This article highlights science and literacy lessons to teach elementary students about erosion, glaciers, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Links to national standards are included.

This article lists common misconceptions about weathering, erosion, volcanoes, and earthquakes. It provides formative assessment probes and information about teaching for conceptual change.

This learning video uses a simple analog setup to explore why earthquakes are so unpredictable. The setup is simple enough that students should be able to assemble and operate it on their own with a teacher's supervision. The teaching approach used in this module is known as the 5E approach, which stands for Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation. Over the course of this lesson, the basic mechanisms that give rise to the behavior of the simple analog system are explained, and further elaboration helps the students to apply their understanding of the analog system to complex fault systems that cause earthquakes

This text is provided to you as an Open Educational Resource which you access online. It is designed to give you a comprehensive introduction to Geology at no or very nominal cost. It contains both written and graphic text material, intra-text links to other internal material which may aid in understanding topics and concepts, intra-text links to the appendices and glossary for tables and definitions of words, and extra-text links to videos and web material that clarifies and augments topics and concepts. Like any new or scientific subject, Geology has its own vocabulary for geological concepts. For you to converse effectively with this text and colleagues in this earth science course, you will use the language of geology, so comprehending these terms is important. Use the intra-text links to the Glossary and other related material freely to gain familiarity with this language.

Faculty who adopt this text for their course should contact the authors at edits@opengeology.org so that the authors can keep faculty users up to date of critical changes.

In this lab, students investigate a hotly debated topic relevant in the political, economic, and scientific arenas. They will examine the processes involved in unconventional oil and gas resource production, including hydraulic fracturing. In particular, they will examine nearby seismic activity and will be asked to determine if correlations can be established between fluid injection, related to hydrofracking or wastewater disposal, and earthquake activity. As an option, students can also investigate geothermal activity at the Geysers in California, to illustrate the difficulty in assessing natural versus induced seismicity in such a geologically complex region.

Students, working individually or in small groups, run the free Windows program Seismic/Eruption to generate maps from an earthquake database accurate and complete from 1960 to the present. Students select a seismically active region of interest to them and make their own map. They also select a time window, perhaps 20 years. By changing the minimum magnitude threshold setting in Seismic/Eruption and replaying the plots, they observe first-hand that large earthquakes occur less often than smaller magnitude earthquakes. The total number of earthquakes plotted is easily read from a counter on the screen. Students build up a table of the number of earthquakes per year with magnitude greater or equal to a certain magnitude, using a wide range of magnitude thresholds. These are then plotted on semi-log paper in the form of a Gutenberg-Richter plot. Connecting the points on the plot allows students to see a linear trend, to interpolate and extrapolate from the points measured, and to think about why there may be departures from that linear trend for very small and very large magnitudes. If they assume earthquake occurrence in their chosen region is equally distributed in time, they can predict how often an earthquake of a given magnitude is likely to occur. They can also replay Seismic/Eruption to see whether that assumption is valid.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this jigsaw activity, students discover four different aspects of natural hazards on the Island of Hawaii. The goal for students is to design a hazard zone map that combines these four topics and that could be used for making land-use decisions before future natural hazards occur. Students will first be assigned to one of four Hazard Specialties (lava flows, explosive eruptions, earthquakes, tsunami), where they complete an exercise and make a preliminary hazard zone map with their specialty group from a single hazard map. Then the students will reorganize into Hazard Assessment Teams, with one student from each of the four Hazard Specialties, to develop a final hazard zone map based on information on all four hazards. Each Hazard Assessment Team will make a recommendation about the risks of natural hazards to existing and future development in Hilo, Kailua-Kona, and Kalapana on the Island of Hawaii.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this activity, students reenact key events leading up to and following the 2009 L'Aquila Earthquake and trial. This leads into a debate on responsibility for communicating and understanding risks and natural hazards.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

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 situation in each country so that it can coordinate the work of various governments and NGO (nongovernmental organizations) working in the affected area.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This module series is designed to teach introductory-level college-age geology students about the basic processes and dynamics that produce earthquakes. Students learn about how and why earthquakes are distributed at plate boundaries using 3D visualizations of real data. These 3D visualizations were designed to allow students to more easily visualize and experience complex and highly visual geologic concepts. 3D visualizations allow students to examine features of the Earth from many different scales and perspectives, and to view both the space and time distributions of events. For example, students can view the earth from the perspective of the entire solar system, or from one point on the Earth's surface, and can visualize how earthquakes along a fault occur through time. By teaching about earthquakes and plate tectonics using a real data set that students can visualize in three-dimensions, students learn how scientists analyze large data sets to look for patterns and test hypotheses. At the end of this module students will understand how earthquakes are distributed on Earth, and how different types of plate boundaries result in different magnitudes and distributions of earthquakes.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

To prepare for this assignment students will have already done magnitude calculations, particularly body-wave magnitude where the concept of reading amplitude and P-wave period will have been practiced. Prior to this activity the students will have had a quiz on calculating body-wave magnitude given a seismogram.
The primary outcome of this activity is to understand the difference in what body-wave magnitude measures, compared to what moment magnitude measures and the merits of each.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this two-day activity, students monitor an evolving volcanic crisis at a convergent plate boundary (Cascadia). Using monitoring data and geologic hazard maps, students make a series of forecasts for the impending eruption and associated risks. By the end of the activity, students will have learned the outcome of the eruption and assess the impacts of the eruption of Mount Rainier on specific locations around the volcano.
This unit begins by having students examine past volcanic eruptions at Mount St. Helens, associated with the Cascadia convergent plate boundary, through firsthand accounts by United States Geological Survey (USGS) personnel who describe their work monitoring the geologic activity and some associated impacts. During class on the first day (Unit 5), students will begin working in small groups to interpret one of three data sets used to monitor volcanic activity (seismic, gas and ash emissions, and tilt). During prework and in-class activities for day 2 (Unit 6), students will update their predictions by combining information from all three data sets in mixed groups in which students act as "experts" for a particular data set. The exercise culminates with students assessing the impacts of a simulated volcanic eruption at their assigned locations.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

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.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In preparation for this walking field trip to the San Andreas Fault,
students ideally have attended two lecture sessions where plate
boundary processes and features have been discussed formally. The
expected outcomes include students that are capable of calculating
rupture length based on elastic rebound theory, recurrence interval,
and relative plate motion and rates. The field trip procedure and
details for each stop are included in the lab manual below.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

After a big earthquake happens people ask, 'Where did the earthquake occur? How big was it? What type of fault was activated?' We designed an undergraduate laboratory exercise in which students learn how geologists and geodesists use topography data acquired using airborne laser scanning (a.k.a lidar -- light detection and ranging) to answer these questions for a *make-believe*, but realistic earthquake scenario along the Wasatch Fault in Salt Lake City, Utah.

During a large earthquake, tectonic plates shift past each other. Rapid slippage generates seismic waves that propagate away and cause significant damage to buildings, roads, and critical infrastructure. The movement of faults at depth permanently displaces the Earth's surface in a way that depends on the magnitude of the earthquake, the amount and sense of slip, and the fault's geometry. Immediately following an earthquake, geologists play a critical role in assessing damage, measuring the geometry of the activated fault, and estimating the likelihood of an upcoming earthquake on nearby faults.Â

In this assignment, students pretend that they are geologists working for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and must respond to a recent earthquake along the Wasatch Fault. They aid in the response by mapping the surface rupture and calculating the surface displacement, coseismic slip, and earthquake magnitude from high resolution lidar topographic imagery acquired before and after the earthquake.Â

Lidar point cloud data are a set of (x, y, z) measurements that represent the elevation and are sometimes associated with the color of the Earth's surface. The irregular-spaced individual elevation measurements within a topography dataset are often gridded into a digital elevation model (DEM) raster where the data are represented with rows and columns of pixels each with a height value. DEM's are often visualized as topographic hillshades, which mimic how the elevation would appear from above. Topographic differencing is a technique used to estimate 3D surface displacements from high-resolution topographic imagery acquired before and after an earthquake. The exercise includes pre- earthquake imagery acquired by the state of Utah in 2013-2014. The "post-earthquake" mimics the lidar imagery that would be acquired in the days to weeks following a major earthquake.Â

****** The earthquake in this exercise represents a hypothetical event. The 'post' event high resolution topography was synthetically displaced, in a way that simulates a possible earthquake along the Wasatch fault given mapped fault geometry and earthquake scaling laws. An event similar to the hypothetical earthquake here is possible: Since 1847 when pioneers settled in Salt Lake City, there have been over 16 earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5.5. Geologic studies show repeated large earthquakes occurred prior to European settlement in the region. Recently (March 18, 2020), the Salt Lake Valley was shaken by the M5.7 Magna earthquake. This recent reminder further motivates our exercise.******
Â
Keywords: Earthquakes, active tectonics, structural geology, geodesy, lidar, remote sensing

Provenance: Chelsea Scott, Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students build spreadsheets to tabulate and graph seismic wave amplitude and energy release to explore the logarithmic scale of earthquake magnitude.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this opening unit, students develop the societal context for understanding earthquake hazards using as a case study the 2011 Tohoku, Japan, earthquake. It starts with a short homework "scavenger hunt" in which students find a compelling video and information about the earthquake. In class, they share some of what they have found and then engage in a series of think-pair-share exercises to investigate both the societal and scientific data about the earthquake.

Show more about Online Teaching suggestions
Hide
Online-ready: This opening class discussion about earthquakes and societal impacts could easily be converted to an online discussion format.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Learners modify elements of a tsunami wave tank to investigate the affect that near-coast bathymetry (submarine topography) and coastal landforms have on how far a tsunami can travel inland. Damaging tsunami are most commonly produced by subduction zone earthquakes, such as those that occur in Alaska.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Earthquake location is an interesting and significant aspect of seismology. Locating earthquakes is necessary for compiling useful seismicity information, calculating magnitudes, and study of fault zones, Earth structure and the earthquake process. Methods of earthquake location involve understanding of seismic waves, wave propagation, interpretation of seismograms, Earth velocity structure, triangulation, and the concepts (and mathematics) of inverse problems. Because earthquake location can be approached with relatively simple to very complex methods, it can be included in various levels of educational curricula and for "in-depth" study. Progressively developing a deep understanding of concepts, computational techniques and applications (and the capabilities, limitations and uncertainties of these applications) is a characteristic of science and an -- opportunity to "learn science by doing science." A number of methods that vary from simple to complex are available for learning about earthquake location. The methods also allow connections to other important concepts in seismology and provide a variety of approaches that address different learning styles and can be used for reinforcement and assessment.
Uses online and/or real-time data
Has minimal/no quantitative component

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)