Discovering Plate Boundaries is based on 5 world maps containing earthquake, volcano, topography, satellite gravity, and seafloor age data. The novel aspect of the exercise is the "jigsaw" manner in which student groups access the maps and use them to discover, classify, and describe plate boundary types. The exercise is based only on observation and description, which makes it useful at a wide variety ... Full description.

In this activity, students plot earthquake hypocenters along a cross-section in an attempt to create an image of a fault deep beneath the surface. The hypocenters they will be using come from the aftershock sequence of the magnitude 5.6 North Palm Springs earthquake that occurred in 1986. The students will learn that accurate positioning of earthquake hypocenters can produce a rough image of a fault, ... Full description.

Since large fault ruptures require the build-up of a great deal of stress, many years pass between repeated surface ruptures on a single fault. The average time between such ruptures, known as the recurrence interval of that fault, is a useful measurement for assessing both the slip rate of the fault and the risk the fault presents. This activity contains three exercises. In the first, students study ... Full description.

In this activity, students observe what happens to filled land when an earthquake shakes it up. They will fill a pan with sand, add water and place a brick in it to simulate a building, then tap the pan with a mallet and see what happens. A materials list, instructions, and background information are included. Full description.

This hands-on activity demonstrates the abrasive power of glaciers carrying rocks and sand. Its purpose is to illustrate the concept that glaciers change the Earth's surface through the processes of erosion and deposition. Students construct model glaciers by freezing water with sand and pebbles at the bottom to represent the rock fragments carried by a real glacier. They then rub their 'glacier' ... Full description.

In this activity, students construct a topographic map of model terrain using a potato as their model. After making the map, they should be able to explain what contour lines are and what they represent. A materials list, instructions, and background information are provided. National content standards and links to additional information are also included. Full description.

In this activity, students use a graph to find sea level at various times in the past, then draw the ancient coastlines onto a bathymetric map by following the depth contours. They should develop an understanding of how to interpret a graph to discern changes in sea level, and an understanding that ancient coastlines parallel the contour lines on a bathymetric map. A materials list, directions, background ... Full description.

This extension activity challenges students to answer hypothetical questions about a marine food web they have created. They are asked to hypothesize what might happen if a top predator like the killer whale became extinct, or if fish from the middle levels of the web were overfished, or if a primary producer such as algae were removed from the web. Full description.

In this activity, students use an apple as a model to represent the proportions of the Earth that are covered by land and ocean. They will be introduced to the vastness of the one, interconnected ocean, and to the importance of the ocean to all life on Earth. They will also understand the concept that the proportions of habitable area, farmable land, and land with fresh water are very limited and ... Full description.

In this exercise, students will use two shake intensity maps with Modified Mercalli Intensity values, one of the New Madrid Earthquake and the other of Southern California, to determine the location of earthquake epicenters. They will draw curves that enclose areas of similar intensity (as given by the numerical values representing the reports of witnesses), look for patterns or closures in the isoseismal ... Full description.