24 Labs in Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Plate Tectonics

Intro To Plate Tectonics
Lab A: The year is 1915. Your name is Alfred Wegener, and you have just published a book entitled, The Origin of Continents and Oceans. In your book, you argue that some 300 million years ago, all of the continents were connected into one giant landmass.

Intro To Plate Tectonics
Lab B: The year is 1915. You are a geologist attending a conference (and vacationing!) in Italy where a German meteorologist, Alfred Wegener, has given a lecture from his new book, The Origin of Continents and Oceans.

Locating An Epicenter
In this lab, you will use seismograms from three locations to determine the epicenter of an earthquake. You will use the P- and S-wave arrival time difference to determine distance to epicenter, then use a compass to record the distance radius measured.

New Madrid Earthquake
Relative Motion Of Rocks Along A Fault: Students explore different types of faults while studying the New Madrid Earthquake. Adapted from AGI lab manual.

[Answer Sheet] Pangaea Evidence
ANSWER SHEET: EARTH SCIENCE REGENTS - EVIDENCE FOR PANGAEA.

Shadow Zone
Identify 3 things that happen to the P-wave as it passes through the earth: requires the use of the Seismic Eruption software.

Subduction Boundary Lab
In this lab activity, you will plot and compare actual earthquake foci data from two areas where subduction is currently occurring. One of the areas includes the Tonga Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The other area is along the coastline of Chile.

Sea Floor Spreading
Along the entire length of Earth's mid ocean ridge, the sea floor is spreading. Although this process takes place constantly, it is difficult to observe directly. In the following activity, you will build a model to help understand this process.

What Happened At Lake Nyos?
An investigation of the tragedy at Lake Nyos. Some basic lab materials are needed as is the internet.

Density And The Earth's Layers
A lab activity that has students creating density columns with various liquids. They then look at how these liquids relate to the layers of the Earth. Good activity for practicing with the ESRT and measurement skills.

     
     

Follow Us

Click to follow us on Facebook for content updates and new file submissions!

Share this Page