1964 Alaska Earthquake

This video adapted from the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive, explores what happened during the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 through original footage, first-person accounts, and animations illustrating plate tectonics.

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Alaska Tsunami

In this video adapted from Alaska Sea Grant, discover why multiple tsunamis resulted from the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.

Anatomy of a Tsunami

Using visual models and other graphics, this interactive activity from NOVA Online reveals details of the December 26, 2004 tsunami that collided with coasts around the Indian Ocean.

Antarctica: A Challenging Work Day

What happens when the ground under your feet is ice and it's moving? This video segment adapted from NOVA features some of the dangers faced by scientists conducting research in Antarctica.

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Antarctic Ice Movement: Part I

This video segment adapted from NOVA explains why ice sheets move. To find out how fast they move, scientists carve a tunnel through a glacier.

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Antarctic Ice Movement: Part II

Within Antarctic ice sheets are fast-moving streams of ice. This video segment adapted from NOVA hypothesizes about how ice streams are the result of warming at the end of the last ice age.

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Avalanche Town

The impact of natural disasters is made vivid in this video segment adapted from NOVA. A small town in Iceland, prepared for recurrent avalanches, is devastated when one takes a new and damaging path.

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Birth of a Tsunami

This video excerpt from NOVA: “Japan’s Killer Quake” shows how an undersea earthquake produces a tsunami.

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Build an Island

This interactive resource from NOVA Online shows how an atoll is formed from a volcanic island and describes the role coral reefs play in this process.

Cave Formation: Biogeochemical Cycles

This video segment adapted from NOVA chronicles the discoveries that led to a radical new theory in which living organisms, not just geological processes, play an active role in cave formation.

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Cave Formation: Kane Cave

This video segment adapted from NOVA describes a simple experiment that confirmed the idea that microbes can accelerate the biogeochemical process of cave formation.

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Caves and Karst

This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service presents the key concepts of cave and karst systems, including how and where they form, different types, and various cave environments.

Changing Arctic Landscape

In this video adapted from the Arctic Athabaskan Council, learn how warmer temperatures in the Arctic are transforming the landscape, triggering a host of effects such as permafrost thawing and insect infestations.

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Climate Change Affects Glacial Water Source

Mountain glaciers are an important source of fresh water for the people of Peru. In this video segment produced by ThinkTV, learn how climate change is affecting the quantity and quality of available fresh water produced by glaciers in the Andes.

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Coastal Geological Materials

This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service describes the different kinds of sediments that make up coastlines, with a focus on the variety in color, size, and sorting.

Coastal Geological Processes

This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service describes the many forces that affect shorelines, including tides, weathering, erosion, and deposition.

Continental Divide: The Breakup of Pangaea

Examine geological evidence found in fossils, rock deposits, and ancient mountains that supports the theory of continental drift in this interactive activity adapted from the Exploratorium.

Coral Kid

In this video segment, ZOOM guest Cassie takes us on a tour of the coral reef near her home in Key Largo, Florida, and points out some of its unique features.

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Creating an Island Paradise

In this video segment from Nature, learn the geological process by which the next Hawaiian island will be formed.

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The Cumberland Gap Tunnel

This KET video chronicles the incredible engineering effort that built the tunnel through Cumberland Mountain as well as the challenges posed by the geological composition of the area.

Dating Lava Flows on Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaiʻi

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists search for carbonized remains of plants preserved in lava flows to find out how long it has taken rain forests on Hawaiʻi to regenerate after a volcanic eruption.

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Earth as a System

This visualization adapted from NASA maps progressive global changes onto a rotating globe. Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are shown to be dynamic and interconnected.

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Earthquakes: Los Angeles

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, animations are used to show how the hills around Los Angeles were formed by earthquakes at small thrust faults that extend outward from the larger San Andreas fault.

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Earthquakes: San Francisco

The history of earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area is plotted on a digital map and analyzed in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

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Earthquakes: The Prehistoric Record

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a geologist digs a trench along the San Andreas Fault to reveal three thousand years of earthquake history. Information from the layers of sediment may help geologists to predict earthquakes.

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Earth’s Albedo and Global Warming

In this interactive activity adapted from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, learn about Earth's albedo (the ratio of reflected vs. incident solar radiation), how pollution alters albedo, and how ice-albedo feedback may accelerate global warming.

Earth System: Ice and Global Warming

This video segment adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center explains ice's role in the Earth system, highlighting the delicate balance that could be upset with a continued rise in temperature due to climate change.

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The Effect of Land Masses on Climate

In this video produced by ThinkTV, explore the effects of land masses on local climate conditions, and learn about regional impacts of land-atmosphere interactions.

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Erosion and Weathering

Erosion and weathering may be caused by a variety of factors including wind and water. This still collage produced for Teachers' Domain features images of rock, soil, and beach erosion.

Explore Alaska's Volcanoes

In this interactive activity adapted from the University of Alaska, explore four of Alaska's many volcanoes using photographs, computer simulations, and three kinds of satellite images.

Exploring the Arctic Seafloor

In this interactive activity adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn what some of the first imagery ever shot on the Arctic Ocean seabed tells us about life in extreme environments.

The Falls of the Ohio

This video from KET examines one of the largest exposed fossil beds in the world, found at the Falls of the Ohio River, near Louisville, Kentucky.

Farm Solutions to Water Pollution

In this KET video from Common Ground and Cleaner Water, Tribby Vice, a Kentucky farmer, talks about the changes he has made on his farm to protect the water quality of the stream running through his property and the watershed in which he lives.

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Fastest Glacier

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, scientists in western Greenland explain how a glacier there is shrinking and moving faster due to increased melting.

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Field Research on Glacial Change

In this video segment produced by ThinkTV, learn how scientists take measurements in the field to gain an overall understanding of changes in local water supplies, and how they may relate to changes in the mass of nearby glaciers.

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Flood: Farming and Erosion

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists investigate how farming along the Mississippi River impacts floods and what can be done about it.

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Geology of Death Valley

This video segment from NatureScene examines the landforms of Death Valley and how they came to be.

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Geology of North Dakota Badlands

See how the geology of the North Dakota badlands has changed over time in this video segment from NatureScene, featuring the landscape at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

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Glaciers

Featuring images of glacier formations, this interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service explains what glaciers are, where they are found, how they form, and how they move.

Global Warming Threatens Shishmaref

In this video segment adapted from Spanner Films, visit the Alaska Native village of Shishmaref, and learn how an entire town may be forced to relocate because of warmer temperatures, melting sea ice, and coastal erosion.

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The Grand Canyon: Ancient Mountains

This video segment adapted from NOVA features the twisted and melted forms of the Grand Canyon's oldest rocks, the 1.7-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist.

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The Grand Canyon: Conservation and Development

This video segment adapted from NOVA explores the effects of the Glen Canyon Dam on the beaches, wildlife, and vegetation of the Colorado River.

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The Grand Canyon: Evidence of Earth's Past

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a fossil found among the Grand Canyon's rock layers reveals the existence of a shallow sea that once covered most of western North America.

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The Grand Canyon: How It Formed

This video segment adapted from NOVA uses animation to present the theory of how the Grand Canyon was formed and features rare footage of a phenomenon known as debris flow.

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The Grand Canyon: Its Youngest Rocks

This video segment adapted from NOVA features the youngest rock formations in the Grand Canyon, lava dams, and how they are subject to the eroding power of water.

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The Grand Canyon: The Top Two Rock Layers

This brief video segment adapted from NOVA uses illustrations and the well-preserved footprints of a small reptile to portray the history of the Grand Canyon's top two rock layers.

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The Great Flood of 1993

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a meteorologist explains how an unusual weather pattern led to one of the most devastating floods of this century.

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Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2: A Record of Climate Change

Using images and graphs, this interactive resource illustrates scientists' efforts to study Earth's climatic history for the last 250,000 years by drilling into the Greenland Ice Sheet and examining ice cores. Adapted from the Wright Center for Science Education, Tufts University.

Hawaiian Coastal Cliffs

This video segment from Nature explains the geologic forces behind the creation of Hawaii’s dramatic shoreline.

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The Hayward Fault: Predictable Peril

The Hayward Fault, which ruptures on average every 140 years, last ruptured 150 years ago. In this video from QUEST produced by KQED, learn about the work being done to prepare for what may be the next big one.