Let's explore some of the more interesting and appealing aspects of the WWW: graphics and imagery. A good place to start is with the USGS Cascade Volcanic observatory home page where you can view a slide show of Mount St. Helens eruption of 1981. You may either select "Open Location" form the file menu and type the address below or simply click on it and you will be there in no time at all

Cascades Volcano Observatory

Each of the small images that you see on the left side of the page can be viewed at full resolution by clicking on them. If you are interested in a little more general summary of recent volcanism, you might try the Volcanoes Pages of the Michigan Technical University:

MTU Volcanoes Web Site

where you can get a recent update on the eruptions at Rabaul, New Guinea. The space shuttle photo of the plume from Rabaul is particularly impressive! Also, EOS home page provides access to a particularly nice slide show on the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and its effects on global climate.

EOS

Active Tectonics

The Active Tectonics initiative is intended to enhance multidisciplinary research on active tectonic environments. More information can be found in

Resources Related to Active Tectonics

Earthquake Seismology

The home page for Caltech's Seismological Laboratory is :

The home page for Caltech's Seismological Laboratory is : http://www.gps.caltech.edu/seismo/seismo.page.html

You can also see the SEISMOGRAM of the DAY from Caltech's Seismo Lab.

If you would like to see just how earthquake epicenters are located and how earthquake magnitudes are determined, visit the Virtual Earthquake Laboratory. This is a great interactive link!

Or take a Fieldtrip Along the San Andreas Fault

IRIS, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology was formed in 1984 by twenty-six universities to serve as a national focus for the development, deployment, and support ofmodern digital seismic instrumentation. Today, membership in this non-profit consortium numbers over ninety institutions and supports the experimental needs of earth scientists around the world. A primary source of motivation for organizations like IRIS is the great contribution that seismology can make to our understanding of the Earth. IRIS is funded by the National Science Foundation through its Division of Earth Sciences and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Management is provided through a small staff with headquarters in Arlington, Virginia and a satellite office in Seattle, Washington, site of IRIS's Data Management Center. IRIS home page is at http://www.iris.washington.edu/

Modeling Earthquake Effects

A web site at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory illustrates how earthquake waves would theoretically propagate within the San Francisco-San Jose sediment-filled basin.


Click on the above picture to see one of the movies depicting different types of rupture along the Hayward fault. The model clearly shows areas within the bay sediments in which the waves are amplified or resonate with the underlying geologic structure. This is earthquake prevention, in many ways an approach to earthquake hazard mitigation more likely to save lives and property than earthquake prediction.

The US Geological Survey maintains an Earthquake Information web site where the latest California and world earthquakes are reported. The web site includes useful information related to earthquake preparedness, the physics of earthquakes, earthquake detection, etc. For instance, the Near-Real-Time Earthquake Bulletin gives a list of the most recent earthquakes world-wide, with epicentral coordinates, focal depth, magnitude and other relevant parameters.

This document was prepared by J.A. Rial. (jar@email.unc.edu)