Geohazard - sink holes

Continuing our geohazards theme - 'Sink hole! Demonstrate sink hole processes in action'

 

Video (Catalan language)

Sink holes commonly form over limestone bedrock, but also develop where the underlying materials are even more soluble, such as rock salt and gypsum deposits. This classroom activity models the dissolving of underground materials and the impacts this can have at the surface.

Our Natural Hazards category lists many more Earthlearningideas.

Forecast earthquakes by monitoring movement on faults

The new ELI today is 'Slip-sliding away; how does monitoring fault creep help to forecast earthquakes?'

This earthlearningidea is a simulation and case study of a monitoring survey used to monitor the slow creep along fault planes that leads to the build-up of strain prior to its release in an earthquake.

Go to our Natural hazards category to find other activities about earthquakes.

How you can use density to separate different materials

Video: - ' Jigging; using density to separate different materials'.

This is a simple practical activity used to separate minerals of different density from each other. It is a small scale version of a method which was used for centuries.

More Earthlearningideas about Minerals can be found here.

Explaining crystal size in igneous and metamorphic rocks

The new ELI today is 'Building silicates; simulating crystal size during the cooling of magma and during recrystallisation in solid rock'.

 

This Earthlearningidea is a consolidation exercise to show how cooling/recrystallisation rates might explain crystal size in igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Related activities can be found in the categories 'Igneous processes' and 'Metamorphic processes'.

Let's search for gold!

'Gold prospectors; panning for ‘gold’ in river sediment'.

 

This ELI investigates how prospectors use the property of density to search for gold in river sediments.The technique is still actively used across the world where minerals are exploited, on a wide range of scales.

The activity is aimed at ages 5 and upwards but if you are searching for science ideas for younger children, you could explore 'ELI Early years'.
 

More mineral identification

The new ELI today is the second in our Picturing minerals activity, 'Picturing Minerals -2; visualise and draw minerals from a verbal description'.

This could form a useful revision activity, once pupils have studied minerals. Pupils are required to describe what they see accurately so their partner can draw and, hopefully, identify the mineral. It is not always very easy!

Click here for many more ELIs about Minerals.

Modelling plate margins with a Mars (TM) Bar – apart, together and side by side

Have you tried 'Mars (TM) margins – diverged, converged and transformed; modelling plate margins with a Mars (TM) Bar – apart, together and side by side'?

This is a popular activity with pupils for obvious reasons! It demonstrates the three types of plate margins, their stress fields and characteristics.

Lots more ELIs related to plate tectonics can be found here.