The goal of the PALEOMAP Project is to illustrate the plate tectonic development of the ocean basins and continents, as well as the changing distribution of land and sea during the past 1100 million years. In the section on Earth history you can select any time period, read about that period, and see the plate distribution during that period. There is also a section on climate history where you can ... Full description.

This site presents a take-home web-based project for introductory geology students. The exercise has the students interpreting the sedimentary geology (lithology and fossils) of the Grand Canyon to create a geological history for the region. It is an open-ended exercise with no absolutely correct answer; it involves students acting as scientists - that is, the way real scientists think and combine ... Full description.

This publication provides an introduction to the theory of plate tectonics. It was intended as a companion to the map entitled 'This Dynamic Planet', published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Smithsonian Institution. Topics include the history and development of the theory, lines of evidence, plate motions and interactions, hotspots, what drives plate motion, and extraterrestrial plate ... Full description.

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.

Windows to the Universe is a user-friendly learning system pertaining to the Earth and Space sciences. The objective of this project is to develop an innovative and engaging web site that spans the Earth and Space sciences and includes a rich array of documents, including images, movies, animations, and data sets that explore the Earth and Space sciences and the historical and cultural ties between ... Full description.

This information about geologic time and the geologic time scale defines the terms relative time (chronostratic) and absolute time (chronometric). Relative time can be thought of as the physical subdivisions of rock found in the Earth's stratigraphy and absolute as the measurements taken upon those to determine the actual time that has expired. Absolute time measurements can be used to calibrate the ... Full description.

This is an interactive exercise about Geologic Time. It focuses on how geologists and archaeologists determine the ages of rocks and ancient artifacts. This is a beta release of an instructional activity still under development. Virtual Dating contains two modules as well as a demonstration version. One module is Virtual Dating Isochron for rocks and minerals and the other is Virtual Dating Radiocarbon ... Full description.

This page has an illustration of the 4.5 billion year old Earth's time scale shown as a spiral with pictorial representations of both marine and terrestrial life. The text discusses how the age of the Earth is determined. The illustration is from the USGS General Interest Publication, Geologic Time by William L. Newman. Full description.

This web page addresses the question: How do we know the Age of the Earth? by citing radiometric dates from rocks and minerals of the Earth, Moon, and meteorites. The methods of radiometric dating are also discussed. Viewers will find a table of the common radiometric dating isotopes, their daughter elements, and their half-lives. This material was adapted from The Age of the Earth, by the Branch ... Full description.

This resource contains reference materials on the radiocarbon dating method. Beginning with a summarization of the method, descriptions of three principal means of measuring residual carbon14 (c14) activity follow, including gas proportional counting, liquid scintillation counting, and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). External sites concerning radiocarbon dating applications are then indexed by ... Full description.