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The Geology of Disasters: A HAZUS Training Program
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GLENDALE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Senior High School
January 30, 2011
Department:
Science
Course Title:
The Geology of Disasters: A HAZUS Training Program
Grade Levels:
10, 11, 12
Semester Hours:
10 (2 semesters)
Prerequisite:
Marine Science Research
Approved Texts:
To be determined / Earth Science by Edward J. Tarbuck and Frederick K.
Lutgens (2006) Upper Sadle River, NJ: Pearson, Prentice Hall
Course Description: The course fits the Career Technical Education model of integrating
academic instruction with technology training. This course will provide
students with a highly specialized marketable skill-set in geographic
information science and lay the groundwork for a college major in this field
while at the same time providing relevant scientific knowledge, including
geology and meteorology.
The course is a college preparatory elective science course and comprises:
 1 semester The Geology of Disasters, aligned with the California
State Standards for Earth Science
 1 semester Multi-Hazards (HAZUS) training course
To be added when approved: This course will count toward the 10 units
of physical science required for graduation and is being submitted for “g”
elective credit, and meets the “d” requirement for admission to the
University of California system.
COURSE CONTENT
A.
Course Purpose
Course Goals and/or Major Student Outcomes
1.
Students will know and understand the Earth – rocks and minerals, geologic
formations and changes, the atmosphere, the oceans, the weather and
geographical formations, sufficient for college matriculation requirements.
2.
Students will develop critical thinking, problem solving, and analysis skills as
they apply Earth Science knowledge to understanding, mapping, and predicting
natural disasters.
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3.
4.
5.
B.
Students will be able to test the validity of scientific research and scientific
models and will be able to organize their thinking and resolve issues related to
disaster prediction and preparedness.
(HAZUS) Training Program
Students will investigate disaster preparedness plans at the site, city, county and
state level and work in teams to prepare their own plan, integrating scientific and
mathematical knowledge and methods, GIS technology skills and methods, with
language skills (written and presentation).
Course Outline – The Geology of Disasters (1 semester)
The Investigation and Experimentation Standards (I&E a-n) will be integrated throughout the
course.
Unit One – California, the West Coast and the Pacific Rim (5 weeks)
CA: Content Standards, 2009, Grades 9-12 ES 9a-d; 3b, c, d, e, f.
Disaster Scenarios to consider for Disaster Preparedness Plans:
Earthquake
Aftershock, epicenter, fault, magnitude, seismic waves,
California Maps – geology and hazards
World maps – plate tectonics, Ring of Fire
Case Studies: Northridge 1994; Mount St. Helens 1980-2000
Disaster Movie - Earthquake
The geology of California underlies the state’s wealth of natural resources as well as its
natural hazards. As a basis for understanding this concept:
1. Students know the resources of major economic importance in California and their
relation to California’s geology.
2. Students know the principal natural hazards in different California regions and the
geologic basis of those hazards.
3. Students know the importance of water to society, the origins of California’s fresh water,
and the relationship between supply and need.
4. Students know how to analyze published geologic hazard maps of California and know
how to use the map’s information to identify evidence of geologic events of the past and
predict geologic changes in the future.
Textbook reference: Chapter 13. A California’s Resources and Natural Hazards, Chapter 4 Earth’s
Resources
Plate tectonics operating over geologic time has changed the patterns of land, sea, and
mountains on Earth’s surface. As the basis for understanding this concept:
1. Students know the principal structures that form at the three different kinds of plate
boundaries.
2. Students know how to explain the properties of rocks based on the physical and chemical
conditions in which they formed, including plate tectonic processes.
3. Students know why and how earthquakes occur and the scales used to measure their
intensity and magnitude.
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4. Students know there are two kinds of volcanoes: one kind with violent eruptions
producing steep slopes and the other kind with voluminous lava flows producing gentle
slopes.
5. Students know the explanation for the location and properties of volcanoes that are due to
hot spots and the explanation for those that are due to subduction.
Textbook reference: Chapter 2 Minerals, Chapter 3 Rocks, Chapter 8 Earthquakes and Earth’s Interior,
Chapter 9 Plate Tectonics, Chapter 10 Volcanoes and Other Igneous Activity, Chapter 11 Mountain Building
Essential Concepts Found in Major Assignments:
 Earthquake maps; predictions based upon geologic forces, plate tectonics and history
 Use of seismograph, Richter Scale
 Slip faults, thrust faults, San Andreas Fault
 California natural mineral abundance and distribution, hazards (asbestos and mercury)
 California Department of Conservation’s mission to provide information and advice related
to the protection of life and property from natural hazards and California’s divers geologic
environment
 Volcanic and tectonic activity resulting in California’s geology
 History of Mt. St. Helen’s activity, geologic structure of a volcano and volcanoes in U.S.
 Map volcanoes of World, identify Ring of Fire and understand its role in volcanism and
earthquakes
 Map of Earth’s principal plate tectonics and role of mid-oceanic ridge and subduction in
geologic cycles
 Components of the Earth and application to mining and mineral resources
 Rock Cycle, classes of minerals, classes of soil, soil formation and erosion
 Mining and its environmental impact
 Civil defense and disaster preparedness in California
 Foundation requirements of buildings (coding and testing, compaction, water table,
liquefaction, and erosion)
Possible Laboratory Exercises:
1. Field trips to local geological areas
2. Field trip to Cal Tech Seismic Laboratory
3. Create earthquake maps to show history of events (local, state, west Coast, Pacific
Rim) and compare to plate boundaries
4. Collect, identify and map locally occurring minerals and soil types (using ARCGISOnline)
5. Identify and map local hazards using ARCGIS-Online
6. Develop home preparedness kits and a plan for earthquake proofing their homes
7. Plot the epicenter of earthquakes
8. Building Oscillation Seismic Simulation (BOSS) model to understand how resonance
affects buildings of various heights in an earthquake
http://tremor.nmt.edu/activities/boss_model/bosmodel.htm
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Unit Two - Sunny Southern California / What about the Weather? (5 weeks)
CA: Content Standards, 2009, Grades 9-12 ES 4a,b; 5 a, b, c; 6 a, b; 7 a,-c; 8 a-c.
Disaster Scenarios to consider for Disaster Preparedness Plans:
Floods
Thunderstorms
Hurricanes
Tornadoes
Wild fires
Extremes of temperature and humidity
Weather Maps
Case Studies – Hurricane Katrina, Wild Fires and School Closures La Canada 2009;
Chicago 1995 Heat Stress Deaths,
Disaster Movies – Perfect Storm, Twister
Energy enters the Earth system primarily as solar radiation and eventually escapes as heat.
As a basis for understanding this concept:
1. Students know the relative amount of incoming solar energy compared with Earth’s
internal energy and the energy used by society.
2. Students know the fate of incoming solar radiation in terms of reflection, absorption, and
photosynthesis.
Heating of Earth’s surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the
atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents. As a basis for understanding
this concept:
1. Students know how differential heating of Earth results in circulation patterns in the
atmosphere and oceans that globally distribute the heat.
2. Students know the relationship between the rotation of Earth and the circular motions of
air in pressure centers.
3. Students know the origin and effects of temperature inversions.
Climate is the long-term average of a region’s weather and depends on many factors. As a
basis for understanding this concept:
1. Students know weather (in the short run) and climate (in the long run) involve the transfer
of energy into and out of the atmosphere.
2. Students know the effects on climate of latitude, elevation, topography, and proximity to
large bodies of water and cold or warm ocean currents.
Each element on Earth moves among reservoirs, which exist in the solid earth, in oceans, in
the atmosphere, and within and among organisms as part of biogeochemical cycles. As a
basis for understanding this concept:
1. Students know the carbon cycle of photosynthesis and respiration and the nitrogen cycle.
2. Students know the global carbon cycle: the different physical and chemical forms of
carbon in the atmosphere, oceans, biomass, fossil fuels, and the movement of carbon
among these reservoirs.
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3. Students know the movement of matter among reservoirs is driven by Earth’s internal and
external sources of energy.
Life has changed Earth’s atmosphere, and changes in the atmosphere affect conditions for
life. As a basis for understanding this concept:
1. Students know the thermal structure and chemical composition of the atmosphere.
2. Students know how the composition of Earth’s atmosphere has evolved over geologic
time and know the effect of outgassing, the variations of carbon dioxide concentration,
and the origin of atmospheric oxygen.
3. Students know the location of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, its role in
absorbing ultraviolet radiation, and the way in which this layer varies both naturally and
in response to human activities.
Textbook reference: Chapter 17 The Atmosphere: Structure and Temperature, Chapter 18 Moisture, Clouds and
Precipitation, Chapter 19 Air Pressure and Wind, Chapter 20 Weather Patterns and Severe Storms, Chapter 21
Climate
Essential Concepts Found in Major Assignments:
 Climate vs. Weather
 Thermal energy, heat and temperature
 Electromagnetic spectrum
 Layers of atmosphere and temperature and composition
 Temperature and pressure variation with altitude
 3 cell model of global wind circulation patterns
 Differential heating of the Earth and circulation patterns in atmosphere and ocean to
distribute heat globally
 Radiation balance created by absorption, scattering, reflection and reemission of energy
 Composition of atmosphere and the greenhouse effect
 Function of ozone layer
 Carbon cycle and sedimentary rocks, photosynthesis, and respiration
 Nitrogen cycle and changes in atmosphere of the Earth over last 4 billion years
 Earth as a closed system, conservation of matter and energy
 Sun as major external source of energy for Earth processes, internal sources – decay of
radioactive isotopes and gravitational energy from Earth’s original formation
 Pollutants – production and impact
Possible Laboratory Exercises
1. Comparing Maps of the hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole over time
2. Access real time weather data at the Pierce College Weather station
3. Design and create equipment to record weather data on campus
4. How a barometer works
5. Energy changes involved with changes of state of water – plot graphs of temperature
vs. time for ice being heated
6. Compile data to draw graphs of variation in temperature and pressure of atmosphere
with elevation
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Unit Three - More about Oceans plus Climate Change (5 weeks)
CA: Content Standards, 2009, Grades 9-12 ES 3a; 4c, d; 5b, d, e, f, g; 6c, d
Disaster Scenarios to consider for Disaster Preparedness Plans:
Dust storms
Landslides, rock slides
Tsunamis
Global Warming
Case Studies: Desertification and Dust Storms in China, attempted Climate Controls;
Indonesian Tsunami 2010; Tsunami Threat to California after Chile Earthquake 2010; Predicted
Massive Floods in California (http://www.digitalnewsreport.com/2011/01/18-california-mega-flood-planning-at-arkstormsummit/7161)
1. Students know features of the ocean floor (magnetic patterns, age, and sea-floor
topography) provide evidence of plate tectonics.
2. Students know the different atmospheric gases that absorb the Earth’s thermal radiation
and the mechanism and significance of the greenhouse effect.
3. Students know the differing greenhouse conditions on Earth, Mars, and Venus; the origins
of those conditions; and the climatic consequences of each.
4. Students know the relationship between the rotation of the Earth and the circular motions
of ocean currents.
5. Students know properties of ocean water, such as temperature and salinity, can be used to
explain the layered structure of the oceans, the generation of horizontal and vertical ocean
currents, and the geographic distribution of marine organisms.
6. Students know rain forests and deserts on Earth are distributed in bands at specific
latitudes.
7. Students know the interaction of wind patterns, ocean currents, and mountain ranges
results in the global pattern of latitudinal bands of rain forests and deserts.
8. Students know features of the ENSO (El Niño southern oscillation) cycle in terms of seasurface and air temperature variations across the Pacific and some climatic results of this
cycle.
9. Students know how Earth’s climate has changed over time, corresponding to changes in
Earth’s geography, atmospheric composition and other factors, such as solar radiation
and plate movement.
10. Students know how computer models are used to predict he effects of the increase in
greenhouse gases on climate for the planet as a whole and for specific regions.
Textbook references: Chapter 2 Minerals, Chapter 3 Rocks, Chapter 5 Weathering, Soil and Mass Movements,
Chapter 7 Glaciers, Deserts and Wind, Chapter 14 The Ocean Floor, Chapter 16 The Dynamic Ocean,
Essential Concepts Found in Major Assignments:
 Influence of mid-oceanic ridges, sea floor spreading, the presence of hydrothermal vents, the
abyss on the oceans
 5 principal climate zones
 Landslides, erosion, sedimentation and other geologic hazards and relation to development
and disaster preparedness
 Effects of deforestation, over grazing, single crops
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 Conservation of natural resources through crop rotation, reforestation, and soil reclamation
 Earth’s climate change over time (Greenland Ice Core Project) and current discussions about
global warming
Possible Laboratory Exercises
1. Soil sample collection and analysis
2. Mapping landslides and wildfires
3. Mapping tsunamis and earthquakes
Unit Four – Disasters from Space? (5 weeks)
CA: Content Standards, 2009, Grades 9-12 ES 1a-f; 2 a-d;
Disaster Scenarios to consider for Disaster Preparedness Plans:
Meteor Strikes? How likely are they?
Mapping the Stars
Disaster Movies – Meteor, Armageddon
Astronomy and planetary exploration reveal the solar system’s structure, scale, and change
over time. As a basis for understanding this concept:
1. Students know how the differences and similarities among the sun, the terrestrial planets,
and the gas planets may have been established during the formation of the solar
system.
2. Students know the evidence from Earth and moon rocks indicates that the solar system
was formed from a nebular cloud of dust and gas approximately 4.6 billion years ago.
3. Students know the evidence from geological studies of Earth and other planets suggest
that the early Earth was very different from Earth today.
4. Students know the evidence indicating that the planets are much closer to Earth than the
stars are.
5. Students know the Sun is a typical star and is powered by nuclear reactions, primarily the
fusion of hydrogen to form helium.
6. Students know the evidence for the dramatic effects that asteroid impacts have had in
shaping the surface of planets and their moons and in mass extinctions of life on
Earth.
Textbook references: Chapter 23 Touring Our Solar System, Chapter 24 Studying the Sun, Chapter 1, 12,
and 13
Earth-based and space-based astronomy reveal the structure, scale, and changes in stars,
galaxies, and the universe over time. As a basis for understanding this concept:
1. Students know the solar system is located in an outer edge of the disc-shaped Milky Way
galaxy, which spans 100,000 light years.
2. Students know galaxies are made of billions of stars and comprise most of the visible
mass of the universe.
3. Students know the evidence indicating that all elements with an atomic number greater
than that of lithium have been formed by nuclear fusion in stars.
4. Students know that stars differ in their life cycles and that visual, radio, and X-ray
telescopes may be used to collect data that reveal those differences.
Textbook references: Chapter 22 Origin of Modern Astronomy, Chapter 23 Touring Our Solar System,
Chapter 24 Studying the Sun
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Essential Concepts Found in Major Assignments:
 Planets, moons, asteroids, meteors, gas planets, comets and satellites – formation, features
and examples
 Similarities and differences between terrestrial and jovian planets
 Tools of astronomy (spectral analysis, sunspot mapping, reflecting and refracting telescopes,
navigation, satellites)
 Fusion, fission, formation of elements
 Solar events (flares, wind, dark matter, corona, eclipse)
 Asteroid impacts – frequencies, probabilities, effects on Earth and other planets
Possible Laboratory Exercises:
1. Telescopes in Education and Wilson Observatory via internet to observe planets and
stars
2. Field trip to Glendale Community College Planetarium
3. Interactive Hertzsprung- Russel Diagram online activity
http://sunshine.chpc.utah.edu/labs/star_life/hr_diagram.html
4. Use a star map to locate constellations in the sky
5. Create a history of asteroid impact map using ARCGIS Online
C. INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS AND/OR STRATEGIES
Class instruction will include, but not be limited to: lab activities (including use of scientific
instrumentation, collection of data), lab reports, discussion, debate, seminar groups, cooperative
learning groups, projects, field trips, analysis of accuracy of science in disaster movies, lecture,
graphic materials, online activities including creating maps using ARCGIS Online, research, oral
reports, written reports, review questions, study guides, concept maps, graphic organizers,
debate, guest speakers, online discussion board,
D. ASSESSMENTS AND/OR TOOLS
Assessment for this course will include, but not be limited to:
 Unit Exams
 Quizzes
 Teacher evaluations of work
 Projects
 Presentations
 Participation, including attitude, behavior and improvement
 Lab techniques and write-ups
 Research papers
 Portfolio
 summary of general principles for disaster preparedness plans
 maps generated by student
 maps analyzed by student
 reflections on accuracy of science in disaster movie clips
 Self and peer evaluations
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Assessment Criteria
Exams and quizzes will be evaluated according to a conventional department approved
percentage scale. Students must maintain at least an average of a C grade (at least 70%) to be
considered proficient in the subject. Proficient students must be conversant in the subject, must
thoroughly complete lab procedures and corresponding lab reports, and must complete a
portfolio, which will be evaluated according to a rubric. Projects, presentations and group
activities will be evaluated according to a rubric. All other work will be evaluated on an
objective basis based on articulated and communicated criteria.
E.
Course Outline – HAZUS Training Program (1 semester)