Webquest

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The Earth is in a state of continual change, at a myriad of scales from the microscopic to the local, regional, and global. Many of these changes can be better understood through looking at the spatial relationships to uncover the patterns, and reasons why those patterns exist. Spatial relationships can be uncovered by examining maps, aerial photographs, and satellite images. Maps such as This Dynamic Planet world map of plate tectonics by the Smithsonian

Institution, the USGS, and the US Naval

Research Laboratory are examples of wonderfully detailed maps on specific scientific themes. This map is available from the USGS at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2800/ , but paper maps can only go so far in terms of their usefulness for analysis in the science classroom. With paper, the student is confined to the scale, colors, classification methods, and content that the cartographers laid down on that document.

Nowadays, however, the science teacher and student have a wealth of maps on the

Internet to use to investigate Earth phenomena in the classroom. These maps are moving beyond static maps on the web to documents that the student can ask questions of with a variety of tools. This Dynamic Planet is an example of an online web mapping service that supports scientific inquiry.

T h h e e M a a p p A s s s A n n A n n a a l l l y y t t t i i i c c c a a l l l T o o o o l l l

Start with an overview of the This Dynamic Planet map on: http://www.minerals.si.edu/tdpmap/

1) What content does this map contain?

All plate boundaries are not created equal. Examine the cross section inset by clicking in the near the lower right portion of the map:

Scientific Inquiry of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Impact Craters, and Plate Tectonics

Using This Dynamic Planet – Page 1 of 8

Author: Joseph J. Kerski – jkerski@esri.com

Copyright © 2007, ESRI. All rights reserved. www.esri.com/k-12

Zoom in and zoom out on this inset to answer the following question. Also select

“Back of Map”

and select sections I, II, III, and VII on divergent, convergent subduction, convergent collision, and transform boundaries.

2) Describe the major differences between these types of plate boundaries: convergent, transform, and divergent.

3) What type of plate boundary is the famous San Andreas Fault in

California?

Select “Home” to return to the main map.

Click inside the main map to activate the web mapping service. You will now be on: http://baird.si.edu/minsci/tdpmap/viewer.htm

4) On which plate do you live? Observe the white arrows that show the direction of plate movement.

5) What direction is the plate moving where you live?

6) Do plate boundaries more commonly underlie the continents or the oceans?

7) Why?





Sometimes, however, continents are divided into two or more plates. Use the zoom in tool to zoom in on Africa.

8) Which two plates make up the bulk of the African continent?

Zoom into the area in northeast Africa where the plates meet.

Select the “Legend/Layers” button to toggle from the list of map layers to the legend. Notice that the plate boundary is not specified here, but there are numerous landform points, which form a long line here. These landforms are also natural hazards.

9) What are these landforms?

These landforms give the best clue as to the location of the plate boundary. Notice the map layers on the right that you can make visible or invisible. Turn on the nation boundaries and the latitude-longitude grid.

10) Through which two countries are these volcanoes most numerous? If you need a map of country names, see the Xpeditions Atlas from National

Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=africa&Roo tmap=&Mode=d&SubMode=w

11) What type of landform do the volcanoes line up with?

12) If the plates are moving away from each other, does this type of landform make sense? 13) Why?

Toggle back to the layers, and make sure that the volcanoes is the layer that you can identify. Use the Identify tool volcanoes in this area. 13) What are their names?

and choose a few

You have been studying the famous East African Rift Valley. Rift valleys also occur under the ocean, along the mid-oceanic ridges. Zoom to the middle of the Atlantic ocean to a detailed scale.

14) Can you see a valley along the plate boundary?

15) What type of plate boundary are the mid-ocean plates?

16) Based on the direction of plate movement, and the type of plate boundary, why would a valley exist here?





However, despite the valley, you will also notice that as you move away from the plate boundary, the elevation of the ocean floor is a bit higher for 100 or 200 kilometers.

17) Knowing that new oceanic crust is created at these locations, why do you think the ocean floor is higher here?

18) How would you describe the frequency, depth, and magnitude of most of the earthquakes in this area?

Select “Home” to return to the main map. Select “Back of Map” and then select section IV –

Bedrock Age map.

19) How does the age of rocks on the ocean floor vary depending on the distance from the mid-Atlantic plate boundary? 20) Why?

Pan the map northward along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, observing the ocean floor and earthquakes along the way. Stop at Iceland.

21) What is the latitude and longitude of Iceland? (Use the Get XY tool

).

22) In what two hemispheres is Iceland located? In Iceland, you will notice volcanoes as well as earthquakes.

23) What is the relationship of the location of earthquakes to the location of volcanoes in Iceland? 24) Why?

25) Does this relationship exist elsewhere in the world?

26) Can you find a place where many earthquakes occur without volcanoes? 27) Where is it?

28) Can you find a place where many volcanoes exist without volcanoes? 29) If so, where is it?

Click on index map in the upper left to see a world map.

Click in the western Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia.





You may need to zoom out. You will notice some very deep ocean trenches along plate boundaries. These plate boundaries, however, are not divergent, as in the case of East Africa or the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but are convergent or transform.

30) Describe the frequency, depth, and magnitude of most of the earthquakes in this area.

31) How do these earthquakes compare to those along the Mid-Atlantic

Ridge? 32) Why?

Zoom to Hawaii in the north-central part of the Pacific Ocean. 33) Is Hawaii on a plate boundary? 34) Describe the earthquake and volcanic activity here.

35) Would Hawaii exist without volcanoes? 36) Why or why not?

Certain places are active with volcanoes and earthquakes even though they are in the middle of a plate. A famous land-based hot spot is Yellowstone National Park, and a famous ocean-based hot spot is

Hawaii. As the Pacific ocean crust moves over the hot spot, lava pushes up and forms volcanoes, and eventually, they are so tall that they rise above the water as islands. Over time, the crust slides away from the hot spot, the volcanoes become dormant, and erosion eventually wears the islands back down to seamounts.

37) Can you see these seamounts northwest of Hawaii?

38) How far do these seamounts extend?

39) Based on the length of the seamounts, do you think the hot spot in the

Pacific has been active just recently or for a long geologic time? 40) Why?

Observe that the seamounts forming a line to the northwest of Hawaii change direction about midway through their extent. 41) Indicate the latitude and longitude where the direction of the Pacific Ocean changed direction.

Select “Home” to return to the main map. Click on Back of Map and then on section V—Hotspots. 42) What is the name of the volcano that is





underwater southeast of the Big Island of Hawaii? 43) Do you think this volcano will ever become an island? 44) Why?

Select “Home” to return to the main map. Click in the legend to examine the plate motion. Notice that the rate of movement is given in millimeters per year. 45)

Do you think that the plates move at a steady rate, or in fits and starts?

46) What do we call the phenomenon that occurs when a plate actually moves?

Click Home and then click inside the main map to activate the web mapping service. Pan to the area north of Hawaii in the northwest part of the Pacific Ocean.

Observe the arrow indicating the rate of plate movement.

47) How fast is the Pacific Plate moving in this part of the Pacific?

Los Angeles is 550 kilometers from San Francisco. The Pacific Plate is moving to the northwest, which will take Los Angeles to the location where San Francisco is today.

48) Given the rate of plate movement, if you live to be 100 years old, how far will Los Angeles move in your lifetime?

49) How long will it be before Los Angeles is at the location where San

Francisco is today? Show your work.

Zoom out and examine other places on the planet. 50) Where are plate motions the fastest? 51) Where are plate motions the slowest?

Click Home to return to the main map. Select Back of Map and then select section

VI—Impact Craters. 52) How can impact craters affect the planet?

Select “Home” to return to the main map, and then click in the map to activate the mapping service. Turn off the volcanoes and earthquakes layers and make Impact

Craters visible and the layer to identify. Pan around the planet. 53) Do any impact craters exist in the ocean? 54) Why or why not? 55) Why would land based impact craters be easier to study than ocean-based impact craters?

56) Name the closest impact crater to where you live. 57) How far is this impact crater to where you live? (Use the scale bar at the bottom of your map).

Zoom to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, at latitude 21 degrees North, longitude

90 degrees West. 58) What is the name of this impact crater? This is the





crater widely thought to have ended the Cretaceous Period and the Age of the

Dinosaurs. 59) How could an impact from a meteor cause extinctions?

Find Manicouagan Crater in Quebec, Canada, at latitude 51.38 North, Longitude

68.7 West. Examine a satellite image of the crater from NASA on: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/manicouagan.html

.

60) What has filled in the perimeter of the crater? 61) Why?

Click on Home to return to the main Dynamic Planet map. Notice how you have been examining the planet except for the poles. View the north polar area by clicking in the lower left corner of the map.

This will pull up the north polar map viewer: http://baird.si.edu/minsci/arctic/viewer.htm

61) What plate boundary runs near the North Pole? 62) What type of plate boundary is it? 63) How far is the plate boundary from the North

Pole?

Click on Home to return to the main Dynamic Planet map. Notice how you have been examining the planet except for the poles. View the south polar area by clicking in the lower right corner of the map.

This will pull up the south polar map viewer http://baird.si.edu/minsci/antarctic/viewer.htm





64) Describe the differences between the South Pole and the North Pole in terms of (1) water, ice, and land; (2) plate boundaries; and (3) the frequency of earthquakes and volcanoes.

D i i i g g g g g g i i i n n g g g D e e e e p p e e r r r

65) What have you learned about plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, and impact craters based on your examination of the This Dynamic Planet web mapping service?

Read more about plate movements via the USGS This Dynamic Planet resource: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/East_Africa.html

.

If you want to ask questions such as “How many earthquakes occurred—in each country, last week, in California, or within 100 kilometers of my home town?”—then you should use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to further your investigations.

Start with http://www.esri.com/k-12 and the ESRI Press Mapping Our World book, on: http://gis.esri.com/esripress/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=99& moduleID=0

Select “Downloads” at the top of the map. This will pull up a page that will allow you to download the volcano, earthquake, and impact crater data into your GIS.

The data will come over as text files that you can add to ArcGIS or ArcExplorer Java

Edition for Education via the “Add XY” tool.







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