Metamorphic aureole in a tin

'Metamorphic aureole in a tin; investigate what controls the changes in temperature around an igneous intrusion'

This ELI+ Earthlearningidea is an investigation modelling the factors affecting changes in temperature around an igneous intrusion, using a container of hot water embedded in sand.
Our website has other activities involving metamorphism.

Tipping points in climate change

The new Earthlearningidea published today is 'Modelling tipping points – by hands; demonstrating tipping points in the Earth’s system with the hands of three people'.

This is an activity to demonstrate the concept of tipping points in climate change. Tipping points are often discussed in climate change and there are several well-known films based on the sudden change of climate to a new ice age or to much hotter conditions.
Other teaching ideas about climate change can be found by using the ELI search engine or the alphabetical index.

Plot the moving continents

'The Earth time jigsaw puzzle; plot the moving continents, from the past to the future'.

Research has shown that pupils and other people can have great difficulty visualising the great lengths of geological time. This activity has been devised to help them to think in hundreds of millions of years and to picture the steady movement of continents over the expanse of geological time.
Note, the area shown in red on the maps shows part of the micro-continent of Avalonia on which England and Wales formed and of part of the Laurentian plate containing Scotland.
Many activities about moving continents and plate tectonics can be found on our website.

Why are big earthquakes so much more destructive than small ones?

Today we are publishing our 300th Earthlearningidea!
'Spaghetti quakes; why are big earthquakes so much more destructive than small ones?

This activity uses increasingly large bundles of dry spaghetti to demonstrate how each unit of logarithmic increase in earthquake magnitude is related to a 30-fold increase in energy release. It's a demonstration of “earthquake energy” using spaghetti, to help students to appreciate the use of logarithmic scales when measuring quantities with huge ranges in values. And it's fun!
Many more earthquake related activities can be found on our website by using the search engine or the alphabetical index.