Research program investigating impacts of submarine volcanoes and hydrothermal venting on the global ocean. Research focuses on acoustic monitoring of earthquake and volcano activity, vent chemistry, and vent fluid transport. Research sites located in northeastern Pacific, western Pacific, eastern Pacific and northern Atlantic and include Mariana Arc, Axial Volcano, Gorda Ridge, and East Pacific Rise. ... Full description.

Over the years, the combined ocean drilling programs (Deep Sea Drilling Project, Ocean Drilling Program, and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) have recovered thousands of cores from beneath the ocean floor. Students can study a brief synopsis of some of the most important discoveries made from these cores by clicking on an interactive map which shows sampling locations where major discoveries were ... Full description.

In this activity, students will gain an understanding of how geologists determine rates of sea floor spreading between two tectonic plates. Using a strip map of the North Atlantic seafloor, they will measure distances and note the ages of the strips of seafloor basalt. They will also gain experience applying some basic, useful mathematical concepts such as the calculation and use of velocities and ... Full description.

In this activity students design and execute an experiment through which they will learn the distinctions between density, buoyancy, and volume. Students are asked to imagine a staysail schooner loaded with mid-ocean ridge basalt as it floats in a swimming pool in Woods Hole. They must determine what will happen to the water level if all the basalt is dumped over the side into the pool. Posing an ... Full description.

This site is part of the United States Geological Survey, Cascade Volcano Observatory web site. It provides general information about the theory of plate tectonics. It correlates specific landform types and physical processes with the types of plate boundaries where they occur. The explanation of each boundary type includes real world examples and links to United States Geological Survey web pages ... Full description.

This document outlines the development of the theory of contintental drift and how many lines of evidence collected over several decades by various researchers were brought together to explain how the seafloor spreads and the continents move about. Links to additional information are included. Full description.

This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) site presents video animations and maps of exploration routes, bathymetry, undersea tracks of submersibles, satellite imagery, aerial photography. The section of animated images includes a three-dimentional flythrough created by using bathymetric data, video animations of a mid-ocean spreading center, an animation of the subduction zone, ... Full description.

This data tip from Bridge, the Ocean Sciences Education Teacher Resource Center archive, includes a variety of educational sites to visit on plate tectonic theory. Learners can use underwater earthquake data to identify plate boundaries with links to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Acoustic Monitoring Program Ocean Seismicity data. Data from the Northeast Pacific, eastern Equatorial ... Full description.

Follow ocean explorations in near real-time, learn about ocean exploration technologies, observe remote marine flora and fauna in the multimedia gallery, review NOAA's 200-year history of ocean exploration, and discover additional NOAA resources in a virtual library. View current expeditions or take a look back at the archived ones. Most expeditions feature fact sheets, photographs, explorer logs, ... Full description.

Continents were once thought to be static, locked tight in their positions in Earth's crust. Similarities between distant coastlines, such as those on opposite sides of the Atlantic, were thought to be the work of a scientist's overactive imagination, or, if real, the result of erosion on a massive scale. This interactive feature shows 11 tectonic plates and their names, the continents that occupy ... Full description.