This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection. (view details)

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.

Initial Publication Date: May 24, 2018 | Reviewed: August 4, 2022 (see revision history: 2 events)

Alaska Earthquakes & Tsunami Presentation

Description

This lecture and associated animations delve in more deeply to the topic of Alaskan earthquakes and tsunami along with their causes and variability. It also draws on EarthScope GPS and seismic data to show how we can study earth processes to better understand Alaskan geohazards. It highlights case study sites of Whittier and Seward during the 1964 Alaska Mag 9.2 earthquake to show how differences in location, topography, and land use can lead to different tsunami experiences in different communities.

Alaska Earthquakes and Tsunami Presentation (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 50.5MB Oct2 22)
Associated Animations: Alaska Earthquakes & Tsunami (Zip Archive 62.3MB May24 18)

Click to view

A similar lecture featuring the USA's Pacific Northwest region is available from the Cascadia EarthScope Earthquake and Tsunami Education Program (CEETEP)

Context

This resource is intended for introductory-level geoscience learners from secondary up to adult in a classroom or public lecture. However, learners would need to have some prior knowledge of earthquakes and tsunami (ex. Earthquake Basics and Tsunami Basics).

Teaching Notes

The slides contain a variety of notes to help users know the intention of the author.
Both animations associated with the presentation are available above in a zipped file. One animation is embedded within the PowerPoint but is also provided in the zipped file in case there are any issues. Another animation plays better outside of the PowerPoint in something like Quicktime. The logical place to do so is indicated in the pptx notes.
Most likely in a classroom setting an instructor might break this presentation into several sections that go along with different class activities. In the upper right corner of some slides you may see some text that refers to different learner activities that are part of the ANGLE project collection. This should give the user some idea of the slides we generally associate with different activities.
Related activities are:
- Alaska GPS Analysis of Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes
- Investigating Factors That Affect Tsunami Inundation
Another activity to consider
- Cupcake Geology: Interpreting Core Samples