Plate Motion Calculator part of Geodesy:Resources
EarthScope Consortium
The Plate Motion Calculator calculates tectonic plate motion at any location on Earth using one or more plate motion models.

GPS Velocity Viewer part of Geodesy:Resources
EarthScope Consortium
This interactive tool allows users to see GPS/GNSS-measured crustal motions around the globe in a wide range of reference frames. The default view shows horizontal motions in the North American reference frame but users can choose to add vertical motions, earthquakes epicenters, plate boundaries, volcanic centers, or other reference frames. The tool can also be used as an interface to learn GPS/GNSS station names and download time series data.

Geoid Height Calculator part of Geodesy:Resources
EarthScope Consortium
The Geoid Height Calculator returns the geoid height at the latitude and longitude specified by the user. The geoid is one approximation of Earth's shape due to gravity, roughly coinciding with mean sea level. Because the inside of our planet is non-uniform, gravity is not constant at the surface. If Earth were completely covered in an ocean, the water would swell over gravity highs (where there is more mass below the surface) and depress in areas of gravity lows (where there is less mass below the surface). The geoid approximates this hypothetical ocean surface, representing a geopotential surface. To think of it another way, if we were able to walk on the geoid, we would experience a constant value of gravity.

Marine Oxygen Isotopes and Changes in Global Ice Volume part of Climate Change:Activities
Ben Laabs, North Dakota State University-Main Campus
Students explore marine oxygen-isotope data from cores collected by the Ocean Drilling Program. The activity gives students access to real paleoclimate data, develops their skills in organizing and graphing data, ...

Time Scales of Climate Change part of Rates and Time:Teaching Activities
Erika Grundstrom, Vanderbilt University; Cara Thompson, Arizona State University at the West Campus; Maya Elrick, University of New Mexico-Main Campus
This activity introduces students to the fact that climate change occurs at timescales of 1 year to 108 years and there are various drivers to explain these changes. It addresses how scientists detect these scales ...

Calculating Pressures and Temperatures of Petrologic Events: Geothermobarometry part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Donna Whitney, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
In this lab exercise, students examine one or more metamorphic rocks and use various approaches to estimating and calculating the pressure-temperature conditions at which the rocks equilibrated. The exercise ...

Binary eutectic in-class exercise (Di-An) part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Allen Glazner
In this activity students work through a binary eutectic phase diagram in small groups and try to determine a set of generalizations that explain the behavior of such systems (e.g., "the first liquid produced ...

KML Examples from the Google Earth Community Forums part of Teaching Methods:Teaching with Google Earth
An effective means of learning about KML is to open existing KML files in Google Earth to find out how they function, and then to examine the content of these files in a text editor to investigate how that ...

Teaching Stable Isotope Geochemistry in an Undergraduate Petrology or Geochemistry Course part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Steve Dunn
This assignment includes three reading assignments for students that (1) introduce the basics of stable isotope geochemistry, (2) explain carbon and oxygen isotopic shifts that result from volatilization and/or ...

Extending Mineralogy by Electron Microprobe Analysis part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
John Goodge, University of Minnesota-Duluth
This lab is designed to be a highly interactive lab session for a petrology course, where instructors provide a minimal level of essential background and then the entire group works together to explore mineral ...