Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: Rate of Lava Flow part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Question In 1983, an eruption began at Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii that has proved to be the largest and longest-lived eruption since records began in 1823. Lava has poured out of the volcano at an average rate of ...

Global Phosphorus Cycle part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Kirsten Menking, Vassar College
Students create and modify a STELLA model of the global phosphorus cycle to test a number of scenarios.

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: Percentage of Copper in Ore part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Question Suppose that you are building a new house. It will take about 90 kg (198 pounds) of copper to do the electrical wiring. In order to get the copper in the first place, someone needs to mine solid rock that ...

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: Weight of Gold part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Question Let's suppose that you have a shoe box full of water (the box is waterproof, of course). The shoe box weighs about 9 kg (19.8 pounds). Suppose you emptied the box and filled it completely with rock ...

BotEC: The San Andreas Fault's Rate of Movement part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Peter Kresan
Question: The San Andrea is an active fault zone, marked by frequent earthquake activity. The crust southwest of this strike-slip fault (including Los Angeles) is sliding to the northwest relative to the other ...

BotEC: The Grand Canyon's Rate of Erosion part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Peter Kresan
Question: Some geologic processes, like volcanism and earthquakes, occur intermittently but can cause significant and sometimes catastrophic change very quickly. Others, like weathering, act continuously but ...

Investigating dimensions of the solar system part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
This page authored by Leslie Kanat, Johnson State College; Francisco San Juan, Elizabeth City State University; Steven Schafersman, CyberComputing Scientific Services; Michael Stewart, University of Illinois—Urbana Champaign
Planetary data are used to investigate and evaluate the Nebular Hypothesis.

Measuring specific gravity to answer questions about subduction. part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Leslie Kanat, Johnson State College
Use a quadruple beam balance to measure the specific gravity of the minerals and rocks that are common in oceanic and continental lithosphere. The results of the calculations are tied to numerous concepts described in previous lectures.

Reading Topographic Maps and Calculating Map Scale part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Leslie Kanat, Johnson State College
Use a topographic map to deliniate a watershed, draw a map bar scale, and calculate a map ratio scale.

Stream Characteristics Lab part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Wendy Van Norden, harvard-westlake school
Students determine the relationship between the sinuosity of a river and its gradient by calculating gradients and sinuosity, and generating a graph on Excel. They then test the relationship by making measurements on a picture generated on Google Earth.