This easily built classroom apparatus is ideal for gaining a better understanding of how earthquakes work and how they are recorded. The apparatus consists of a heavy object that is dragged steadily with an elastic cord. Although pulled with a constant velocity, the heavy object repeatedly slides and then stops. A small vibration sensor, attached to a computer display, graphically monitors this motion, ... Full description.

This article, entitled Earth: All Stressed Out, dicusses the reasons for crustal movement, the different types of faults and seismic waves, and an explanation of how the damage is caused. The article includes several animations that support the explanations, plus a video taken during a destructive California earthquake. There are also three sidebars that support the article. They are Learning from ... Full description.

This is an exercise based on the geologic hazard of land subsidence in areas of karst terrain. A brief introduction is given to ground water, the development of karst, and the resulting collapse features due to the lowering of the water table. Photos and an animation support the discussion. Users are directed to print out a question sheet that is intended to guide exploration of the Edwards Aquifer ... Full description.

This lesson plan teaches students some of the basics of earthquakes and volcanoes. It also asks them to think about how people living in cities and suburbs must plan ahead by constructing sturdy buildings and preparing their homes and themselves for the possibility of a natural disaster. Students will therefore be introduced to some basic concepts of physical geography, as well as some of the ways ... Full description.

This college course offers a basic introduction to the sciences of hydrology and geomorphology, which are two branches of Geography dealing with earth surface processes. This page contains two labs, a summary of each unit covered, a syllabus for the course, and example questions. Topics covered include plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes, weathering, soils, mass wasting, fluvial processes, ... Full description.

These two programs are available for free download from this website. Also included is the technical information users might need to have the program running in the classroom, including how to update the database of earthquakes. Seismic/eruption is a program that plots the epicenter of all earthquakes within a time period, geographic region, and magnitude chosen by the user. This program also does ... Full description.

Earthforces are defined as any push or pull that causes a change in motion, like eruptions, quakes, or floods. There are three categories of earthforces covered on this Franklin Institute Science Museum website: forces beneath the Earth's surface in the mantle and core, forces on the crust of the Earth involving plate tectonics, and water forces. Links are also provided for more information about ... Full description.

In 1755, when a deadly earthquake struck the city of Lisbon, no one understood what could cause the ground to shake as it did. Observations of residents at the time indicated that the quake had delivered two distinct types of vibrations. This video segment describes the history of seismology. Topics include the two main types of seismic waves (S- and P-waves), how a seismograph works, and how seismograph ... Full description.

At this interactive site the student attempts to rate the eruption of a volcano according to the Volcanic Explosive Index (VEI). After seeing the step by step eruption of an actual volcano, the student is introduced to VEI scale, which includes a description of the eruption, volume of ejected material, plume height, eruption type, duration, total known eruptions with that VEI, and an example. Each ... Full description.

This page describes how quickly an earthquake-triggered lahar happened and the losses that occurred. Some losses may have occurred because people did not know they should flee to high ground after an earthquake. Within minutes of the 1994 magnitude 6.4 earthquake beneath the south-southwest flank of Nevado del Huila volcano in Colombia, dozens of landslides swept down from the steep valleys above ... Full description.