Name ________________________________________ Date _____________________
FORCES OF NATURE WEB QUEST
Before you begin, be sure you have read the Introduction, Task and the Process. To
navigate between screens, look for the navigation bar on the side of each page and also
use the back button when necessary. The words in boldface will indicate which page you
need to be on.
VOLCANOES
1. What is a volcano?
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2. What causes a volcano to erupt?
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3. What actually is an eruption?
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4. What is lava?
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5. What part of the volcano erupts?
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6. Click on the graphic, “The Inside of a Volcano.” In the space below, sketch the
picture you see and label the magma chamber, the rock layers, the side vent, the
crater, and the lava flow. Color the magma red.
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7. What causes most of the danger from volcanoes?
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8. What are volcano landslides? (Be sure to click on the links under “Explosive
Eruptions of Magma” to view the volcanoes.)
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9. Where is the evidence of volcanoes in North America?
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10. When was the last volcano in Maine?
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11. Why were so many public buildings in Maine built using granite?
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12. What evidence is there that Maine was once part of a volcanic island? What two
countries were parts of Maine at one time?
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13. What happened to the volcanic arc you see in the diagram, “Cross Sections of Eastern
North America”?
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VOLCANO VOCABULARY –WRITE THE DEFINITIONS FOR THE FOLLOWING WORDS
14. Vent
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15. Lava
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16. Magma
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17. Lava flow
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TEN LARGEST VOLCANOES
18. Read the information about the 10 largest volcanoes. Be sure to click on the images to
enlarge them. Choose 2 of these volcanoes to write about.
Name of volcano _________________________________________________________
Location of volcano _______________________________________________________
Date it erupted ___________________________________________________________
Give two interesting facts about this volcano.
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TYPES OF VOLCANOES
19. What are the 4 types of volcanoes?_________________________________________
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20. Name the volcano and describe each type of volcano.
Volcano: ________________________
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Volcano: ________________________
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Volcano: ________________________
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Volcano: ________________________
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VOLCANIC IMAGES 21. Look at each volcanic image. Be sure to enlarge each one. Which two images did
you find most interesting and why?
Volcanic image: _______________________________________
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Volcanic image: _______________________________________
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EARTHQUAKES
22. What causes an earthquake?
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23. How often do earthquakes occur around the world?
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24. Where do earthquakes take place?
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25. When do earthquakes occur?
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26. What are faults?
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27. Name the 3 types of faults and briefly describe each. Be sure to look at the diagram of
each fault to help you understand it.
Fault: _______________________________
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Fault: _______________________________
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Fault: _______________________________
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28. Name the 3 different types of plate boundaries and briefly describe each.
Plate boundary __________________________
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Plate boundary __________________________
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Plate boundary __________________________
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COOL EARTHQUAKE FACTS
29. What was the largest recorded earthquake to hit the United States?
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30. Was the largest recorded earthquake in the world larger or smaller than the one in the
United States?
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31. What are moonquakes?
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32. What is the greatest mountain range?
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33. What is greatest land mountain range? Where is it the longest?
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34. How many earthquakes can be felt each year? Out of this number how many are
detected? How many cause damage?
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35. What is the magnitude of an earthquake?
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36. What is the intensity of an earthquake?
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37. What were the 4 states between 1975 and 1995 that didn’t have any earthquakes? Did
this surprise you?
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38. How deep are most earthquakes?
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39. Where was the most deadly earthquake? What happened there?
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40. What two states have the smallest number of earthquakes?
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41. Where is the most active plate boundary?
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42. When did the European settlers have their first earthquake?
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LARGEST US EARTHQUAKES
43. What was the magnitude of the largest US earthquake recorded?
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44. What kind of damage did this earthquake cause?
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45. Of the top 25 earthquakes recorded, how many have been in Alaska?
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46. Has Alaska had a major earthquake in 2001?
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47. Why wasn’t there a lot of damage?
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48. Look at the image map for the earthquake that hit the South of Australia. What do
you notice about the location of the plate boundaries and the earthquakes?
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49. What do the open circles on the map mean?
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EARTHQUAKE VOCABULARY – What is the meaning of the following words?
50. Fault?
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51. Epicenter?
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52. tsunami?
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53. Aftershocks?
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54. Landslide?
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55. Tectonic plates?
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56. Ring of Fire?
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SEISMIC WAVES
57. What are seismic waves?
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58. What is the epicenter?
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59. There are different waves occurring with an earthquake. Name the 3 types of waves
and give a brief description of each. Be sure to look at the images of each.
Seismic wave: ____________________________
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Seismic wave: ____________________________
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Seismic wave: ____________________________
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60. What is the difference between a seismograph and a seismogram?
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61. What is the Richter Scale?
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EARTHQUAKE IMAGES
62. Take a few moments to look at the different images from earthquakes. What do you
notice about them? Choose 3 different images to briefly describe.
Image 1: ____________________________
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Image 2: ____________________________
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Image 3: ____________________________
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EARTHQUAKE FACTS AND FOLLIES
63. What is the magnitude of a “great” earthquake?
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64. What is the magnitude of a “minor” earthquake?
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65. Where do most earthquakes occur in the United States?
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66. Do earthquakes cause volcanoes?
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67. How much dynamite (TNT) would you need to equal the magnitude of a 7.0
earthquake?
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68. Can earthquakes be prevented? Why or why not?
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PANGAEA
69. What is Pangaea?
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70. Give two reasons why we know Pangaea really existed.
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71. Look carefully at the Pangaea diagram. Do you see how the super continent broke
up?
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PLATE TECTONICS
72. What is plate tectonics?
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73. What are the 3 layers of the earth?
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74. Briefly describe each layer. Include the depth and temperature of each layer.
Layer: ____________________________
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Layer: ____________________________
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Layer: ____________________________
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75. Look at the Tectonic Plate Boundary map. How fast do the plates travel?
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76. What is the place called where two plates meet?
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77. What are the 3 different names of the plate boundaries? What is the difference
between the three? Please be sure to click on the image of each.
Plate boundary: ____________________________
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Plate boundary: ____________________________
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Plate boundary: ____________________________
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78. What is the most famous boundary in the world? Where is it located?
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79. What happened when the Eurasian and the Indian plates met? (See the link for
convergent boundaries.)
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Note the Ring of Fire image at the bottom of the Plate tectonic page. Look at how many
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have occurred.
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
80. What caused the Hawaiian Islands to form?
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81. Is any of the Hawaiian Islands still considered an active volcano?
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82. When was Midway Island formed?
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83. What is the name of the newest Hawaiian Island? When will that island be visible?
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ASK THE EXPERTS
84. Go to the “Ask the Expert” page. Read the different questions. Choose 3 questions
that you are interested in knowing the answer to. Write the question and also the answer
that goes with it.
Question:
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Answer:
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Answer:
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Answer:
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ROCKS
85. What are the names of the 3 different types of rocks? Briefly describe each. Give two
examples of each type of rock. Be sure to go to the link of each rock.
Rock: __________________________________________________
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Rock: __________________________________________________
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Rock: __________________________________________________
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86. What is the rock cycle?
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87. Now that you have studied two very powerful “forces of nature,” which do you feel is
the most destructive? Please state your reply with information and examples you found in
this web quest.
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88. What are 3 new and interesting facts you learned from this web quest?
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