of Ten Short Articles for Students, Teachers, and Families. Recent images of massive earthquake-induced waves washing away entire towns or buildings reduced to rubble by the violent shaking of Earth’s crustal plates have underlined, all too painfully, the importance of understanding our dynamic and ever-changing Earth. These natural earthquake hazards will always be with us, but the consequences are not inevitable—if we prepare for them. An essential part of that preparation is education. Education is the key to ensuring that people take appropriate actions when living in earthquakeprone areas and for supporting policies and decisions that will save lives and property.
Earthquake Science Explained is a series of short articles for students, teachers, and parents originally published as weekly features in The San Francisco Chronicle. This U.S. Geological Survey General Information Product presents some of the new understanding gained and scientific advances made in the century since the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Plate Tectonics: The Scientist Behind the Theory.
This Dynamic Earth--Contents [USGS] View of the planet Earth from the Apollo spacecraft. The Red Sea, which separates Saudi Arabia from the continent of Africa, is clearly visible at the top. (Photograph courtesy of NASA.) Ordering Instructions This book was originally published in paper form in February 1996 (design and coordination by Martha Kiger; illustrations and production by Jane Russell). It is for sale from: U.S. Or it can be ordered directly from the U.S. Call toll-free 1-888-ASK-USGS Or write to USGS Information Services Box 25286, Building 810 Denver Federal Center Denver, CO 80225 303-202-4700; Fax 303-202-4693 Version History Version 1.20 The online edition contains all text from the original book in its entirety.
Linked Websites Please visit the Smithsonian Institution This Dynamic Planet website. See also This Dynamic Planet, the map showing the Earth's physiographic features, current plate movements, and locations of volcanoes, earthquakes, and impact craters. Plate Tectonics: Further Evidence. Geological Society - The Rock Cycle (KS3) Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic Rocks. Geologic Time Chart. You will be learning about the structure, history, and geologic principles that are the basis for the Geologic Time Chart. The Geologic Time Chart is one of the most important tools you will use as a Docent at the Idaho Museum of Natural History. Consequently, understanding the geologic principles and history of the chart will definitely be a great assistance to you as you work with groups of school children in the museum's galleries. So what is the Geologic Time Chart?
The Geologic Time Chart is a tool devised by geologists to assist in the comprehension of the 4.5 Billion Years of Time represented in the layers of rocks and fossil remains found on Earth and provides a meaningful time frame within which the events of the geologic past are arranged. Geologists have divided the whole of geologic history into units of varying magnitude. Please be aware that: The web site can be negotiated from any page within the site to any other page by clicking on the buttons on the left. Geologic Time. 1. The Earth has a long, unique history. The Earth and the life it supports have changed throughout its history. Let's look at how scientists have pieced together the events of Earth's history. Halflife. The applet lists a "halflife" for each radioactive isotope.
What does that mean? The halflife is the amount of time it takes for half of the atoms in a sample to decay. The halflife for a given isotope is always the same ; it doesn't depend on how many atoms you have or on how long they've been sitting around. For example, the applet will tell you that the halflife of beryllium 11 is 13.81 seconds. Let's say you start with, oh, 16 grams of 11Be. Wait 13.81 seconds, and you'll have 8 grams left; the rest will have decayed to boron 11. Hmmm...so a lot of decays happen really fast when there are lots of atoms, and then things slow down when there aren't so many. That's exactly right. Notice how the decays are fast and furious at the beginning and slow down over time; you can see this both from the color changes in the top window and from the graph.