This site offers the online version of a book published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It is intended to provide a brief introduction to the concept of plate tectonics, highlighting some of the people and discoveries that advanced the development of the theory. It is the companion volume to the map, 'This Dynamic Planet', which shows the locations of major volcanic belts, fault systems, ... Full description.

This news article discusses data on Jupiter's moon Europa returned by NASA's Galileo and Voyager spacecraft and the possibility that an ocean of liquid water might exist on Europa and, with it, the possiblilty for extraterrestrial life. Full description.

This easy but effective lesson uses NASA CERES satellite percent coverage surface data along with a world map and asks students to locate landmasses and bodies of water at Earth's Equator. Students will map locations using latitude and longitude coordinates. Using the microset of satellite data included with the lesson to investigate surface characteristics, students will apply percentage to determine ... Full description.

Corals feed on algae that thrive in the sunlit water surrounding a reef. However, when water temperatures get too warm, the algae food source dies and corals turn a whitish color. Through scientific observation, it has been determined that coral bleaching may occur when sea surface temperature (SST) exceeds 30C or 86F for a week or longer. During late 2005, a major coral bleaching event occurred when ... Full description.

This site has information about where the tectonic plates were located in the Pleistocene and throughout geologic time. You can view animations of the plates moving or download models. Full description.

This portal provides information on how we use water on an everyday basis. Users can choose from some general water-use topics on the left side of the graphic, or from the categories of water use on the right side. A text menu of the topics is provided below the graphic. Topics include groundwater, surface water, domestic versus commercial consumption, irrigation and livestock, and industrial uses. ... Full description.

Geomorphology from Space is an out-of-print 1986 NASA publication designed for use by the remote sensing, science, and educational communities to study landforms and landscapes. Users can access a gallery of images consisting of 237 plates arranged by particular types of landforms such as tectonic, volcanic, planetary, and others. Photographs, locator maps, and sometimes a geologic map accompany the ... Full description.

This archive of climatic data houses both national and global datasets as part of the National Climatic Data Center's (NCDC) mission to describe the climate of the United States and to maintain records regarding trends and anomalies of weather and climate. Users may search the archive by data type, national or global coverage, and time period; or by resource type, such as satellite, radar, models, ... Full description.

The purpose of this activity is to observe the type and cover of clouds including contrails. Students observe which of ten types of clouds and how many of three types of contrails are visible and how much of the sky is covered by clouds (other than contrails) and how much is covered by contrails. Intended outcomes are that students learn how to make estimates from observations and how to categorize ... Full description.

Interactive game features two skill levels (novice and intermediate) that teach about water quality, watersheds, and management of this important resource. The intermediate level game is broken into four sections: National Parks, agriculture, neighborhood, and city, each with five questions. At the end of the quiz, the best choices for each question are explained. Full description.