Subtopic: Internal Earth Processes

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.

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: 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.

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.

Drilling to Antarctica’s Rock Core
In this video adapted from ANDRILL, find out how geoscientists get through more than a dozen football fields of ice and water in order to study the rock and sediment beneath Antarctica.

Earthquake Prediction
This video segment adapted from NOVA tells the tragic story of two Japanese seismologists who disagreed about the threat of earthquakes in the early twentieth century. Today, seismologists in California offer residents a probability of risk that an earthquake might occur.

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.

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.

Forecasting Volcanic Eruptions
This media-rich essay from NOVA Online describes the challenges of forecasting volcanic eruptions and includes information about specific cases.

How Caves Form
This interactive activity from NOVA Online shows four different ways in which caves are formed: by rainwater, waves, lava, and bacteria.

Lava Sampling on Kilauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientist Mike Garcia draws lava samples at the foot of the active Kilauea volcano to see if it is related to its neighboring volcano, Mauna Loa.

Mountain Maker, Earth Shaker
This interactive activity adapted from A Science Odyssey Web site helps you visualize different types of plate tectonic activity and shows the impact this activity has on Earth's surface.

Mount St. Helens: Before and After
This multimedia resource produced for Teachers' Domain chronicles the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. Featured are still images of the devastation, video of the eruption plume, and before-and-after satellite images of the affected region.

Plate Tectonics: An Introduction
This video segment adapted from Discovering Women uses animations to introduce the theory of plate tectonics and to explain why earthquakes occur and how continents form.

Plate Tectonics: Lake Mead, Nevada
Using animations to illustrate the theory of plate tectonics, this video segment adapted from Discovering Women takes you to Lake Mead, Nevada, to see visual evidence of how plate movement has been stretching the North American continent.

Plate Tectonics: The Scientist Behind the Theory
This video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey profiles Alfred Wegener, the scientist who first proposed the theory of continental drift. Initially criticized, his theory was accepted after further evidence revealed the existence of tectonic plates and showed that these plates move.

See a Reversal
View a computer model simulation from NOVA Online that illustrates what happens during a magnetic field reversal, an infrequent occurrence that may be currently underway.

Tectonic Plates and Plate Boundaries
This interactive activity adapted from NASA features world maps that identify different sections of the Earth's crust called tectonic plates. The locations of different types of plate boundaries are also identified, including convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries.

Underwater Hotspots
This video segment, adapted from Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures, outlines the geologic process surrounding the formation of islands in the South Pacific.

Collection Developed by: KQED Public Television

A Visit to Yellowstone
In this adapted video segment, ZOOM guest Laura shows us some of the natural features of Yellowstone National Park, including geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, and mud pots, as well as some of the wildlife.

Volcanic Features
This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service illustrates the variety of landforms and features created by volcanoes. Featured are calderas, craters, fumaroles and other geothermal features, igneous rocks, lava flows, lava tubes, and maars.

Volcanoes
Students investigate the processes that build volcanoes, the factors that influence different eruption types, and the threats volcanoes pose to their surrounding communities. They use what they have learned to identify physical features and eruption types of several actual volcanic episodes.

What Killed the Dinosaurs?
This Evolution Web feature uses animations to explore how evidence can support a variety of hypotheses surrounding the mystery behind the extinction of the dinosaurs.