A suite of lessons focusing on all aspects of how mountains are formed. Inquiry-based exploration of mountain building includes the rock cycle, mountain formation, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, erosion, rocks, minerals, and...

Seven hands-on lessons module where students learn about fossils. These inquiry-based investigations explore how fossils form, properties of fossils, comparing fossils, how they show the age of the Earth, and what paleontologists do.

South Florida offers ecosystems unknown to the rest of the United States. Follow along with a tour of places like Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Park and the Florida Keys to investigate these natural wonders.

Students explore how different materials (sand, gravel, lava rock) with different water contents on different slopes result in landslides of different severity. They measure the severity by how far the landslide debris extends into model...

Smithsonian in the Classroom presents Building Up, Breaking Down. Teachers can download this comprehensive teaching package in which students investigate how buildings weather. See what happens to a building once it has been erected....

A hydrogeologist is a person who studies the ways that groundwater (hydro) moves through the soil and rock of the earth (geology). A similar profession, a hydrologist, is someone who studies surface water. Find out what this career is like.

A sketch map of eastern Canada showing the general location of different types of rocks in this part of Canada. Within the heavy black lines are found chiefly metamorphic and igneous rocks, and chiefly sedimentary rocks without. The...

A geologic map from 1911 of south-central Connecticut showing the displacement of trap ridges near northern end of West Rock Ridge and corresponding displacement in the crystallines of the bordering uplands.

A map from 1910 of Mexico and Central America, showing the distribution of rocks and indicating the geologic time period they come from.

Learn how to test a material by using the five main properties of minerals to identify it at this interactive site.

Relate this to real-world drilling and why drill bits are used to churn up and break up rock in the sampling path. Explain to students that core sampling is one way that geologists determine the geologic formation of rocks and sediments...

In this instructional activity learners will look at the major divisions of geologic time and learn about the fossils and forms of life which existed during those periods, helping them to understand how the age of rocks are preserved.

This series of photos dramatically illustrates the process of mechanical weathering known as rock abrasion. Taken over a 100 year span, you can see the effects of rock abrasion on Jump-off Joe, a sea stack at Nye Beach in Oregon. The...

Read about the pioneers in Earth's geologic history and their discovery of how the process of uniformitarianism shaped the study of evolution.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] The conditions and factors that lead to rock fold.

With the help of GEOLogic puzzles, learners are asked to resolve how many days each of several volcanologists spent at a volcano and what day they started for the volcano.

This is a good source for getting an in-depth description of using radioactive decay to measure the ages of rocks. In addition to describing the process of radiometric dating, this resource also includes a geologic time scale and four...

This newspaper article deals with a curious geological phenomenon which occurs in Death Valley. After you read the article, test your understanding by answering the multiple choice questions.

Students become scientists, and learn about the usef of seismic technology to map patterns of rock formations below the surface of the Earth.

Students simulate a sinkhole, and discover the geological catalysts that happen beofore sinkholes occur.

This site provides a detailed discussion of the Earth's interior. Facts about the crust, mantle, and core are given along with diagrams of each. Also presents a table that lists the thickness and types of rock found in each part of the...

Describes different landform types and their features. includes many good quality photographs.

Abiotic components are the nonliving components of the biosphere. Chemical and geological factors, such as rocks and minerals, and physical factors, such as temperature and weather, are referred to as abiotic components.

In this interactive tutorial you will learn how pressure creates stress and strain on rocks. Learn how different types of strain are produced by different plate tectonic settings, and explore the different types of mountain ranges and...