Category Archives: Lithosphere

These sites are primarily relevant to our understanding of the Earth’s crust, rock, and soil systems.

Plate Tectonics for Kids!

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The North American Tectonic Plate

The North American Tectonic Plate

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

This page, hosted by the US Geological Survey, contains animations to help kids (or college students) learn about different kinds of faults, the effects of earthquakes on the Earth's surface, and other aspects of plate tectonics. Other animations include great circles, liquefaction, and many more!

In addition to being a great resource to generate interest in geography and plate tectonics at a young age, this site would help anyone more interactively and visually understand the earthquakes and other forces that have so drastically impacted our world throughout human history, especially in the last six months.

Niagara Escarpment

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Bruce Peninsula

The Niagara Escarpment is a large 450 mile lone limestone ridge leading from the Niagara river in the east to Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. The Escarpment ranges from only a few feet above sea level to nearly 1600 ft in some places. 250 million years of erosion has carved the limestone, dolostone, and sandstone wall across southern Ontario. The Niagara falls, and some 60 other waterfalls, are located along the Niagara escarpment and 5 major river systems trace their headwaters back to this area making the escarpment an important geologic feature in North America. Due to its difficult terrain, the escarpment has protected eastern North America’s oldest living organism – 1000 year old cedar trees:

 

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Cedar trees along the Niagara Escarpment

The Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment was set up in 1978 as an advocacy group for the area and help to educate individual owners and the Canadian government on environmental policies that could help to protect this, and other, areas across Canada. They also work to curb development along the escarpment and push for environmentally friendly land use methods across the region.

Franz Josef Glacier of New Zealand

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This site describes the Franz Josef Glacier as well as other notable landmarks in New Zealand.  It’s interesting because it describes different processes that occur between the glacier and the land around it, such as the distance each glacier recedes each year.  The website also going into other notable elements and processes around Franz Josef Glacier, such as the Alpine Fault, geology of the area, and factors affecting the Waiho River which flows out at the foot of the glacier.  There are also a number of conservation projects described to protect the landforms and the surrounding environments.

Powerful “Mother Nature”

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This post describes 8 of the Most Devastating Deadly Land Disasters. Throughout this WebEcoist site, the reader can really grasp the true power of “Mother Nature”.  In the past, catastrophic events have been preceded by natural precursors and since the new year has began, a series of powerful of earthquakes has been documented by eyewitnesses. The site also erases any anthropocentric mindset a reader might have by creating a sense of scale of the world we live in.

The 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake

Good Friday Earthquake

The Alaskan earthquake generated a tsunami which destroyed this
waterfront in Kodiak.

Sinkhole in Guatemala

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This photo is of a sinkhole that occurred early this year in Guatemala . The hole swallowed a dozen homes and killed at least 3 people.

2,175 Miles of Geography

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 This is a summary of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy website.  The Appalachian Trail runs from Katahdin Mountain in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia and touches 14 states.  The trail was completed in 1937 and is a privately managed unit of the national park system.  On this site, you can find all the information needed to hike the trail, learn about the conservancy, and  how to get involved.  Trail conservancy is very important in maintaining this American landmark and this site has lots of information on how to help conservation efforts.  The design of the site is very user friendly and professional.  The Appalachian Trail is always in need for people who are fluent in mapping and GIS!Trail MarkerThis was taken where the Appalachian Trail crosses the James River in Big Island, Virginia just before sunset. Photo from Flickr.

The Science of Gardening!

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This is a summary of Exploratorium’s website on the science pertaining to gardening. It’s really interactive with videos and activities which provide a fun-filled way to learn about the soils and conditions affecting plant growth. There’s a good amount of information on various topics including but not limited to: the make up of soil, creatures that live within the pedosphere, the importance of plant biodiversity, grafting, hybrids, transgenics, gardening in Antarctica, and the cultivation history of common edible vegetation. I was very impressed by the set up of the site and found it accessible to a wide audience spanning from teens to older adults. The site is the product of two foundations: the National Science Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation which is focused specifically on the environment and is based in California.

Try to find out when the tomato was first written about, what lives in your soil, and why burying rusty nails in your soil will turn your hydrangeas blue. Happy hunting!

Storm trooper tomatoWORM!blue hydrangeas

All photos from flickr creative commons.