Edrick Ramos, eramos@mtu.edu
Title: Tectonics, Volcanoes and Earthquakes
Drawings: Plate boundaries and volcanic components sketch on classroom board
Materials needed: Handouts for crossword puzzle, US west quadrangle map for earthquake
location exercise, compasses.
Time duration: 45 minutes
Vocabulary words:
Crust - The outermost layer of the Earth is called the crust. The difference between the
crust and mantle is chemical, with different, denser rocks in the mantle.
Fault - Earthquakes always occur on faults. Faults are places in the earth where the rocks
are broken and the rocks on one side have moved in some direction relative to the other.
Intensity - Magnitude represents the energy released in the earthquake and is not what
you feel in the event.
Magnitude - Magnitude is the most commonly reported measure of an earthquake's size.
Strike-slip - Strike-slip faults are fault planes where the plane of the fault is vertical and
the rock blocks on either side move horizontally during an earthquake.
Waves - A wave travels through a material when a force pushes on that material and the
material resists being pushed.
Epicenter - The epicenter of an earthquake is the point on a fault where an earthquake
starts.
Volcano - Is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma,
ash and gases to escape from below the surface.
Magma - is molten rock that is found beneath the surface of the Earth
Lava - is molten rock expelled by a volcano during eruption
Convergent - Subduction zones are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and a
continental plate, collide
Divergent - At the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another
Earthquake - is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates
seismic waves
Find the vocabulary words listed above.
C
S
Z
B
J
L
F
O
N
A
C
L
O
V
I
E
O
T
R
S
C
I
N
O
T
C
E
T
Y
N
M
K
N
R
E
N
E
V
F
O
Q
P
H
N
T
M
A
A
V
I
T
K
W
D
A
Z
R
O
T
E
D
X
G
U
E
K
N
L
C
R
U
S
T
X
N
G
S
H
N
Q
R
E
E
A
R
H
L
Z
X
S
M
R
J
K
I
H
G
S
C
T
G
A
T
C
I
A
R
E
K
A
T
T
E
L
I
S
V
J
N
T
G
L
Y
V
S
H
U
R
N
I
P
A
A
H
Y
M
L
H
H
I
M
E
D
A
T
P
E
S
E
V
A
W
K
U
D
D
U
J
E
E
Earthquake triangulation exercise
Introduction/Description:
This activity will promote the students the understanding of Earth’s tectonic setting
in relation with volcanic activity and seismic analysis. A brief explanation of tectonic
concepts would be inter-related to discuss various aspects of volcanology that triggers
earthquakes and seismicity along plate margins. However depth, pressure and water
content plays an important role on magma ascending and how magma behaves in a
subduction environments which creates a volcanic belt range among continental/oceanic
crust and builds up island arcs when are oceanic/oceanic plate margins. Also how
magnitude and intensity of earthquakes can be measured and localized according to its
epicenter and depth of occurrence among plate margins.
Activity:
For earthquake localization, the activity consist on triangulate an event using a map
and identifying it by setting 3 seismic stations. Calculate the difference among P & S wave
time arrival for each station, and calculate distance according time arrival. When the
epicenter is located, the identification of latitude and longitudes are about to be made.
Other related activity is to divide the class in smaller groups and give them a crossword
puzzle. They would be asked to find on particular term at a time, so each group would have
the opportunity to answer a question based on the concepts in order to gain a point for
their group. The final activity consists on an explanation of hot spots and how the Hawaiian
volcanic arc has been building up through a plot and a drawing. Students should go to the
board and make an analytical interpretation of the movement and direction along Hawaiian
Islands throughout time.
Conclusion:
This lesson intends to give 8 graders a sense of how geologists work in the
environment and how can they apply knowledge and models to identify and understand
daily earth occurring processes. The activities should give the students an opportunity to
understand visually the concepts of tectonic, volcanic and seismologic relations that occur
within in the earth’s crust.
Assessment/Evaluation:
Each group of students will have the opportunity to write a small comment about
the activity in the back of the given exercise. They will be prompt to write ideas that would
make the lesson more interesting for them, if there’s another opportunity for a lesson
workshop.
Resources:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_of_the_Earth
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
http://www.scieds.com/spinet/pdf/triangulation.pdf