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Plate tectonics and Google earth
Dr. Anna
Balog-Szabo
Some part of this internet exercise is coming from:Laurel
Goodell, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
and the GIS-based Exploring the
Dynamic Earth series of Saquaro exercises authored by Michelle K. Hall,
Science Education Solutions, Los Alamos, NM (http://www.scieds.com/).
1.
For this exercise, if your computer does not have Google Earth, you have to
download it.
http://www.installwin.com/google_earth/?utm_source=Y
If you
have not used Google Earth before this place gives you explanation and help:
https://support.google.com/earth/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=148176&topic=2376018&parent=2376017&rd=1
http://support.google.com/earth/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=148115&topic=2376154&ctx=topic
Go
through this page and after that you can click on the next button to learn more
and more.
It is
an absolutely amazing program and I want you to enjoy it, possibly with your
family.
Take some time to explore the Earth with Google Earth.
For example:
2.
Now let’s work on the assignment.
Topography of the earth
ABOVE sea level
1.
Are mountains randomly distributed on the continents, or
do they tend to occur in particular patterns (clusters, linear chains, arcs,
etc.)?
2.
Look up and give the elevation of
Mt. Everest, the highest point on earth:
a.
________ft
= _________meters
Topography of the earth
BELOW sea level
3.
Before maps of sea floor topography became available,
most people believed that the seafloor was relatively flat and featureless.
Personal experience with lakes and rivers suggested that the deepest part
of the ocean should be near the middle.
Mapping of ocean floor, however, revealed some surprises.
On Google Earth, the bathymetry of the ocean floor is shown with shades
of blue; the darker the blue the deeper the water.
Examine the
Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa.
Does it have a smooth bottom?
Does depth increase or decrease toward the middle?
Describe the topography that you find in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
(a plain, a valley, a mountain chain, etc.)
4.
Features like the one running down the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean are called mid-ocean
ridges. Zoom in enough to see that although the ridge is a topographic
high, it also has a valley (the “rift valley”) running along the middle of it.
In the space below, complete the topographic profile of the Atlantic
Ocean floor between South America and Africa.
5.
If
the earth’s lowest spots aren’t in the middle of the ocean, where are they?
Focus on the west coast of South America, and in the space below complete
the topographic profile of the Pacific Ocean floor from South America westward
about 600 miles (1000 km).
What is the name of the deep linear features, the lowest points on Earth?
Earthquakes
6.
Go to the following website:
http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=earth&id=1046195720675
This will open up a Google Earth map with Real-time Earthquake data and also
will show the different plate boundaries. In the right corner there is a
clickable square “view in Google Earth”. If you click that, it will open your
Google earth with the earthquake data and the plate boundaries on it.
Please check around and see all the earthquakes happened in the last couple of
days.
How do they relate to plate boundaries?
List 5 different
location with abundant earthquakes
Don’t forget, when you do not use this
any more, you can turn it off by unclicking the data under the "places" on
the left.
Volcanoes
7.
Go to the following website:
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/globallists.cfm?listpage=googleearth
This will open up The Global Volcanism program. Click on the download Holocene
volcanoes network. It will bring up a box asking how should the file be opened
up? Choose browse and when it opens up the programs, click Google Earth. This
will put all the volcanoes which have been active in the last million years or
so into your Google Earth.
Please check around and see all the earthquakes and volcanoes? Do they occur in
the same general area?
Find the five locations you picked for the earthquakes and tell me if there are
volcanoes there along with the earthquakes?
Don’t forget, when you do not use this
data any more, you can turn it off by unclicking the data under the places on
the left.
Age of the ocean
floor
9.
Go to the following website:
http://nachon.free.fr/GE/Welcome.html
Click on the “Download KMZ file”, it will again ask how you want to open, and
you should choose Google earth. This will download the age of the ocean data
into your Google earth.
You have to wait for this file to come up, so be patient!
Atlantic ocean:
a.
What is the age of the oceanic crust next to Virginia
Beach?
b.
What is the age of the oceanic crust next to the Gulf of
California?
c.
What is the age of the oceanic crust in Iceland?