The Earth’s rocky outerlayer (the lithosphere) is broken up into around seventeen major pieces that we call tectonic plates. These plates form a jigsaw pattern around the planet with their edges interacting to cause earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges and
The Earth’s crust – that outermost rocky layer of our planet – can be daunting to understand. To start with the vast majority (around 70%) of it lies under our oceans. The rest of the Earth’s crust seems to
Taking solid field notes is a skill that many students are not taught. The days of a geologist’s life recorded in a well-worn, dusty but interesting book full of diagrams, maps and descriptions are all but gone. This task has
Most people believe that one of the major hazards of volcanoes are lava flows. They are surprised to find out that almost no one has ever been killed during an eruption by lava flows – and that sadly most
Field trips are critical. Learning Earth science in the field is as important as learning to cook in a kitchen. Why then do we expect teachers and their students to learn about the wonders of our dynamic planet from
Often we have to teach about phenomenon, like an earthquake, that our students have never experienced. We can read eyewitness accounts, watch videos and share stories – but nothing beats actually feeling the ground move. Some are lucky enough
An EarthCache is a special place that you can visit using GPS technology to learn more about the geology of our planet – and what is more there are over 20,000 EarthCache sites around the globe. So that means almost
We are all looking at ways to collect and display data with our students. Most of the time the data we want to display is short term data – such as a one-lab experiment or maybe data over a weekend.
Basalt. It’s the fine grained igneous rock that makes up the sea floor and sometimes spews forth from volcanoes on the continents. End of story right? Wrong! That black rock sample I remember sitting in my classroom draw
The Permian period of time started around 299 million years ago when the Earth was in the deep freeze of an ice age. Most of the land on Earth was joined together into one huge continent that geologists call