This lesson provides students with information about how islands are formed, including a basic knowledge of plate tectonics. Using the islands of Hawaii as an example, students learn about the earth processes that cause the formation of islands over time, including volcanoes and hot spots. Full description.

This demonstration models the manner in which the convection currents in the mantle of the Earth cause movement of the plates. Convection currents in the mantle were thought, for many years, to be solely responsible for plate tectonic movements, with the movement taking rocks down at destructive margins and new rocks forming when plates spread. It is now thought likely that there are three possible ... Full description.

These pages, from PBS Online, demonstrate how plate tectonics affect the Earth's surface. It includes a brief introduction to the four main boundary types (convergent, divergent, collisional, and transform), a series of pages with information about related people and discoveries, such as pioneer geologists Hess, Wegener, and Holmes, and an interactive activity illustrating plate movement. Full description.

This trip will take you through one of the world's best exposures of oceanic lithosphere (ophiolite). It begins in the mantle (peridotite) and works upward to pillow basalts and overlying sediments. A general overview of the formation and interpretation of an ophiolite is provided as background material to the specific examples found at the Smith River location in northern California. Full description.

This web site is intended to provide a pre-excursion introduction to Siccar Point, on the coast of Scotland. Information on the geologic history of the site is provided using illustrations of plate locations, trenches and tilting over time. Color photographs further illustrate the rock formations found there, including sedimentary structures, such as sandstones and breccia. Full description.

This is an on line article about the formation of the Himalayan Mountains. The article provides a summary of plate tectonics, a description of continental plates and mountain building processes, and a discussion of the future of the Himalaya. The article is illustrated and contains links to a map of the Indian subcontinent and an animation of the formation of the Himalaya. Full description.

This page documents the destruction of a community by Kilauea Volcano between 1983 and 1990. Lava repeatedly invaded communities along the southern coast, destroying more than 180 homes, a visitor center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, highways, and treasured historical and archaeological sites. Flows entered Kalapana Gardens subdivision briefly in November 1986, then moved through the entire ... Full description.

This class handout contains maps and background information about the mid-continent rift system. The summary of the stratigraphy, structure, and mineralization of rift rocks provides an overview of rift rocks in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan. Full description.

The Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS) supports data archiving and distribution activities for the space geodesy and geodynamics community. The main objectives of the system are to store space geodesy and geodynamics related data products in a central data bank, to maintain information about the archival of these data, and to disseminate these data and information in a timely manner ... Full description.

This set of movie clips shows ten million years of seafloor spreading at the axis of the Pacific/Antarctic Ridge. The clips show bathymetry and magnetic anomalies from the present day, and from 9.9 million years ago to the present. There is also a flyby down the Pitman Fracture Zone, a remote portion of the Pacific/Antarctic plate boundary in the south Pacific Ocean. Quicktime versions formatted for ... Full description.