Mega-volcano movie lab

M

• How can evidence gathered by different scientists around the world support the existence of a mega volcano in the prehistoric past?

Mystery of the MegaVolcano

• Can a volcanic eruption of a single volcano push the planet into an ice age?

• What evidence is available to indicate when an volcano erupted, if there where no eye-witness accounts?

• What does the prefix “Mega” indicate?

• Can sulfuric acid amounts trapped in glaciers show evidence of major volcanic eruptions?

• How could we use ash samples from various locations to pinpoint the source of our “Mega volcano” from 75,000 years ago?

goals

• Investigate how technology enables us to better understand the Earth’s systems.

• Explain how lava, ash and gases influence both long term and short term changes in Earth systems.

• Understand that investigating real world problems requires building upon previous scientific findings and cooperation among individuals with knowledge and expertise from a variety of scientific fields. The results of scientific studies are considered valid when subjected to critical review and explanations are confirmed.

Goals for this section

• Investigate new sources of evidence, derived from advances in technology

• Identify volcanic products, and how they can effect the Earth in both long and short term

• Gain an understanding of how the scientific community tackles a large real world puzzle

Today

• Form groups of 3

• Watch the first 25 minutes of a movie

• Listen and take notes on a specific scientist and the evidence they gathered

Notes (put into comp book)

• Who is the scientist

• Location

• Field of expertise

• Evidence they gathered/discovered

The guys

• The three scientists:

• Gregory Zielinski• Mike Rampino• John Westgate

After movie

• All students with the same scientist meet and compare notes

• Modify/add notes to get as complete a description as possible.

• Go back to your group and relay the information to all (each person needs to gather all data into their comp book)

After 1st movie section

• All students with the same scientist meet and compare notes

• Modify/add notes to get as complete a description as possible.

• Go back to your group and relay the information to all (each person needs to gather all data into their comp book)

2nd movie section

• Each Student:

– Collect data on how lake geography was used as evidence for the location of a mega volcano

– Use your notes to answer the questions on the given handout

Question 1

• How is lake geography used as evidence for the location of a mega volcano?

Question 2

• How do these scientists (in the video) who are working on widely different topics find each other and assemble the evidence they collected

Question 3

• What is the importance of chemical isotopes in the discovery of the mega volcano?

Question 4

• What is the evidence that Toba is still an active volcano?

Question 5

• What is the evidence that the Yellowstone magma chamber is filling?

Question 6

• How can the super volcano eruptions impact life on Earth?

Handout

Evidence for the super-volcano

• What was it?

• Any comments or questions?

2nd movie section

• Each Student:

– Collect information from the movie about evidence used to pinpoint the location of the volcano

– Write any other important or interesting observations

– Use your notes to answer the questions on the given handout

Question handout related to the movie

Classwork / homework

Making sense• Super volcanic eruptions (Mega volcanoes) are

extremely large eruptions producing at least 1000 cubic kilometers of magma and other material (hot, dry, fast moving mixture of ash, pumice, rock fragments, and gas). Eruptions like these could destroy almost all life within a large radius and could bury areas as far away as 1500 kilometers in meters of ash. Large scale explosive eruptions like these produce calderas, which are depressions formed from the collapse of the volcano.

Formation of ash

• Volcanic ash is made up of minerals, rock and glass fragments smaller than 2 millimeters in diameter. Ash is formed by a large drop in pressure on magma brought about by the eruption

Magma to ash

• The gases in the magma cause it to expand violently, break into tiny pieces, and solidify on ejection into the atmosphere.

Ash as fingerprints

• Ash from a volcano has its own unique characteristics, like a persons fingerprints. These characteristics include the size and shape of crystals and glass shards and chemical composition. These characteristics and the age of the ash are used to identify the volcano and a particular eruption from that volcano.