Physical Geography

~Plate Tectonics~

1.    Introduction to Plate Tectonics

• Click on the link in this website. It clearly explains the different types of plate movements and where they are found.
• Click here to see a simplified map of the world and plate movements.
• Click here to see an animated version of Continental Drift - you may have to run it a few times.

Click here to go to the Book Work section

2.    Great Mountain Ranges of the World

A simple ArcMap activity illustrating where the great mountain ranges of the world are located. You will use a background image of the earth to simply label these mountain ranges. See the instructions below under C. Bookwork.

3.    Earthquakes

B.    Shake and Bake! Click here to open an ArcView activity that deals with the world wide distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes. This activity was written for ArcView 3.3. You can do it in 3.3, but we challenge you do use ArcMap 9.2!

C.   Recent Earthquakes Anyone? Click here to find out how to map them out!

D.  Underwater Earthquakes? Find out some more about Tsunamis! See Below.

E.  Tidal waves are all wrong. In fact, there's no such thing.  Find out the physics of these monster waves and the nature of the damage they have caused.  Check out the list of good sites from about.com and answer the following questions about tsunamis. You could also use google or Yahoo to do some searching.

- What is a Tsunami?
- What causes a Tsunami?
- What are the physics of a Tsunami wave.
- List some examples of actual Tsunami events (where, how big, deaths and destruction). Make sure you have a few sentences on the December 2004 Tsunami
- What are some precautions, predictions and preventions that areas can take to prevent damage and loss of life.

4.    Volcanism

A.     PowerPoint show: Click here to see a slide show on volcanism.

B.    Mount St. Helens before and after it erupted...in 3D! This activity will be done using ArcView 9.1 and ArcScene.

• DATA: You are going to run a self-extracting file, called Setup.exe - scroll down.  Click here to go to the site to find the file. Click on the file Setup.exe and run the file - follow the instructions to download the data to your computer's C drive.
• Click here to download the instructions on how to map Mount St. Helens in 3D!  You may want to print them out.
• Please go to page 68 of your text book and see how Mt. St. Helens looks like on a Topographic map.

C.      Click here to read an excellent article how the study of Volcanoes and why some erupt violently and others do not.

D.      Click here to see a brief slide show showing Pompeii and Vesuvius from Crescent's 2007 trip to Italy!

E.   The Hawaiian Islands Conveyor Belt: 

Why is Hawaii (the Big Island) the only active Hawaiian Island?  Why is Kauai Island the oldest?  Start by reading about "hotspots" from about.com and see if you can figure it out.  When you think you have it, draw a cross-sectional profile of the Pacific plate that shows the Hawaiian Islands and the hotspot that has created the islands.

F. Recent Earthquakes and Volcanoes - we're talking this week! This is an assignment.

G. Hawaiian Volcanoes - Ms. Cooper's course in Hawaii

Media Corner!

QuickTime Movies
- The Christmas '04 Tsunami and its affect on India
- Plate movements
- The Theory of Plate Tectonics
- Another look at Tsumamis
- Volcanoes

Flash

Continental Drift
- Excellent look at Pangea and its breakup to present day - even a profile is included
- Assembly and Break up of Pangea
- Theory of Continental Drift - modified by Bullard
- Collision of India with Eurasia
- Theory of Continental Drift
- One more look at Continental Drift
- Sea Floor Spreading and Coastline Fit - Africa with South America

Plate Tectonics
- Plate Tectonics and Convection Currents
- What is going on at the Plate Boundaries
- Another look at Plate Boundaries
- Plate Boundary features
- Creation of Rift Valleys
- Divergent Boundaries
- Island Arcs
- Paleomagnetism - Sea Floor Spreading and the reversals of the Magnetic Field
- Sea Floor spreading and its affects in general
- Sea Floor spreading and its affects on Coastal Areas
- Oceanic Crust
- Subduction
- Subduction Zones

Earthquakes
- Earthquake Waves
- Earthquakes and Sedimentary Rock
- Earthquakes and Volcanoes
- Seismic Wave Motion
- Another look at Seismic Waves
- Yet another on Wave motion and its effects
- Seismographs
- Another look at how Seismographs work
- One more look at Seismographs
- Tsunami
- Another look at Tsunami
- Tsunami again
- Guess what? Tsunami
- Oh no! Tsunami

Volconoes
- Tectonic movement and Volcanic Arcs, Island Arcs and Hot Spots
- Creation of Crater Lakes
- Geyers
- Hotspots
- Another look at Hotspots
- One more look at Hotspots
- Mount St. Helens
- Another look at Mount St. Helens
- Volcanic Features
- Vocanic Arcs
- Types of Volcanoes
- Volcanic Plugs

5.    End of Unit - Culminating Activity 

Your task is to research one particular earthquake or volcano event. Your research will be presented to the class in the form of a PowerPoint slideshow. The following topics should be discussed with reference to your particular tectonic event. This slideshow should not be long! You are covering the points below. It should be approximately 8-10 slides. 

• When did it occur?
• What was the magnitude? What was its explosivity?
• Explain the geologic processes / tectonic forces leading to the event. 
• Where did it occur? Include an ArcView map (simple map just showing the location)
• What was the human impact? Environmental impact? Economic impact?
• How have the inhabitants adapted to the threat? Buildings? Evacuation? Warnings?
• Interesting facts/statistics
• Provide pictures
• Works Cited

Click here to see how you will be EVALUATED

A. Book Work - Chapter 2 "Earth: From core to crust" pages 16-24

1. Do the Case Study : "Finding the origin of the Human Species in South Africa" pages 18-19
   Answer #1,2,3
2. Do #2,3,4,5,6,7 on page 24

B. Book Work - Chapter 4 "Continents Adrift" pages 44-58

1. Do the Case Study: "Tragedy in Turkey" pages 56 -57
   Answer #1,2,3
2. Do #1,2,3,4,5,11,13 on page 60-61

C. Book Work - Chapter 4 "Movers and Shakers: How Landforms are Created" pages 62-78

1. You will use ArcView 9.3 to create a map illustrating the world's major mountain ranges. You will also view the relationship between Plate Boundaries, Volcanoes and Earthquakes. All the files you need are found in:
   C:\copy of O drive\worldearthquakes_volcanoes, you will need cntry00.shp and volcano.shp and Plat_Lin.shp and quakes96.shp and world4km . You may want to add World30.shp as well. You will use ArcMap's drawing tools or symbols to include the world's mountain chains or you may want to download a world map from the web that illustrates the mountain systems of the world (In ArcMap under File click on Add data from the Internet and then select 'Geography Network' then select 'Live Data and Maps' and 'Elevation and Derived Props' then click on Search. The first map should be a World Shaded Relief map, click on Add to ArcMap and away you go). There are a few mountain chains where you will have to do some research to find. Also include as many pictures (in your layout) of the 'actual' mountain chains that you can. The mountain chains are"
   - Western Cordillera
   - Sierra Madre Mountains
   - Andes Mountains
   - Atlas Mountains
   - The Alps
   - Zagros Mountains
   - Caucasus Mountains
   - The Himalayas
   - Verkhoyansk Range
   - Ural Mountains
   - Carpathian Mountains
   
   Once you have completed the above open the files representing volcanoes and earthquakes and simply analyize the map to see if there is any relationship between Volcanoes, Mountains and Earthquakes with the Earth's Plate Boundaries.

Click here to see a map of the world and the type of plate movement.
Click here to see a map of the world and the earth's major faults (not plate boundaries).

Also create and complete a chart like the one shown on page 80 in your text book.
You are handing in two things 1. A Map and 2. The Chart mentioned above.

D. Book Work - Volcanism - pages 73-78 - Do the Case Study: "Mount Pinatubo, The Still-Active Giant" pages 76-77
Answer #1,2

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