Earthquakes
The occurrence of earthquakes is a phenomenon that has simultaneously plagued and fascinated civilizations from ancient times to the present. In the past century, scientific understanding of both the causes and effects of earthquakes has grown by leaps and bounds.
In the "Earthquakes" section of the curriculum, students will take a closer look at the causes of earthquakes, reviewing their connection to Plate Tectonics and on a smaller scale, to individual faults. From their understanding of the types of faults, they will go on to learn about the seismic waves generated by motion along those faults and they will see how seismologists locate earthquakes and quantify their size. This provides a scientific foundation for understanding earthquake processes, and leads into an exploration of earthquake effects on both natural landforms and structures built by humans. As a conclusion to their study of earthquakes, students will review ways that people can minimize their risk in seismically-active regions like California.