In this web-based, interactive story, Tutangiaq (Too-tang-geye-ack - nicknamed 2T), a Canada Goose, flies across Alaska looking for his family. As he flies, he tells children about the fascinating 49th state. Children learn how Alaska was purchased from the Russians, and other facts about the state. They can also compare the size of Alaska to other states. 2T takes a flight across the volcanic chain in Alaska and helps the students to interactively explore how scientists monitor volcanoes from satellite images in near-real time. At the coast, the bird also meets his Walrus friend who shows him how the sea ice edge has receded and gives an example of an adverse effect on marine life. Finally, 2T arrives in Fairbanks where children use satellite imagery to help 2T find and unite with his family.

This website features descriptions of volcanic features and events in Idaho's three geologic regions. Descriptions include integrated definitions and links to related topics. The site also incorporates links to the geologic time scale, Craters of the Moon Volcanic Field and more in-depth information about Idaho volcanoes

This Flash animation illustrates continental growth. It shows a convergent boundary where a terrane on a subducting plate is fused to the edge of a continent. Users can stop, play, fast forward and rewind the animation at any time. This visualization is one of several animations in a series developed as a component of Exploring Earth, a website that supports the textbook Earth Science.

The Araona Crater (also known as the Iturralde Structure) is a suspected crater from an impactor which struck northern Bolivia approximately 20,000 years ago. The feature is believed to have been caused by a short period comet striking at 70 kilometers per second and splattering into the muddy alluvial flood plain in the Lower Amazon jungle. The impact created a circular depression which is now roughly 8 kilometers across and 3 meters deep. The structure was discovered in 1988 Landsat data, but was not visited successfully until 1998 because the region is inaccessible. Future expeditions hope to finally settle if the feature truly is the impact crater it appears to be, and if so, determine the nature of the impactor. The full Landsat scene of Northern Bolivia includes the Rio Bene running northward through the image (North is up), with the Rio Madidi running across the image from southwest towards the northeast before joining the Rio Bene. The image was constructed from Landsat Thematic Mapper bands 7, 5, and 3 displayed as red, green, and blue respectively. The green tone of the image distinguishes between different types of vegetation with low scrubland in the alluvial flood plain appears as a light green and dense tropical jungle coverage appearing dark green. The close-up of the impact crater uses the same Landsat data, but passed through a sharpening image filter which emphasizes high spatial frequency features and tends to enhance color contrast.

This activity explores the significance and geologic history of the Kerguelen Plateau Large Igneous Province, as revealed by Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Legs 120 and 183. After examining all the source material, the students write an essay addressing the important points that they have learned. The Calibrated Peer Review interface is then used to give feedback on the essays. On this Starting Point page, users can access information about the exercise's learning goals, context for use, teaching notes and tips, teaching materials, assessment ideas, references and topics covered.

This website provides resources for teachers who are looking for methods to incorporate student research projects into their teaching. The site provides several case studies of how research has been incorporated into courses such as structural geology, hydrology and geography. For each example, the teacher has provided their methods, results, tips, and references. In some cases the assignment is provided. This site would be useful for faculty looking for ways to add research projects to their courses. This resource is part of the Using Data in the Classroom collection. This resource is part of the Using Data collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/

This archived Universities Space Research Association Earth Science Picture of the day highlights the Dent de Morcles geologic formation. The photo shows an example of the complex processes that often take place during mountain building. For more information about the Dent de Morcles, geology of Switzerland and mountain formation, users can follow links to external pages from this Picture of the Day.

This Starting Point exercise asks students to describe and interpret an image of folded strata at Dent De Morcles. There are several questions students must address with respect to the image. This Starting Point website includes suggestions for using this technique, as well as teaching notes, learning goals, and extensive additional resource links and references.

This document outlines the development of the theory of continental drift and how many lines of evidence collected over several decades by various researchers were brought together to explain how the seafloor spreads and the continents move about. Links to additional information are included.

This lithograph introduces the Digital Tectonic Activity Map (DTAM) to the classroom utilizing the map with online activities. The DTAM is a digital atlas of tectonism and volcanism of the last one million years. It is a compilation of field, geophysical, and satellite measurements and is a unique tool for understanding the physiographic nature of the Earth.

This collection of activities and lesson plans covers grade levels 7-12, with notes on how some of the plans might be adapted for other age groups. Topics fall mainly within tectonics, with some structural geology and planetary science projects. The PDF files include activities, hand outs, maps, and even directions for building a simple seismometer and seismograph. Also included are suggestions for incorporating specific media, such as video, into the classroom, and an essay on the state of K-12 science education.

This USGS site has an online form that lets the user select parameters to perform a rectangular area search for earthquakes. The user must define the output file type, data base, and input rectangular area search parameters and has the option of defining the date, magnitude, depth and intensity of an earthquake.

The Rockies are fifteen hundred kilometers, or one thousand miles, to the east. The cause must be the tectonic plate that built these mountains. Its name is Farallon. Farallon started off normally enough. It plunged beneath the North American Plate at a forty-five degree angle. This process sprouted volcanoes to form the Sierra Nevada in what is now California. Next, mantle motions pulled North America westward over Farallon, and the plate scraped along the bottom of the continent - for fifteen hundred kilometers. As North America continued its westward trek, Farallon settled to the bottom of the mantle.

This site, which accompanies an introductory structural geology class at the University of Leeds, UK, contains information on faults. Topics include normal faults, thrust faults, strike-slip faults, faults and stress, and soft-linked fault systems. The site features explanations of the three basic types of faults with informative diagrams and a photo gallery.

This virtual five-day field mapping project allows students to construct a geological map from data provided by the web site. Students collect geologic, structural, paleontologic, strain and microstructural data observed at specific localities. Students are then able to derive a structural history for the area, including a field map, stereographs, and deformation plots. The site contains photographs and images, data, and all information that is needed to complete the exercise. It also provides solutions to some of the exercises.

This site from SERC's Starting Point features Gallery Walk questions about volcanism. The questions examine terminology, the relationship between magma viscosity, explosiveness, and volcano profile, volcano comparisons, volcanoes and plate tectonics, relationships between volcanic activity and the atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere, and disaster mitigation. The questions are organized according to the cognitive level at which students are engaged, using Bloom's Taxonomy.

This activity leads students through the process of creating a geologic map and cross-section in a small area of horizontal sedimentary rocks that are exposed in a few locations. On this Starting Point page, users can access information about the exercise's learning goals, context for use, teaching notes and tips, teaching materials, assessment ideas, references and topics covered.

This site provides animations, images, interactive maps and videos that can be used to teach about the concept of geologic time. Visual resources cover some specific topics of earth history including plate tectonics, continental drift, relative age dating and paleontology. These resources are appropriate for an introductory level geology course.

These lecture notes present a discussion of mineralogical classification of granitic rocks, definitions of hypersolvus and subsolvus granites, tectonic and chemical classification, and depth of emplacement of granites. Other topics include pegmatites, continental rhyolites, origin of large volumes of silicic magma, continental flood basalts, continental rift valleys, evolution of rock suites, and peralkaline rhyolites. The notes are in outline format and contain instructional figures, including ternary diagrams. This resource is part of the Teaching Petrology collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/petrology03/index.html