Table of Contents
Guide
EARTHQUAKES
Anastasia Suen
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Before & After Reading Activities | Level: V Word Count: 2,812 words 100th word: in |
Before Reading:
Building Academic Vocabulary and Background Knowledge
Before reading a book, it is important to tap into what your child or students already know about the topic. This will help them develop their vocabulary, increase their reading comprehension, and make connections across the curriculum.
Look at the cover of the book. What will this book be about?
What do you already know about the topic?
Lets study the Table of Contents. What will you learn about in the books chapters?
4.What would you like to learn about this topic? Do you think you might learn about it from this book? Why or why not?
Use a reading journal to write about your knowledge of this topic. Record what you already know about the topic and what you hope to learn about the topic.
Read the book.
In your reading journal, record what you learned about the topic and your response to the book.
After reading the book complete the activities below.
Content Area Vocabulary
Read the list. What do these words mean?
asthenosphere
convection
earthquake
epicenter
fault
lithosphere
magnitude
plate tectonics
rift
seismic
subduction
tsunami
After Reading:
Comprehension and Extension Activity
After reading the book, work on the following questions with your child or students in order to check their level of reading comprehension and content mastery.
How are tsunamis and earthquakes connected? (Summarize)
Explain what you should do during an earthquake. (Text to self connection)
How are lakes and seas created naturally? (Summarize)
How are earthquakes detected? (Asking questions)
Why do scientists believe that all the continents were once joined together? (Summarize)
Extension Activity
Cities located near fault lines must engineer buildings that can survive earthquakes. With the help of an adult, create and test a building you design. You will need Jell-O prepared in a glass eight-inch pan the night before. Then using only 30 toothpicks and 30 mini marshmallows, engineer a building. Think about the size of the base of your building. Think about square and triangle building blocks you see on large buildings. Test your structure by placing it on the bed of Jell-O and shake the glass pan back and forth and then in a S pattern. What happened? How can you make changes to ensure your building doesnt collapse during an earthquake?
EARTHQUAKE!
The ground shakes suddenly. Its an ! The layers of rock deep inside Earth are on the move. When the Earth shakes below the surface, it can cause major damage above.
The ground below us is always moving. An earthquake can happen at any time of the year. It can happen anywhere. You cant stop an earthquake, but you can learn what to do when one happens near you.
The 1994 Northridge earthquake caused the collapse of this freeway overpass in Los Angeles.
This map shows earthquakes in the United States from 1900 to 2013.
Earthquakes have been recorded all across the United States. Some quakes are small and are barely noticed. Big earthquakes, on the other hand, get everyones attention!
Sixteen people died after the Northridge Meadows apartments collapsed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
In 1994, an earthquake in Los Angeles caused apartment buildings to collapse. At the Northridge Meadows apartments, the entire first floor crumpled. The second floor fell down to the ground level. The third floor became the second floor.
Why does the Earth move? Lets take a look inside. The Earth has three layers. The outer layer is the crust. Thats easy to see. Under the crust is the mantle. The mantle has solid rocks and minerals. It also has magma, which is rock that is partly melted. At the center of the Earth is the core. The core of the Earth is made of metal that is extremely hot.
The Earths core is as hot as the Sun!
Fast Fact
Scientists think Earths core is 6,000 degrees Celsius. Thats almost 10,800 degrees Fahrenheit!
You see the Earths crust every day. It is on land and under water. The crust on the land is called the continental crust. The crust under the ocean is called the oceanic crust.
The crust is made up of three types of igneous rocks. The word igneous means they were made with intense heat. Some igneous rocks, such as granite, became solid rock while they were underground. Andesite and basalt became solid rock above ground.
The Earths crust is made of granite, andesite, and basalt.
MOVING PARTS
The first way to look at the inside of the Earth is to talk about the three layers. These three layers tell us what the Earth is made of. They are called compositional layers.
When you talk about earthquakes, you need different labels. You need labels that tell you how things move. How things move is called mechanics.
Fast Fact
The Earth has five mechanical layers. Three are solid and two are not. They alternate like this: solid, not, solid, not, solid.
The center of the Earth, the inner core, is solid. But the next layer is not. The outer core is a molten layer. It is hot liquid rock!
The middle layer, the mesosphere, is another solid layer. The next layer is not. The is a weak layer that changes shape.
The outer layer, the , is solid. This is the layer you can see.
These basalt rocks are a small part of the lithosphere.