Earth's Dynamic Geosphere: Earthquakes Activity 5 - Lessening Earthquake Damage

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Earth's Dynamic Geosphere book cover
AGI/It's About Time



Investigate :

  1. Look into the municipal building code in your community (contact your town or city government office).
  2. Examine a detailed map of California.

    Courtesy of the Microsoft Corporation, 57,000 U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps were digitized and are now available on the Web.

    Find topographic maps by place name, latitude and longitude, or UTM coordinates under the Get A Map section. Allows you to download topographic maps (including USGS maps) for free, at various scales (from 1:100,000 to 1:24,000).

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Preparing for the Chapter Challenge

Find a community mitigation plan for your community.

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Inquiring Further

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has provided successful advance warnings of potentially dangerous tsunami that may affect areas distant from the original earthquake. Find out about this tsunami system.

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Learn more about the Plate Tectonics Theory

  • "Plate Tectonics: The Rocky History of an Idea" - the Museum of Paleontology, University of California at Berkeley
    Reviews the development of plate tectonic theory by the late, great Alfred Wegener.
  • "Developing the Theory" - from This Dynamic Earth, USGS
  • "Harry Hammond Hess" - from This Dynamic Earth, USGS
    Read about the man who developed what eventually became known as "sea floor spreading".
  • "Our Changing Continent" by J. S. Schlee, USGS
    Looks at the clues paleogeographers use to determine the positions of the continents back through time. Many of these clues were used to initially validate the theory of plate tectonics.

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Learn more about the Paleomagnetism

  • "Paleomagnetic Analyses" - USGS
    Click on the links to learn about the varying scientific applications of paleomagnetics and the equipment used to complete these investigations.
  • "The Geomagnetic Field - Frequently Asked Questions" - NOAA, National Data Centers, NGDC
    This site should clear up confusions about the use of geomagnetics and provides helpful links to other sites if more information is desired.
  • "AGU Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Section"
    Reviews the basic of paleomagnetics and how scientists measure the magnetic field of the Earth. Also provides additional links for further exploration.

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