This collection provides a wide array of visual resources and supporting material about the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Visualizations include simple animations, satellite photographs, Quicktime animations and tsunami models. The collection also contains visualizations related to other historical tsunamis and additional resources (beyond visualizations) about tsunamis. Resources can be incorporated into lectures, labs, or other activities.

This site provides a collection of visual resources about turbidity currents and their deposits. Visualizations include animations, photos, static images, videos of experimental models, and visual output from numerical models. These resources can be integrated into lectures, classes, labs or other activities.

This site is a lecture by Dr. Stephen Nelson from Tulane University that discusses the various nonstandard forms of crystal growth that are characteristic to some minerals. Topics include twinning (contact and penetration, polysynthetic and cyclical), the origins of twinning, and twin laws in the triclinic, monoclinic, orthorhombic, tetragonal, hexagonal, and isometric systems. Various types of polymorphism in many minerals are discussed as well as polytypism, metamict minerals, mineraloids, and pseudomorphism. Examples of each mechanism in common minerals are given.

This site contains lecture notes that are part of a petrology class taught at Tulane University. This section includes a discussion of systems, phases, components, the phase rule, two component eutectic systems, incongruent melting, rocks of varying composition and fractional crystallization, solid solution and exsolution. The lecture notes contain text, definitions and annotated phase diagrams. This resource is part of the Teaching Petrology collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/petrology03/index.html

This site features Flash animations that illustrate temporal changes from remotely sensed images, and compare and contrast the benefits of using aerial photographs, topographic maps, and overlays of the two to identify spatial patterns. A third animation depicts the total sediment thickness of the world's ocean basins. These interactive resources are suitable for use in lectures, labs, or other teaching activities.

This set of lecture notes introduces metamorphic grade and type (contact, regional, cataclastic, hydrothermal, burial, shock), and classification of metamorphic rocks. Further topics include texture, protolith, bulk chemical composition, and metamorphic facies. The notes contain definitions and a small number of instructional illustrations. This resource is part of the Teaching Petrology collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/petrology03/index.html

The United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was created as a high-priority national research program to: address key uncertainties about changes in the Earth's global environmental system, both natural and human-induced; monitor, understand, and predict global change; and provide a sound scientific basis for national and international decision-making. Some of the global change issues studied include: seasonal to inter-annual climate fluctuations, climate change over decades to centuries, stratospheric ozone depletion, UV radiation, and atmospheric chemistry. Another research subject is analysis of changes in land cover and in terrestrial and marine ecosystems. In addition to background on USGCRP this site contains a library of global change research documents and a listing of current or on-going research projects. Most of these papers are posted on-line in their entirety. One unique feature of this site is "Ask Doctor Global Change" by clicking on this service the user can browse a list of frequently asked global change questions or create one of their own. The answers are provided by global systems experts working at the Global Change Research Information Office. This resource is part of the Biocomplexity collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/biocomplexity/

Working with the Maine Coastal Program at the State Planning Office, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute created this innovative website that combines three-dimensional computer models of the Gulf of Maine's many landscapes with stunning underwater photography. The website has important background information on the Gulf of Maine, which provides context for first-time "visitors." From here, visitors can learn about three fascinating aquatic species (lobsters, alewives, and brook trout) and two physical environments (the Bay of Fundy and Cashes Ledge). These segments take visitors on a trip from the mountainous, upper reaches of the Gulf of Maine watershed to the middle of the marine realm 80 miles off the New England coast. Through these journeys, people will gain an appreciation of the Gulf of Maine, and become better stewards of this bountiful and beautiful resource

Students use the "jigsaw" method to develop an integrated understanding of the entire carbon cycle.

The Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) is a software framework for analyzing and visualizing geoscience data sets collected by the Unidata Program. The IDV may be used to display and analyze satellite imagery, gridded data, surface observations, balloon soundings, radar data and more. Most of the data are provided in real time or near-real time. The IDV can display data anywhere on the globe with a wide selection of map projections and map backgrounds including a 3D spherical globe. Over 20 kinds of 2D and 3D data displays allow users to create cross-sections, profiles, animations and value read-outs of multi-dimensional data sets. A useful feature of the site is the ability to save displays in "bundle" files for use in classroom and lab exercises. Thorough and easy-to-follow directions for IDV installation and use are provided and annual training workshops are offered by Unidata. The data viewer is available for a free download, and data sets are available to participants who are affiliated with a degree-granting institution or a non-profit institution with an education and/or research mission. This resource is part of the Using Data collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/

This site is an e-paper that describes a structured approach to inquiry-based learning using the World Wide Web as a primary information resource. Specifically, the paper addresses an 8-step process that begins with an essential question and ends with a product produced by students, typically completed in a cooperative setting. The paper also discusses the skills required by both student and teacher to make inquiry-based learning with the internet a successful endeavor. Finally, the paper discusses the components of a Project Page, an online document that facilitates the learning process and supports the reader with Web links relating to inquiry-based learning.

Students work in small groups to test an isolated variable in rivers. They will test either the amount of water, velocity of water,or steepness of the river bed to determine how those variables affect the size and shapes of rivers.

This site houses a collection of web-based visual resources suitable for teaching about tides. Visualizations include photos, simple animations, animated maps and field videos. Resources can be integrated into lectures, labs, classes, or other activities about tides, their distribution in space and time, their role in sedimentary processes, and their use as an energy source.

This online book examines how contaminants are released by incineration, environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure, approaches for assessing possible human health effects, and scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book may be read for free online in HTML or PDF formats, printed from a PDF file, or hard copies may be ordered from the site.

This site provides a variety of visual resources about waterfalls. Flash animations show how waterfalls, plunge pools and gorges are created by the erosion of underlying rock by flowing water. A QuickTime movie gives examples of large-scale waterfalls from around the world, and an interactive diagram illustrates how falling water is used to generate hydroelectric power. These resources are suitable for integration into lectures, labs, or other activities.

This site features Flash animations and QuickTime movies about watersheds and their associated waterways. Topics include watershed delineation, the hydrologic cycle, and the course of a river from its source to the sea. These resources may be suitable for integration into lectures, labs, or other activities.

Students study waves by assembling rubber bands, paper clips and washers into strings with various mass distributions to observe the effects on wave characteristics.

This site features GIF and Flash animations that illustrate wave cyclone formation and the formation and characteristics of warm, cold, stationary, and occluded fronts. The animations can be paused and rewound to stress important points. These resources are suitable for use in lectures, labs, or other teaching activities.

This mirror site for NOAA's World Data Center (WDC) for Paleoclimatology offers Java applets on annual records of tropical systems (ARTS) and WDC data on coral, sclerosponge, ice core, plant microfossil, pollen, and tree rings. Each animation displays summary information (e.g., site name, investigator, latitude, longitude (in decimal degrees), place, altitude, the number of samples, variables, radiocarbon dates, species, date ranges, etc.); as well as the publications associated with the site; diagrams or plots.

Students examine a set of rock samples and group the rocks into categories based on inferred process of formation.