Geologic Puzzles: Morrison Formation part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Interactive Lectures:Examples
Heather Macdonald, College of William and Mary
Images of faulted strata, tilted turbidites, and beach rocks bring the field into the classroom, giving students practice in doing what geoscientists do. These images are examples of geologic puzzles. -

Evolution of Normal Fault Systems During Progressive Deformation part of Activities
Bob Burger, Smith College
This activity is based on QuickTime movies and color digital photographs derived from sandbox experiments that produce normal faults in a variety of boundary conditions following experiments developed by Ken ...

What is Magnitude? Earthquake Magnitude By Analogy part of Cutting Edge:Geophysics:Workshop 07:Geophysics Activities
Scott White, University of South Carolina-Columbia
Understanding magnitude scales by analogy to distance. Students use distance as a proxy for understanding how the logarithmic earthquake magnitude scale works. Very simple class or lab exercise for introductory ...

Where is that chunk of crust going? part of Cutting Edge:Introductory Courses:Activities
Vince Cronin, Baylor University
I introduce students to GPS, frames of reference, and the permanent GPS stations in the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) in class, and obtain near-real-time data for two stations from UNAVCO. We use ...

How do Faults Slip: Earthquakes versus Episodic Tremor and Slip part of Cutting Edge:Deep Earth:Activities
Mike Brudzinski, Miami University-Oxford
A comparison of earthquakes and episodic tremor and slip using GPS and seismic data to illustrate how faults slip.

Determining Earthquake Recurrence Intervals from Trench Logs part of Rates and Time:GSA Activity Posters
Patricia H. Cashman
Trench logs of the San Andreas Fault at Pallett Creek, CA are the data base for a lab or homework assignment that teaches about relative dating, radiometric dating, fault recurrence intervals and the reasons for uncertainty in predicting geologic phenomena. Students are given a trench log that includes several fault strands and dated stratigraphic horizons. They estimate the times of faulting based on bracketing ages of faulted and unfaulted strata. They compile a table with the faulting events from the trench log and additional events recognized in nearby trenches, then calculate maximum, minimum and average earthquake recurrence intervals for the San Andreas Fault in this area. They conclude by making their own prediction for the timing of the next earthquake.

Visualizing Earthquakes at Divergent Plate Margins part of Cutting Edge:Visualization:Examples
Cara Harwood, University of California-Davis
In this activity students visualize the distribution and magnitude of earthquakes at divergent plate boundaries. Earthquakes are visualized on a 3D globe, making it easy to see their distribution within ...

Global Earthquakes: Teaching about Earthquakes with Data and 3D Visualizations part of Cutting Edge:Visualization:Examples
Cara Harwood, University of California-Davis
In this series of visualizations and accompanying activities, students visualize the distribution and magnitude of earthquakes and explore their distribution at plate boundaries. Earthquakes are visualized on a 3D ...

Visualizing Global Earthquakes â Where and Why do Earthquakes Occur? part of Cutting Edge:Visualization:Examples
Cara Harwood, University of California-Davis
In this activity students visualize the distribution and magnitude of earthquakes at and below the surface of Earth and how their distribution is related to plate boundaries. Earthquakes are visualized on a 3D ...

Using THEMIS Images of Mars Graben in a Structural Geology Course part of Cutting Edge:Discoveries from Mars:Activities
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Students use Mars THEMIS images of normal faults to learn to recognize features of normal faults systems that are typically obscured on Earth by erosion and/or deposition and to calculate displacement and estimate ...