This video shows the parts and tools needed to build an effective foam fault model for the demo "Faulting Folding." This brief video lecture demonstrates the use of foam blocks to demonstrate faults, and a deck of cards to demonstrate folds and fabrics in rock layers.

In this activity, students learn about plate tectonics by plotting earthquakes on a world map.

In this lesson, students visualize earthquake, volcano, topographic data, geologic maps, and photogrpahs of geologic structures to identify similarities and differences between the Newark Rift Basin and East African Rift using interactive powerpoint presentations and GeoMapApp.

Students will learn about additional mineral identification properties and how to use mineral tests to distinguish between similar looking specimens, and also study soil porosity and create and measure crystal growth.

In this lab activity, students will use data from real corals collected in Sumatra to track the sea-level and earthquake record of the region over the past century. The Sumatra region is prone to earthquakes because it lies at the boundary of two of Earth's shifting tectonic plates—the Indian Ocean crust is creeping steadily northeast and subducting beneath Sumatra. The steady horizontal movements, and pulses of faster horizontal motion that occur during earthquakes, are recorded by GPS stations on the islands. But GPS has only been around since the 1980s, so it can't tell us about land motions associated with large earthquakes that happened in Sumatra long ago. GPS also lacks precise information on vertical motions, and cannot be installed under water, so GPS measurements of coastal land movements are incomplete. In order to figure out how often large earthquakes happen in the Sumatra region, scientists have turned to coral micro-atolls. They also use coral records to reconstruct progressive sea level changes.

This activity provides the students with a data set of ages of some of the Hawaiian Volcanoes and seamounts and how far they are from the active volcanism (considered to be the location of the hotspot). By plotting the data on a graph and fitting the data with a line of best fit, the plate velocity can be estimated by taking the slope of the line. This lesson defines hotspot volcanoes and the major contributors to the theory. It also discusses the importance of the hotspot theory and how hotspot island and seamount chains can be used to determine plate motions through geological time.

This brief video lesson illustrates and describes the geologic history of the Earth and how the North American continent was formed over time through the movement of tectonic plates. Discussion/assessment questions and suggested supplemental resources are also included.

In this module students will be provided with data regarding the depth of subduction zone earthquakes (from the approximate top of the slab) and surface volcano locations for Central America, they will then plot this data on a map and develop a hypothesis regarding their relationship. As part of this exercise students will create a cross-section of some of the earthquakes, and determine the dip of the slab. The students will then be asked to look at a map of subduction zone earthquake depths for another location and predict where they would expect the volcanoes to be located. They will compare their results with the location of the actual volcanoes in the region. The students will then create a cross-section of the new subduction zone (Tonga) and determine the slab dip for that location. Finally, students will develop a hypothesis regarding slab dip and the distance volcanoes are from the trench (marked on both the Central America and Tonga maps) and test that hypothesis on the Cascadia subduction zone.

This report describes how to build a model of the outer 300km of the Earth that can be used to develop a better understanding of the principal features of plate tectonics, including sea-floor spreading, the pattern of magnetic stripes frozen into the sea floor, transform faulting, thrust faulting, subduction, and volcanism.

In this activity, students construct a coastal landmass from sand and add features such as tidal creeks and barrier islands. Students then add varying amounts of water to observe the effects of storm surge on coastal land masses.

Igneous RocksGiving us credit when you use our content and technology is not just important for legal reasons. When you provide attribution to CK-12 Foundation, you support the ability of our non-profit organization to make great educational experiences available to students around the world.Our Creative Commons License welcomes you to use our content and technology when you give us attribution. If you have any questions about our policies, contact us at support@ck12.org

Students describe Earth's internal structure (concentric layers of different density and composition) and summarize how this is inferred through the analysis of seismic data in this lab. In Activity 1, students "become" solids or liquids to experience how body waves move through materials in each state of matter. In Activity 2, students test the hypothesis that Earth is composed of homogeneous rock. They then interpret seismic data from a recent earthquake and compare their observations with predicted arrival times from the homogeneous model. In Activity 3, students transfer the observed data to a scale model to help visualize the details of Earth's interior and measure the diameter of Earth's outer core. They then compare their findings to accepted measurements. In Activity 4, students apply their understanding of body wave propagation to another seismic record section and ray path model of Earth to infer whether these two layers are solid or liquid. Finally, in activity 5, students examine a graph of viscosities of common materials to develop the idea that the asthenosphere is a solid, that it deforms more easily than the lithosphere, and that the boundary between the two varies with depth and is a broad transition rather than a sharp change.

Inside Earth Giving us credit when you use our content and technology is not just important for legal reasons. When you provide attribution to CK-12 Foundation, you support the ability of our non-profit organization to make great educational experiences available to students around the world.Our Creative Commons License welcomes you to use our content and technology when you give us attribution. If you have any questions about our policies, contact us at support@ck12.org

Students learn about the structure of the earth, the movements of its tectonic plates, as well as the forces that create mountains, valleys, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

This resource is a compilation of text, videos, and other elements to create a scaffolded 5E learning experience for students. The resource reviews the interior structure of the Earth and forces that occur within the layers of the Earth.

In this comprehensive inquiry-based lesson, students work collaboratively using a physical model (the earthquake machine) to examine the occurrence of earthquakes and the inputs and outputs of fault systems. Their task is to design and carry out an investigation(s) to explore the three elements of earthquake prediction: When? Where? How Big? and the challenges to making such predictions. Following a Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) instructional approach students analyze data collected through their investigation and collectively develop a tentative argument to address the guiding questions. Their claim, evidence and justification are sketched out on whiteboards for a class poster session. Following this, a teacher led discussion of their investigations and resulting data helps students to connect their investigations to broader Earth science concepts and ensures core content is addressed. The instruction is wrapped up through an individual writing assignment and double-blind peer review process.

Students work in small groups to analyze and interpret GPS and seismic data related to mysterious motions from the northern California coastline. These motions are known as Episodic Tremor and Slip (ETS). This activity emphasizes the analysis and synthesis of multiple types of data and introduces a recently discovered mode of fault behavior.

Students build simple models to demonstrate the differing impacts of melting land ice and sea ice on sea level rise.

In this lesson, students work collaboratively to investigate two models of motion and forces on plate tectonics. After the lab, students should be able to explain plate tectonics at a point on Earth's crust.

This article provides a basic explanation of how earthquakes can trigger a tsunami. There is a link to animations that show the impact of tsunami waves.