General Geology Websites

Figure taken from the USGS website.

The United States Geologic Survey website is an excellent resource for many geologic topics such as earthquakes, coastal erosion, volcanoes, volcanic hazards. Volcanic and earthquake hazard sites are listed below. This site also provides many links to other useful sites. http://www.usgs.gov

Plate Tectonic Information

The Dynamic Earth

http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html#anchor19309449
This website focuses on the development of the plate tectonic theory.

http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqpapers/00000037.htm

A historical summary of the theory of plate tectonics.

    Volcanic Regions, Activity and Hazards

This site provides links to domestic and international websites with real time and historical information regarding volcanic activity. Other links to volcanic hazards and mitigation are also available.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/

The United States Geological Survey monitors volcanic activity on the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula to issue warnings to the airline industry. Volcanic ash can cause engine damage to flying aircraft and therefore the potential of producing a major disaster.

Many methods are used to monitor volcanic activity.

This site provides links to domestic and international websites with real time and historical information regarding volcanic activity. Other links to volcanic hazards and mitigation are also available.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/

Earthquake Activity

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/
This site provides real-time information regarding current worldwide earthquake activity

Current seismic or earthquake activity is available.

Association of Bay Area Government- On Shaky Ground

This is a wonderful site providing maps of the predicted amount of shaking in any of the San Francisco's nine counties.

http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/eqmaps.html

This map shows the intensity of shaking in the San Jose region during the 1906 earthquake.

California Geological Survey

(California Divisions of Mines and Geology)

The homepage of the California Geological Survey provides information regarding earthquake hazards and valuable links to other geologic information.

http://www.consrv.ca.gov/CGS/

Caltrans

The homepage of California division of transportation. Great information regarding retrofitting of highways and bridges. This site contains great information but is sometimes difficult to retrieve. Some information is divided by district and other information is accessed by topic. I know in the past I have retrieved information about retrofitting projects.  

Sometimes to find information regarding a specific topic type in a specific topic in a general search engine. For example: Golden Gate Bridge, retrofitting:

http://www.goldengatebridge.org/projects/seismicsummary.html

Earthquake Hazards

This site bypasses the USGS homepage and goes directly to earthquake hazards. The most recent earthquake activity in the United States and globally can be accessed through this site.

Other useful sites

These sites are from other instructors or universities and contain many more websites that are useful.

UC Berkeley

http://www.seismo.berkeley.edu/seismo/

UC Santa Barbara

http://www.geol.ucsb.edu/L2/Search-FR.html
This page is where the “search this site” is available. Sometimes this site is a little difficult to move around in. There is a wealth of information about the San Andreas fault. Enter: San Andreas fault, evolution- to retrieve movie cartoons of the movement through time.

IRIS-

http://www.iris.edu/about/iris.htm
This website contains interesting information about earthquakes. IRIS is an acronym for Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology.

Minerals and Rocks

Figures taken from the USGS minerals and mining website.

The United States Geological Survey site for minerals and mining. This site also includes sites for environmental issues such as asbestos regulation. http://minerals.usgs.gov/

San Francisco Bay Bridge:

http://www.trainweb.org/mts/sfobb

This page was last modified by P. Jefferis on 08/22/05 . She is a lecturer in the Department of Geology at San Jose State University