Internet Resources

Earth Structure and Changes (title provided or enhanced by cataloger)

In the first of these two modeling activities, students make a model and label the layers of the interior of the Earth including the inner and outer cores, the mantle and the crust. In the second ...

Journey to the Center of the Earth

This 1 hour 36 minute radio broadcast discusses the first direct evidence that the inner core of the Earth is spinning faster than its crust. Guest host Richard Harris talks with researchers about ...

Deep Mantle Plumes Help Explain Hawaii's Origins

This radio broadcast discusses a theory that says the Hawaiian Islands formed as a result of deep mantle plumes. The theory of plate tectonics does not explain their origin, since they are in the ...

Scientist Proposes Alternative to Deep Mantle Plumes

This radio broadcast continues the discussion from the previous show ('Deep Mantle Plumes Help Explain Hawaii's Origins') over whether the Hawaiian Islands were created by deep mantle plumes. Don ...

Magnetic Reversals: Fact and Fiction

In this activity students learn about Earth's magnetic reversals by reading two fiction stories and a scientific summary of past reversals, including graphical information. This will help students ...

Earth's Inconstant Magnetic Field

This article discusses our planet's magnetic field, which is in a constant state of change. The location of the North Pole has been moving north at an average speed of 10 km per year, lately ...

New Type of Deeper, Longer Quake Discovered

This radio broadcast reports on the discovery of a new kind of earthquake that is much deeper and longer lasting than other kinds of quakes. These long, super-deep tremors originate at a depth of ...

Rapid Earthquake Viewer

The Rapid Earthquake Viewer (REV) provides access to earthquake data from seismograph recording stations around the world. The Earthquake View lets users select an earthquake and see data at various ...

Hotspots: Mantle Thermal Plumes

This article discusses the idea of 'hot spot' volcanoes, those not associated with plate tectonic boundaries, but rather with relatively stationary sources of heat energy (thermal plumes) in the ...

An Introduction to Geomagnetism

This tutorial introduces students to geomagnetism, the Earth's magnetic field, and its changes through time and space. Topics include the properties of Earth's magnetic field, how it makes a compass ...

N.E. Pacific and W. North America Plate History, 38 Ma to Present.

This page presents an animation by Tanya Atwater of the evolution of the western margin of the North American plate from 38 Ma to present. Motions are shown with respect to a stationary North America.

Layers of the Earth

This activity is designed to familiarize students with the layers of the Earth and their approximate thicknesses. Students will cut and paste circles of paper to model the crust, mantle, outer core, ...

Observe an animation of convection in the mantle.

Glacial Isostasy

This animation depicts the changes that occur in the mantle and crust when undergoing glacial isostasy. The animation covers both the thickening of the glacier and its subsequent melting.

Farallon Plate Remnants

This image and short video from the NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio shows the remnants of the Farallon Plate based on seismic tomography studies. The studies were conducted by Hans-Peter Bunge ...

Geologic History of the San Andreas Fault System

This page from the USGS resource This Dynamic Earth (online edition) describes the evolution of the western coast of North America. A series of block diagrams shows how the subduction zone along the ...

The Farallon Plate

In this animation from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, the Farallon Plate sinks beneath North American Plate and scrapes along bottom of continent for 1,500 kilometers before sinking again.

Late Jurassic Tectonics and Paleogeography (145 Ma)

These side-by-side images from Northern Arizona University show tectonic conditions of Western margin of North America alongside a paleotopography map.

Subducting Farallon Plate under North America

Three-dimensional seismic tomography image showing the subducting farallon plate beneath the crust of western North America. Part of Princeton University's 'Art of Science 2009' gallery.

Plate Tectonics and the Evolution of Central America and the Caribbean

A series of illustrations with explanatory text from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay showing the tectonic evolution of Central America and the Caribbean region from 170 Ma to present.