Earthquake and volcanic hazards

Earthquakes and volcanoes

Global tectonic processes, hazards and response

"Earthquakes and volcanoes are major hazards in tectonically active environments of the world. There are differing human responses to these events." WJEC specification generalisation

Moving Earth (above) is a 'widget' that shows us the latest earthquakes around our planet. Presents the magnitude, location and time of the latest quakes. The information is provided by the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program.

EERI Much more accessible than it sounds, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is a technical society of engineers, geoscientists, architects, planners, public officials, and social scientists. The objective of EERI is to reduce earthquake risk by advancing the science and practice of earthquake engineering, by improving understanding of the impact of earthquakes on the physical, social, economic, political and cultural environment, and by advocating comprehensive and realistic measures for reducing the harmful effects of earthquakes. Includes learning from earthquakes feature. http://www.eeri.org/

Global Volcanism Programme The Global Volcanism Program (GVP) seeks better understanding of all volcanoes through documenting their eruptions during the past 10,000 years. Site produced by the US National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/

Geology Society This has a teaching resources section with info and links on all aspects of tectonic activity. http://www.geolsoc.org.uk

Flood basalts, Verneshots and other big ideas Every so often an eye-catching big idea hits the science magazines. We've all heard of mass extinction theories and it's easy to dismiss these. However, in the past ideas such as plate tectonics and continental drift were dismissed by mainstream scientists. The Geological Society has a good page on flood basalts, mantle plumes and mass extinctions by Steve Self of the Open University and Mike Rampino of the Earth & Environmental Science Program, New York University. Mantle plumes are hotspots and there's a great little animation of one on this page. http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/template.cfm?name=fbasalts The BBC also has a page discussing geological events and mass extinctions http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3582767.stm Verneshots were featured in New Scientist on 8 May 2004, but there's not much on the web yet (unless you read German). Research summary (pdf file) from the Geomar earth sciences research group at Kiel, Germany - leaders in this field. http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGS02/05559/EGS02-A-05559.pdf

Los Angeles 1994 - Northridge Quake with epicentre within densely populated San Fernando valley, northern LA, which caused widespread damage, but only 57 deaths. http://www.eqe.com/publications/northridge/executiv.htm Southern California Earthquake data center has complex data archive pages and some more general information, plus a clickable fault map http://www.data.scec.org/

Earthquake in Turkey, 1999 Reports on the USGS 1999 Scientific Expedition to Turkey to investigate the Izmit earthquake. Presents the scientific background, field reports, photos, maps and other graphics. http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/study/turkey/ Turkey's tradegy - Why file http://whyfiles.org/094quake/

EERI Earthquake case studies A source of authoritative material, thanks to the Learning from Earthquakes project. http://www.eeri.org/lfe.html

How volcanoes work is an educational resource that describes the science behind volcanoes and volcanic processes. The site is sponsored by NASA and explains eruption types and landforms. The site includes the following historical eruptions which make good case study material: Mt Pele (1902); Mt St Helens (1980); Lake Nyos (1986); Nevado del Ruiz (1985); Paricutin (1943). http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/

Nevado del Ruiz, Colombia, volcanic eruption 1985. Ruiz is a complex stratovolcano in the S American Andean chain. This eruption released pyroclastic flows across the Ruiz ice pack, melting part of the summit ice cap and triggering devastating lahars (mudflows), causing up to 27,000 deaths. Summary article based on student project work done at Oxford Brookes University. http://www.brookes.ac.uk/geology/8361/1997/adela.html

Mt St Helens, Washington, USA, is an active N American subduction volcano which erupted spectacularly in 1980. During September 2004 further seismic activity led to an event on October 1st.

"October 1, 2004. A small explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens on October 1st; the first in more than a decade - followed a week of increasing earthquake activity beneath the volcano and deformation of the lava dome. This eruption sent a steam and minor ash plume to an altitude of about 10,000 feet above sea level." http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/ [Oct 3rd 2004]

MSN NBC News story for Oct 1st event. Includes video and 'interactive' links as well as a map. US perspective. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6092368/ CNN version at http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/10/01/mount.st.helens/

For current seismicity try The Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network All about earthquakes and geologic hazards of the Pacific Northwest. http://www.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/HELENS/

USGS Mt St Helens page. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/framework.html News (real time monitoring) http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/

Eruptions of Mt St Helens An online document from USGS. http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/msh/

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Official homepage with links to photo gallery, maps and advice for visiting the area (when safe to do so...). http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/ Volcano cam (not available 3 Oct 2004) http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

Virtual tour from 5th grade school children. Lots of photos and videos. http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/~pnelson/56team/sthelens/tour.html

Volcano World University of N Dakota Mt St Helens page. http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/msh/

Mount St Helens, USA, 1980. Summary with labelled NASA image from geographer David Robinson. http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/physical/earth/volcanoes/helen.html

Mount Kilauea, Hawaii, is a shield volcano which has been active 1983 - 2000. Characterised by gentle lava flows, it is in a state of continuous eruption. http://www.georesources.co.uk/kilauea.htm

Mount Etna Has been erupting for half a million years and is one of the world's most active volcanoes. Dormant periods are very rare. During 1999-2001 spectacular eruptions occurred at the summit craters of Mt Etna Volcano. Photos and data from vulcanologist studying Etna. http://www.volcanolive.com/etna.html

General tectonic	Case studies - volcanoes	Case studies - earthquakes Iran South Asia Indonesia
Plate tectonics theory	Disaster relief	Tsunamis
	Flood basalts, Verneshots and other big ideas supervolcano

US Geological Survey All the latest earthquakes throughout the world; summaries of ongoing USGS research; explanations of hazards and how to prepare for them. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ Also http://quake.wr.usgs.gov based in California.
Also see USGS homepage	http://www.usgs.gov
Latest Earthquakes Lists recent earthquakes and has dot map (click on each dot for detailed maps and facts) and links to earthquake distribution maps for the major regions of the world.	http://earthquake.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/bulletin.html
Volcano Hazards Programme	http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/
Downloadable volcano factsheets pdf format.	http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/sproducts.html#fs

Volcano World Database of facts, maps and pictures of the world’s volcanoes and volcanic eruptions (recent and historical); general information on volcanoes; news of the latest eruptions. University of North Dakota. http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html
The most recent eruptions are at the Volcano activity update.	http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/
Links to the websites of the US volcano observatories and seismic networks.	http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Servers/volcservers.html

Savage Earth Online The site which accompanies the US public broadcasting TV series. Mentioned here at the specific request of my students who just love the animations and video clips. http://www.thirteen.org/savageearth/
Animations menu (You will need a free Flash plug-in to view.)	http://www.thirteen.org/savageearth/animations/index.html
Tsunamis	http://www.thirteen.org/savageearth/tsunami/index.html

There are a large number of geology sites which cover this topic. These are just a few suggestions.
Earth Floor Beginners' guide to plate tectonics from US 'NASA classroom of the future'. Includes a generalised map of plates with boundary types indicated. Links to pages on boundary types (convergent, divergent and transform).	http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/plates1.html
This Dynamic Earth - an online illustrated textbook telling the story of plate tectonics.	http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html
Map of the major tectonic plates of the world.	http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eastern/plates.html
Diagrams University of Berkeley (US) geology site which uses animations to explain the theory. (May be slow to load.)	http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html
Animations Essentials of Geology online textbook. Includes moving diagrams of plate boundaries and sea floor spreading.	http://www.wwnorton.com/earth/egeo/animations/ch2.htm
Lecture with illustrations on "Plate tectonics, the cause of earthquakes". From the The Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, which investigates earthquakes and their effects in Nevada and eastern California.	http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/plate-tectonics.html If you have problems, link from http://www.seismo.unr.edu/
Links Oxford Brookes University (UK) geology page of links on topic of plate tectonics.	http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/geology/8301/plates.html

Recent quakes For background information on the impact of the most recent earthquakes news organisations provide up-to-date material. The best place to start is the BBC, which has a search facility, keeps a news archive and has links to accompany each news story.
BBC Online homepage http://www.bbc.co.uk/		News ticker service http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsline/
News homepage http://news.bbc.co.uk/		World news http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/
Other news websites: CNN News, SKY News, ITN News.

BBC Horizon programmes Programme notes (searchable archive), video clips and links.
'Volcano Hell' Jan 2002 The problem of predicting eruptions. Uses Nevado del Ruiz case study.	http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/volcanohell.shtml
Supervolcano Horizon February 2000 "Supervolcanoes begin when magma rises from the mantle to create a boiling reservoir in the Earth's crust. ... The last supervolcano to erupt was Toba 74,000 years ago in Sumatra. Ten thousand times bigger than Mt St Helens, it created a global catastrophe... " BBC Horizon transcript. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/1999/supervolcanoes.shtml
Supervolcano Drama - March 2005 Background material on the 'factual drama' which asks: 'What if Yellowstone erupted?'. Includes links and a game.	http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/supervolcano/index.shtml