Mapping Plate Tectonic Boundaries part of Teaching Activities
Nathan Toke, Utah Valley University
In this classroom activity, students will work in groups to observe how patterns of topography, bathymetry, earthquake locations and depths, and the location of volcanoes vary across regions of the Earth. They will ...

Pangaea Breakup part of GEODE:GEODE Teaching Resources
Steve Whitmeyer, James Madison University; Mladen Dorevic, Old Dominion University
A Google Earth animation files was developed to show the Pangaea breakup. The animation is utilized to illustrate the evidence for plate tectonics and plate motion. Three student exercises are build around this ...

Project X part of Teaching Activities
George H. Davis, The University of Arizona
Each student independently analyzes a geologic cross-section (i.e., X-section) and the journal article within which it is contained. Students select from a list prepared by the instructor. Each student prepares ...

Poster Project for an Introductory Physical Geology Course part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Eileen Herrstrom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This page details a term project that replaced the comprehensive final exam in an introductory physical geology course. For the project, each student prepares a poster showing analysis of geological data using a ...

Reconnaissance stratigraphy and mapping of the Frying Pan Gulch, MT part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
Sinan Akciz, California State University-Fullerton
Students are required to create a reconnaissance geologic map and report for a small area (approximately 0.5 sq. mile) Frying Pan Gulch just NW of Dillon, Montana. This project is designed to make students familiar ...

Exploring California's Plate Motion and Deformation with GPS | Lessons on Plate Tectonics part of Geodesy:Activities
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Students analyze data to study the motion of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. From GPS data, students detect relative motion between the plates in the San Andreas fault zone--with and without earthquakes. To get to that discovery, they use physical models to understand the architecture of GPS, from satellites to sensitive stations on the ground. They learn to interpret time series data collected by stations (in the spreading regime of Iceland), to cast data as horizontal north-south and east-west vectors, and to add those vectors head-to-tail.Students then apply their skills and understanding to data in the context of the strike-slip fault zone of a transform plate boundary. They interpret time series plots from an earthquake in Parkfield, CA to calculate the resulting slip on the fault and (optionally) the earthquake's magnitude.

A Grand Tour of the Ocean Basins part of GEODE:GEODE Teaching Resources
Declan De Paor, Old Dominion University
The Tour Stops are arranged in a teaching sequence, starting with continental rifting and incipient ocean basin formation in East Africa and the Red Sea and ending with the oldest surviving fragments of oceanic ...

Understanding the Age of the Ocean Floor part of IODP School of Rock 2020:Teaching Activities
Mike Passow, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
In part 1, Students will use data collected during DSDP Leg 3 to plot the age of the sea floor at distances away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In part 2, they learn about paleomagnetic evidence and learn about the ...

Remote Mapping and Analytical data integration: Coal Creek quartzite and Ralston shear zone, Colorado part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
Kevin Mahan, University of Colorado at Boulder
This is a combination of an online mapping project (igneous and metamorphic terrain) and a subsequent module for group collaboration with associated analytical datasets (e.g., geochronology and microstructure). ...

Earthquake Intensity part of EarthScope ANGLE:Educational Materials:Activities
Jennifer Pickering
Introductory lesson that compares ShakeMaps between earthquakes in the same location but different magnitudes, and earthquakes of the same magnitude but different depths, to acquaint learners to the fundamental controls on intensity of shaking felt during an event: magnitude and distance from the earthquake source.