Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Tsunamis

As always, I appreciate the video and interactive resources that I can use immediately in my classroom. My favorite subjects to teach are in the earth sciences because it is so easy to relate those concepts to the lives of my students (e.g. geologic hazards, weather, tides, erosion, deposition.....). I integrate earth science, including earthquake waves, into other courses (to review earth science not taught since middle school and to discuss wave forms, characteristics, and applications to sound and EM radiation). This is especially effective if the students have experienced earthquakes first hand (or vicariously through video and animation).

If you’re a Mac user and you don’t yet have a seismometer for your computer you can download one from http://osxdaily.com/2007/03/01/turn-your-mac-laptop-into-a-seismometer-with-seismac/. Google Earth continues to amaze me and is a wonderful tool for anyone to access spatial information about our planet. I spent three weeks one summer studying volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii with a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It was phenomenal and I have been back twice since to wonder at the birth of new earth in a place that is incredibly special to the people who live and visit there. In fact, we’re planning a visit to the Big Island over the winter holidays to celebrate a hallmark birthday for me.

I find Lituya Bay to be an amazing place and really enjoyed the interview with two of the survivors of the 1958 tsunami. It’s been a place of awe and wonder for people for centuries and has taken the lives of more than a few of those who sought it’s shelter along what can be a stormy and unforgiving coast. Not only is it a tectonically active location, the narrow opening to the bay is the perfect location for a very strong tidal current that has contributed to the death toll. This is a short article provided by the Geophysical Institute at UAF about other historical events at Lituya Bay http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF16/1651.html.

http://www.laperouse-france.fr/spip.php?rubrique69