Earthquakes and Volcanoes

by Professor Alan Jones

This fascinating application is available free of charge for use in schools.

There are two versions added to your hard drive:

Seismic Eruption - to be used in class where you control the part of the world to be displayed, the magnitude of earthquakes and level of volcanic activity displayed. You can choose terrain, 3D or cross section view and much more from the menu bar loaded with the program.

Smithsonian Institute Exhibit - this version presents a world map and runs automatically on selection. It is useful for a world perspective and can be left to loop back to the start.

In addition, there is the Seismic-Eruption Maintenance program which allows you to set which features you want to be available to the user. For example, in a museum environment you will probably want to turn off the Title Bar and the Windows Menu Bar. You can do this under Preferences.

 

Please note that the images opposite are reduced to fit this page. The original displays within the program are much clearer.

 

A very useful program feature is the opton to pause the animation and to discuss the patterns emerging and to choose to open some of the information boxes linked with named locations, for example the 1980 eruption of St. Helens or the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

 

Article written by Jim Birney, Education Adviser ICT, Fife Educaton

Information taken from the notes available from within the application's Seismic Eruption Maintenance program which can be opened once the application is downloaded.

Visit http://www.geol.binghamton.edu/faculty/jones

to download the self extracting file which has to be unpacked using an application such as WinZip - ask a colleague with experienced in this IT area advice on this procedure.