Tsunami Early Warning Demonstration part of Geodesy:Activities
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
This hands-on demonstration illustrates how instruments can be used to warn people of a tsunami. The same principles can be applied to earthquake early warning. With an older audience, this is a demonstration that can be used to start a conversation. With a younger audience, this activity is a game.

Tsunami assignment part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Klaus Neumann, Ball State University
Students read reports about potential sources for tsunamis on the US east coast and compare them with previously discussed dangers for the west cost.

2004 Asian Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Project part of Visualization:Examples
Char Bezanson
Students are employees of a unit of the United Nations responsible for coordinating disaster relief after a major disaster (the 2004 Asian Earthquake and Tsunami) occurs. The agency needs to understand the ...

The 2004 Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami part of Visualization:Examples
Steve Kluge
In this multi-part activity, students study seismograms from different seismic stations recording the Sumatra earthquake of December 26th, 2004 and then determine the epicenter of the quake and track the tsunami it ...

Earthquake Visualizations part of Hazards:Visualization Collections
Find animations showing seismograph operation, tsunami, P and S Waves, earthquake focus versus epicenter, and actual footage of an earthquake.

Episodic tremor and slip: The Case of the Mystery Earthquakes | Lessons on Plate Tectonics part of Geodesy:Activities
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Earthquakes in western Washington and Oregon are to be expected—the region lies in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Offshore, the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate subducts under the North American plate, from northern California to British Columbia. The region, however, also experiences exotic seismicity— Episodic Tremor and Slip (ETS).In this lesson, your students study seismic and GPS data from the region to recognize a pattern in which unusual tremors--with no surface earthquakes--coincide with jumps of GPS stations. This is ETS. Students model ductile and brittle behavior of the crust with lasagna noodles to understand how properties of materials depend on physical conditions. Finally, they assemble their knowledge of the data and models into an understanding of ETS in subduction zones and its relevance to the millions of residents in Cascadia.

Earthquake Early Warning Demonstration part of Geodesy:Activities
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
This hands-on demonstration illustrates how GPS instruments can be used in earthquake early warning systems to alert people of impending shaking. The same principles can be applied to other types of early warning systems (such as tsunami) or to early warning systems using a different type of geophysical sensor (such as a seismometer instead of a GPS).This demo is essentially a game that works best with a large audience (ideally over 30 people) in an auditorium. A few people are selected to be either surgeons, GPS stations, or a warning siren, with everyone else forming an earthquake "wave."

Measuring Ground Motion with GPS: How GPS Works part of Geodesy:Activities
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
With printouts of typical GPS velocity vectors found near different tectonic boundaries and models of a GPS station, demonstrate how GPS work to measure ground motion.GPS velocity vectors point in the direction that a GPS station moves as the ground it is anchored to moves. The length of a velocity vector corresponds to the rate of motion. GPS velocity vectors thus provide useful information for how Earth's crust deforms in different tectonic settings.

Plate Tectonics and Tectonic Hazards part of Course Design:Goals Database
John Creasy, Bates College
This is a topical course covering plate tectonics and associated hazards such as eartquakes, volcanic activity, and secondary hazards such as tsunami, landslides, etc. A companion topical course covers surficial ...

Engebretson Collection of Geoscience Audio Visualizations part of Visualization
Geophysicist Dave Engebretson of Western Washington University has developed a collection of audio visualizations of geoscience data for use in the classroom. Below are a few examples from the collection. For ...