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Welcome to the Forces of Nature

Web Quest

by Deborah Tewhey

Wentworth Intermediate School

Scarborough, Maine 04074

Introduction Task Process Resources

Please read the Introduction, Task, Process and REsources before beginning.

Introduction:

There are two primary types of movement in the earth's crust that may be violent and catastrophic to life on the earth's surface: earthquakes and volcanoes. Technology has allowed us to begin to more closely monitor the earth's movements and to predict and plan for these potentially devastating events.

An earthquake is the trembling or shaking of the earth's crust. Weak earthquakes are called tremors. During a strong earthquake, visible ground waves may travel across the earth's surface like an ocean swell. When huge masses of rock along a fault grind against each other and then suddenly snap free, they release a great amount of kinetic energy in the form of an earthquake.

A volcano is an opening in the earth's surface through which hot gases, ash, and molten rock are ejected from deep inside the earth's interior. The materials ejected from a volcano range in size from the finest dust called volcanic ash, to huge blocks of rock the size of a house. Although the vent and the cone are the most prominent features of a volcano to an observer, the underground magma chamber is the actual source of the eruption and the vent simply represents a "weak spot" in the earth's crust through which the magma or trapped gases break through to the surface. (top of page)

Task:

	Please print out the questions to your web quest.
	Your task is to find and read information about volcanoes and earthquakes and answer the questions.
	The class will be making an earthquake and volcano vocabulary notebook. A letter of the alphabet will be assigned to you. Keep this letter in mind as you visit the earthquake and volcano web sites. You will design a page for each.
	Visit the diamante poetry web site to discover how to write a diamante poem. With the knowledge you gain from this web quest, you will write two diamante poems; one about earthquakes and one about volcanoes. Make a visual for each poem.
	At the end of this web quest, you will decide which force of nature, volcanoes or earthquakes, is the most destructive and why.
	Be sure you read the information carefully as you go along.

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Process:

1. You will be working with a partner on your web quest.

2. You will each need to record on your own information sheets.

3. Please print a question sheet for each of you.

4. What do you already know about earthquakes and volcanoes?

5. Has any member of your family ever experienced an earthquake or volcano?

6. Read the information carefully.

7. If you would like to print a page in order to take notes on or to highlight information, go to file, print, properties, print in gray scale, OK. (top of page)

Resources:

Ask An Earth-Scientist - http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/

Center for Earthquake Research and Information - http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/public/follies.shtml

Exploring the Environment - http://www.cotf.edu/ete/aboutus/AUmeet.html

National Earthquake Information Center - http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/current_maps.html

Scientific American - http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/geology/geology11/

The Franklin Institute Online - http://www.fi.edu/qa98/wiredindex.html

The Tech: Earthquakes Overview - http://www.thetech.org/exhibits_events/online/quakes/overview/

United States Geological Survey - http://www.usgs.gov

Volcano World - http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html

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