Faults in Southern California
This Web site provides detailed information about major active faults in Southern California.

Putting Down Roots In Earthquake Country: Your Handbook For the San Francisco Bay Region
This general interest publication provides information about San Francisco Bay region earthquakes (cause, history, probabilities, effects) and provides detailed information about how to be prepared when a major earthquake happens. The guide identifies specific steps to improve your safety before, during, and following an earthquake. This "must read" document provides sound advice for anyone living in a potential disaster zone.

Where's the San Andreas Fault? A Guidebook to Tracing the Fault on Public Lands in the San Francisco Bay Region
This field guide provides descriptions of the section of the San Andreas Fault that ruptured in the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Descriptions of places the public can go range from the South Bay regions near Hollister, San Juan Bautista, throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains between San Jose and San Francisco, and Point Reyes National Seashore. Introductory materials include an overview of the San Andreas Fault System, geology, landscape features, and plant communities that reveal information about the underlying geology.

The San Andreas Fault
This general interest publication describes the San Andreas Fault system and its history of earthquakes.
 
Quaternary Faults and Fold Database of the United States
This Web site contains information on faults and associated folds in the United States that are believed to be sources of M>6 earthquakes during the Quaternary (the past 1,600,000 years). Maps of these geologic structures are linked to detailed descriptions and references. Many of the faults described in this database are in California

Earthquake Photos:

Earthquake Preparedness:

Energy in the Earth System - Content Standards

4. Energy enters the Earth system primarily as solar radiation and eventually escapes as heat. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the relative amount of incoming solar energy compared with Earth's internal energy and the energy used by society.

b. Students know the fate of incoming solar radiation in terms of reflection, absorption, and photosynthesis.

c. Students know the different atmospheric gases that absorb the Earth's thermal radiation and the mechanism and significance of the greenhouse effect.

d.* Students know the differing greenhouse conditions on Earth, Mars, and Venus; the origins of those conditions; and the climatic consequences of each.

5. Heating of Earth's surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know how differential heating of Earth results in circulation patterns in the atmosphere and oceans that globally distribute the heat.

b. Students know the relationship between the rotation of Earth and the circular motions of ocean currents and air in pressure centers.

c. Students know the origin and effects of temperature inversions.

d. Students know properties of ocean water, such as temperature and salinity, can be used to explain the layered structure of the oceans, the generation of horizontal and vertical ocean currents, and the geographic distribution of marine organisms.

e. Students know rain forests and deserts on Earth are distributed in bands at specific latitudes.

f.* Students know the interaction of wind patterns, ocean currents, and mountain ranges results in the global pattern of latitudinal bands of rain forests and deserts.

g.* Students know features of the ENSO (El Niño southern oscillation) cycle in terms of sea-surface and air temperature variations across the Pacific and some climatic results of this cycle.

Both NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration) and NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) conduct extensive research about energy transfer between space, the atmosphere, and the oceans. Two useful resource sites relating to these standards include:

Ocean Surface Topography from Space
This NASA Web site addresses aspects of ocean heat transport, ocean currents, the Coriolis Effect, and oceanic bathymetry.

NOAA Education Resources
This primary government Web site is home to many weather- and climate-education resources. Additional weather teaching resources can be found on NOAA's National Weather Service education website at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/edures.htm.

USGS News and Information on El Niño
The term El Niño (Spanish for "the Christ Child") refers to a warm ocean current that typically appears around Christmas-time and lasts for several months, but may persist into May or June. This Web site provides a general overview of the science of El Niño, and provides links to resources that discuss the weather's impact on floods, landslides, coastal hazards, climate and other information.

• Plants, Animals, and Communities
• Invasive Species
• Natural Resource Management
• Conservation and Restoration
• Environmental Data
• Watersheds
• Policy and Regulation
• Agencies and Other Land Management Organizations
  

Biogeochemical Cycles

7. Each element on Earth moves among reservoirs, which exist in the solid earth, in oceans, in the atmosphere, and within and among organisms as part of biogeochemical cycles. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the carbon cycle of photosynthesis and respiration and the nitrogen cycle.

b. Students know the global carbon cycle: the different physical and chemical forms of carbon in the atmosphere, oceans, biomass, fossil fuels, and the movement of carbon among these reservoirs.

c. Students know the movement of matter among reservoirs is driven by Earth's internal and external sources of energy.

d.* Students know the relative residence times and flow characteristics of carbon in and out of its different reservoirs.

Structure and Composition of the Atmosphere

8. Life has changed Earth's atmosphere, and changes in the atmosphere affect conditions for life. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the thermal structure and chemical composition of the atmosphere.

b. Students know how the composition of Earth's atmosphere has evolved over geologic time and know the effect of out gassing, the variations of carbon dioxide concentration, and the origin of atmospheric oxygen.

c. Students know the location of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, its role in absorbing ultraviolet radiation, and the way in which this layer varies both naturally and in response to human activities.

Real-time California Flood Conditions
Map of current flood and high-water conditions for California.

 

Western Coastal & Marine Geology (USGS)
This Web site provides access to information about scientific research in the coastal and offshore areas of California and other states, including marine earthquake, tsunami and other submarine hazards and processes.

Tsunamis & Earthquakes
This Web site provides information about USGS tsunami research and links to information websites about the origins of tsunamis and QuickTime animations of tsunamis in the Pacific region including a recreation of the probable tsunami associated with the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

Tsunamis (USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Facts & Lists page)
This resource page provides links to many tsunami information and resources.

1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (such as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets, and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data.

b. Identify and communicate sources of unavoidable experimental error.

c. Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results, such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions.

d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence.

e. Solve scientific problems by using quadratic equations and simple trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions.

f. Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms.

g. Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models and theories as scientific representations of reality.

h. Read and interpret topographic and geologic maps.

Map Symbols
An explanation of topographic maps and map symbols.

Topographic Maps Illustrating Physiographic Features
Lists of USGS topographic maps (listed by state) that show good examples of over 200 different physiographic features.

What is a geologic map?
Geologic maps describe the rocks and soils at the surface, provide information about what rocks lie at depth, describe the ages of rocks and soils, and show where features such as earthquake faults and landslides lie. Geologic maps are made by studying the rocks and materials exposed at the surface and depicting information about those rocks on a map. This resource page is particularly useful to help students understand geologic maps of areas near where they live or study.

i. Analyze the locations, sequences, or time intervals that are characteristic of natural phenomena (e.g., relative ages of rocks, locations of planets over time, and succession of species in an ecosystem).

j. Recognize the issues of statistical variability and the need for controlled tests.

k. Recognize the cumulative nature of scientific evidence.

l. Analyze situations and solve problems that require combining and applying concepts from more than one area of science.

m. Investigate a science-based societal issue by researching the literature, analyzing data, and communicating the findings. Examples of issues include irradiation of food, cloning of animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer, choice of energy sources, and land and water use decisions in California.

n. Know that when an observation does not agree with an accepted scientific theory, the observation is sometimes mistaken or fraudulent (e. g., the Piltdown Man fossil or unidentified flying objects) and that the theory is sometimes wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of the movement of the Sun, Moon, and planets).