Internet Resources

Upper-Mantle Origin of the Yellowstone Hotspot

This online report describes a model in which the Yellowstone hotspot is caused by upper-mantle convection and regional tectonics, contradicting the deep-mantle plume model proposed by others. ...

Superplume Concept Applies To Tharsis Area On Mars

This online article, published by the now defunct Daily University Science News (the article is still available in their archives), reports on the proposal of Victor Baker and Shigenori Maruyama, ...

Evidence for moving mantle plumes...Is nothing stationary?

This webpage provides a basic summary of a 2003 paper published in the journal Science by John Tarduno supporting recent evidence for motion of the Hawaiian hotspot. This evidence is based on ...

Beneath Yellowstone: Evaluating Plume and Nonplume Models Using Teleseismic Images of the Upper Mantle

In this online article published in GSA Today, the authors present recent teleseismic data bearing on the question of the depth of the mantle anomaly beneath Yellowstone, and the origin of hotspots ...

Isostasy

This website provides animations, static diagrams, and photos are depicting the isostatic adjustments associated with the emplacement and removal of ice sheets. The website addresses the question: ...

Geochemistry of the Solid Earth I: The Mantle and Core

This site is a chapter from a book on geochemistry by Dr. W. M. White that is used in a geochemistry course at Cornell University. The 39-page PDF document discusses the composition and evolution of ...

Ultra-High-Pressure Experimentalist Who Studies the Deep Earth

This article profiles the work of Elise Knittle, whose research specialty is mineral physics. The essay gives an overview of the core, mantle, and crust of the Earth, including what we know about ...

Geol 202: The Earth's Interior

This beginning geophysics course is designed for geology majors. It provides a relatively rigorous and homework-intensive overview of the structure and evolution of the Earth and terrestrial planets, ...

The tr660 Program

The tr660 program models the mineralogy and physical properties for various chemical compositions in the Earth's mantle where a transition occurs in these properties at about 660 km depth. The ...

Earth's Interior

This web-based laboratory material explores the ways in which heat controls mantle dynamics, how seismic waves move through the mantle and may be used to investigate its properties, and how the ...

The Interior of the Earth

This United States Geological Survey (USGS) publication discusses the interior of the Earth, including the mantle and the core. The use of earthquake waves to determine the interior structure of the ...

Layers of the Earth

This is an introductory lesson that can be expanded into the areas of geology, volcanos, earthquakes, and archaeology. Students will be introduced to geology in its simplest form and learn how a rock ...

Demonstrations of Geophysical Principles Applicable to the Properties and Processes of the Earth's Interior

These demonstrations are designed to help students develop a conceptual understanding of geophysical principles. The concepts covered in these demonstrations include rheology, seismic waves, ...

When North Goes South

This is a report of a computer numerical model of the electromagnetic, fluid dynamical processes of Earth's interior that reproduced key features of the magnetic field over more than 40,000 years of ...

Hot Spots and Mantle Plumes

This site describes mantle plumes, which are areas of hot, upwelling mantle. A hot spot develops above the plume. Magma generated by the hot spot rises through the rigid plates on the lithosphere and ...

Structure of the Earth

This site explains that seismologic studies of the Earth have revealed that it has several distinct layers. Each of these layers has its own properties and this information has helped to give ...

The Earth's Layers

This site contains information about the crust, lithosphere, mantle, convection currents, outer core and inner core of the Earth. The composition and thickness of each of the layers are described ...

A Peek Inside Our Planet

By placing the cursor on a part of this interactive model of the Earth, students can get information about that part. This includes the inner and outer core, the mantle, crust, and atmosphere. There ...

Inge Lehmann: Discoverer of the Earth's Inner Core

Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann used seismic signals to study the thousands of earthquakes that occur every year and offer a brief glimpse of what is happening deep inside the Earth. This article ...

The Shadow Zone

This is a demonstration of the Core Shadow Zone of the Earth. Using a clear or translucent half-sphere held in front of a light source, the refracting properties of the core and how it generates the ...