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    Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists
    Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists
    Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists
    Ebook182 pages1 hour

    Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists

    By Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori

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    About this ebook

    Earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis don't happen every day, so how can budding scientists study how they work? Through experiments, models, and demonstrations. This in-depth resource will teach readers how to build a seismograph to record a simulated earthquake, compare pressure waves and shear waves—the two types of ground shocks—using a Slinky, and replicate a tsunami's destructive effect on a coastline built in a bathtub. Authors Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori even discuss issues of modern architecture and civil engineering: how science can be used to protect buildings and property in earthquake-prone areas. Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis answers a wide array of questions about these phenomena. Can animals predict earthquakes? How have various cultures explained the movement of the earth throughout history? What is the Richter scale, and what does it tell us about the strength of a quake? And most important, readers will learn how to earthquake-proof their homes, and how to protect themselves should they experience a tremor.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChicago Review Press
    Release dateFeb 1, 2009
    ISBN9781613741641
    Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists
    Author

    Matthys Levy

    Matthys Levy is chairman-emeritus of Weidlinger Associates Structural Engineers. His previous books include the best-selling Why Buildings Fall Down and Why the Earth Quakes.

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      Book preview

      Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis - Matthys Levy

      title

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Levy, Matthys.

      [Earthquake games]

      Earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis : projects and principles for beginning geologists Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori.

          p. cm.

      Includes index.

      Originally published: Earthquake games. New York : M.K. McElderry Books, c1997.

      ISBN 978-1-55652-801-9

      1.  Earthquakes—Juvenile literature. 2.  Volcanoes—Juvenile literature. 3.  Educational games—Juvenile literature. I.  Salvadori, Mario, 1907-1997. II.  Levy, Matthys. Earthquake games. III.  Title.

      QE521.3.L486 2009

      551.2—dc22

      2008040143

      Cover and interior design: Scott Rattray

      Interior illustration: Christina C. Blatt

      Cover photos: iStock

      © 1997, 2009 by Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori

      All rights reserved

      First published in 1997 by Margaret K.

      McElderry Books as Earthquake Games

      This edition published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

      814 North Franklin Street

      Chicago, Illinois 60610

      ISBN 978-1-55652-801-9

      Printed in the United States of America

      5 4 3 2 1

      To the children of P.S. 45 in the Bronx, New York,

      who first asked,

      Mario, how do earthquakes work?

      And to

      Nicola, Okna, Shae, Edison, Austin, Daniel, and Maia

      M. L. and M. S.

      Contents

      Preface

      1.  The Secrets of the Earth

      The Cracked Egg

      Scraping Plates

      The Birth of Mountains

      Falling Towers

      2.  If You Had Been There

      Liquefaction

      3.  When the Ocean Rolls

      Convection

      Generating a Tsunami

      Tsunami in a Tub

      4.  Earthquake Messages

      Pressure Waves

      Shear Waves

      The Speed of Waves

      Wave Reflection

      Wave Refraction

      The Strength of Water

      5.  How Strong Was It?

      Build a Seismometer

      A Pendulum

      Another Pendulum Experiment

      The Seismograph

      6.  From Myth to Science

      The Shaking Experiment

      Making Predictions

      Mapping the Risk

      7.  Can Animals Predict Earthquakes?

      8.  Should We Fight or Fool the Quakes?

      A Push-Pull Demonstration

      A Bending Demonstration

      Isolation

      Building on Pads

      A Pendulum Isolator

      9.  The Smoking Mountains

      A Spewing Volcano

      Another Volcanic Eruption

      Build a Cardboard Volcano

      A Smoking Volcano

      Geothermal Energy

      Conclusion

      Appendix: Important Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis

      Resources

      Index

      Preface

      We expect many things to move, but not the earth!

      How could the earth, which is strong enough to support a skyscraper, shake and break up? Where do earthquakes come from? Are we ever going to know when and where they will hit? And could we ever learn to build structures capable of withstanding earthquakes?

      Many years have passed since humans first experienced earthquakes. Over time, we have learned answers to most of these questions—but not all of them.

      The book is built around projects, demonstrations, and simple experiments that make it easy and fun to develop a physical understanding of earthquakes and their natural relatives—volcanic eruptions and tsunami waves. You will enjoy working on most of these projects alone or with a friend; for a few, you may want to ask a parent or an older sibling or friend to help you. In either case, you will have a good time and also learn a lot about earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis.

      We hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as we did writing it, but above all, we hope that you will never meet face-to-face with an earthquake, an erupting volcano, or a tsunami.

      NOTE: Although English units of measurement (feet, pounds, etc.) are still commonly used in the United States, almost all the other countries in the world have adopted a measurement system called the metric system or SI. This system is taught in our schools and is the official measurement system of our federal government. For these reasons, all the measures in this book are given first in metric units, then in the equivalent measures in English units.

      1

      The Secrets of the Earth

      We all live on the surface of the earth, but did you ever wonder what goes on beneath the surface, deep inside the earth, deeper than the deepest mine? No human being has ever been down there, but earth scientists have been able to learn a lot about what it’s made of and what goes on inside the big sphere on which we live. And at the same time, their discoveries have helped to explain much of the mystery of how earthquakes happen and volcanoes erupt.

      Imagine that the earth is like an apple or a peach and consists of a skin, a meaty part, and a core or pit. The core of the earth is solid metal (iron and nickel) surrounded by hot liquid metals. The meat of the earth, the mantle, is a hot, somewhat soupy mass of melted rock called magma. The skin of the planet is its crust, the hard surface of the earth on which we live.

      The crust is not equally thick all around the earth. It is as deep as 40 kilometers (25 miles) under the surface of the continents and as thin as 5 kilometers (3 miles) under the ocean floor.

      Until recently the crust was assumed to be solid rock, but discoveries have shown instead that it is cracked into separate sections called tectonic plates. Some of them are so large that they determine the boundaries of entire continents or oceans—one of the plates supports all of the United States, and the whole Pacific Ocean sits on another. Other sections are smaller, supporting only part of a continent or a small group of islands, like the plate under the Caribbean.

      The Cracked Egg

      In this experiment you will use a boiled egg to simulate the behavior of the tectonic plates on the earth’s surface.

      You’ll Need

      adult helper

      cooking pot

      water

      egg

      spoon

      clock or timer

      Put enough cold water in a pot to cover an egg. With the help of a parent or other

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