From: "Dr. Andrew Miller; GEOG" <miller@umbc.edu>

Newsgroups: umbc.course.geog110h

Subject: Assignment #9, April 18

Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 20:13:18 -0400

Since you are now working on the chapters that deal with basic earth composition and structure and with plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes, I am posting an assignment that will have you looking at some aspects of these topics this week. When we meet on Friday we can also discuss proceeding with the alternative topic that I mentioned in class last week.

There are lots of bookmarks accessible from the bookmark list attached to the homepage for Principles of Geology, Geography 111:

http://research.umbc.edu/~miller/links2.html

Let's look at some current plate-tectonic events; namely, recent earthquakes and volcanic activity. If you visit the National Earthquake Information Center at

http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/general/handouts/general_seismicity.html

you can look at various aspects of world seismicity over a twenty-year period, as well as lists of major earthquakes by year. There is also a substantial amount of basic educational material here on earthquakes and plate tectonics. You might look at the maps of the largest earthquakes, or at regional maps of world seismicity, and see whether you can correlate the major concentrations of earthquakes with particular plate-tectonic features. You can also look at the World-Wide Earthquake Locator, which will give you a list and a map of all major earthquake that have occurred during the past week.

http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/quakes/schools.html

How many of these are associated with identifiable plate-tectonic features? (You may need to compare with other sources to answer this question.)

Let's also look at volcanic activity. You can find some volcano links on the bookmark list from Geog 111. For example, take a look at the homepage for the Cascades Volcano Observatory and see whether you can find information about current eruptions or recently active volcanoes; you might choose one example and see what you can find out both about the type of volcano, the type of eruption involved, the geologic setting, and underlying rock type, and the relationship between all of these things and plate tectonics. You can also look at the homepage of Volcano World, under "Volcanoes of the World", and access a link that shows you "what's erupting now". There's some great stuff to be found at this site.

Again, I'd like you to try to relate whatever you find to the regional and global geologic setting. If you pick a particular location and can't find background information about it in the textbook, you may want to see whether you can find anything either on the Web or in the library. Please come to class ready to discuss your examples.