Download An Internet WebQuest VOLCANOES AND THE RING OF FIRE

An Internet WebQuest
VOLCANOES AND THE RING OF FIRE
Introduction
Nearly a million people lived in and around Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines before it
erupted on June 15, 1991. At the time, few people even believed that this mountain was, in
fact, a volcano; after all, it had been dormant for nearly 500 years. Fortunately, the volcano
sent some signals before its eruption that allowed most people in the area to evacuate in
time. As a result, approximately 350 people died in the eruption and in the mudflows that
followed. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo was one of the most severe eruptions ever
recorded; it spewed out between 3.7 and 5.3 km3 of magma. In contrast, the May 18, 1980
eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State produced just a tenth of this volume.
The Philippine people are still struggling to recover from the devastating environmental and
economic losses that resulted from Mount Pinatubo’s eruption. Meanwhile, there are signs
that another Philippine volcano, Mount Mayon, is beginning to wake up. In Japan, Mount Fuji
also has begun to emit smoke and noxious gases. What is going on in this part of the world?
Why are there so many active volcanoes in places like the Philippines and Japan? What
other volcanoes are showing signs of activity? How are these volcanoes related to those in
the Philippines and Japan?
Task
Your job in this WebQuest is to explore the active volcanoes of the world and discover how
these volcanoes are related. In order to do this, you first will have to learn a little about plate
tectonics, and about what happens when plates collide on Earth’s surface. You will learn
about three different types of plate boundaries, and what kinds of volcanic activities are
associated with each type. You will describe the plate boundaries located along the edges of
the Pacific Ocean and identify an area known as the ring of fire. Then you will list information
in a table on at least five active volcanoes from the ring of fire. Finally, you will draw a simple
map of the ring of fire area and identify each of the volcanoes in your table on the map.
Resources
Look at the web sites given here to find the information that will enable you to complete your
table and map on active volcanoes located in the ring of fire.

Plate Tectonics. Go to this National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) site to learn more about plate tectonics. You can view animations
here of the formation of a mid-ocean ridge, a subduction zone, and a fault.
Scroll down and click on the book to open the site, then click on whatever
subject you are interested in. If you click on plate boundaries, you can learn
more about the three types of lithospheric plates.

Understanding Plate Motions. Visit this U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) site
to learn about the different type of plate boundaries. Scroll down to oceaniccontinental convergence, then click on ring of fire to see a larger graphic of
the Pacific Ocean and its convergent plate boundaries.

Savage Earth: The Earth at Work. Go to this Public Broadcasting System
(PBS) online site to find out more about how plates move around on Earth’s
surface. Scroll down to see a map of Earth with the major tectonic plates
outlined in yellow. The map also shows the locations of earthquakes during
the 20th century. Notice that the earthquakes are clustered at the plate edges.
Click on ring of fire to learn about the most volcanically and seismically active
region on Earth. You can find out what percentage of Earth’s active and
dormant volcanoes lie along this area at the margin of the Pacific Ocean here.

Active Volcanoes, Plate Tectonics, and the "Ring of Fire." At this USGS
site you can see a map of the world, showing the different tectonic plates and
the active volcanoes found around their edges. Notice the concentration of
volcanoes along the western edge of the Pacific Plates, part of the ring of fire.

Volcano World: Volcanoes! At this site you can learn about any volcano on
Earth. You can click on Earth’s volcanoes, then on the continent to see a list
by country of the active and dormant volcanoes found there. For example,
click on North and Central American region, then on Paricutin in Mexico to
find out when Paricutin first erupted and where.

Exploring the Environment: Volcanoes. Visit this NASA Classroom of the
Future site to learn more about volcanoes, and why they are located where
they are. To move to the next page, scroll down and click on page 2. Read
through all of the pages available to find out how the Hawaiian Islands
formed.

Global Volcanism Program: Volcanoes of the World. Go to this site by the
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, to see the
Volcano Basic Data files that include geographic and geologic information on
all Holocene volcanoes (those with known activity during the last 10,000
years). You can search by the name of a particular volcano, or by region of
the world in which it is located to obtain data about individual volcanoes.

Earth’s Active Volcanoes. At this Michigan Technological University site you
can find a map showing the locations of active volcanoes around the world.
Scroll down and choose a region to study, then click on it. Click on any
volcano to see photographs of the volcano, or to learn about recent volcanic
activity.

Update on Current Volcanic Activity. Visit this site by the University of
North Dakota site for a list of the most current volcanic activity worldwide.
Information is listed by the name of the volcano and location, and by the date
of the last eruption or activity. You can click on a volcano’s name to see a
photograph of the eruption as well as a summary of volcanic activity at that
location.

Volcano Watch. At this site by the Space Science and Engineering Center of
the University of Wisconsin – Madison, you can learn about the world’s most
active volcanoes. The site lists about ten volcanoes and includes images of
each volcano. This site is updated every 30 minutes. Scroll down to any of the
volcanoes listed and click on the volcano’s name to view recent activity there.

The Electronic Volcano. Go to this Dartmouth College site to learn more
about active volcanoes. The site has links to sites with catalogs of active
volcanoes, data sets, and videos of active volcanoes. Scroll down to volcano
name to search for information about a particular volcano.
Time
1 class period for research and completion of the table and map
Process
Now that you have completed your research on active volcanoes found along the ring of fire,
prepare a table that lists at least five active volcanoes found there. In the left column, write in
the names of the volcanoes that you have researched. At the top of the rows, write in the
location, date of last volcanic activity, and any important facts about the volcano. Finally,
draw a simple map of the ring of fire area and identify each of the volcanoes listed in the
table on the map. The table is started for you below.
Table 1. Ring of Fire Volcanoes
Name of
Volcano
Location
Date of Last
Important Facts
Activity
Mount Mayon Philippines
May 16,
2001
The dome vented gases; lava
fragments are still being shed
Mt. Krakatau
May 27,
2001
Seismographs detected 7 deep
and 54 shallow volcanic
earthquakes
Indonesia
Once you have completed the table with information gathered from the Internet, you should
be able to pinpoint the location of each volcano on a simple map you draw.
Conclusion
In the process of completing this WebQuest, you have become informed about the ring of
fire and the volcanoes associated with it. You have become familiar with plate tectonics, and
with the different types of plate boundaries. You have learned what type of plate boundary
the ring of fire represents. You completed a table listing five active volcanoes, and included
pertinent information in the table about the recent volcanic activity of each volcano. Finally,
you drew a simple map and identified each volcano represented in the table on your map.