A phase diagram shows the preferred physical states of matter at different temperatures and pressures. This phase diagram shows these states for water. Critical points, triple points, and ice phase processes are defined and illustrated as a function of pressure and temperature. The diagram is accompanied by a set of tables that give detailed thermodynamic data for the triple points and structural/crystallographic ... Full description.

This educational resource describes the science behind volcanoes and volcanic processes. Topics include volcanic environments, volcano landforms, eruption dynamics, eruption products, eruption types, historical eruptions, and planetary volcanism. There are two animations, over 250 images, eight interactive tests, and a volcano crossword puzzle. Full description.

Windows to the Universe brings together scientific content on Earth and space sciences with interdisciplinary content on the arts and humanities. Three levels of content are provided: students (K-12 through undergraduate), teachers, and browsing adults. The site includes documents, images, movies, animations, sounds, games, and data. Full description.

The activities in this 16-page magazine encourage children to look more closely at geology in their local environments and support their exploration of a range of dynamic Earth processes. Full description.

DataSlate is a multi-curricular, image visualization tool for students. It allows students to easily and quickly maneuver through huge image data sets, overlay and compare images gathered over time, or with different instruments, and observe historical, geographical, geological, and environmental change or to compare images of the same area at different wavelengths. DataSlate includes a CD-ROM (with ... Full description.

This basic guide provides information about starting and maintaining a rock collection. Topics include starting a collection, identifying specimens, where and how to collect, and how to house and document a collection. Full description.

This tutorial provides a basic discussion about crystallography. Text and diagrams explain how crystals are measured, classified, and described, and point out that minerals can be identified by their crystal shapes and growth habits. Full description.

This resource is a webpage that accompanies a course on asbestos in building materials. Topics include an introduction to the polarized light microscope, mineral habit, the refractive index, color and pleochroism, polarized light, birefringence, retardation and interference colors, extinction angles, and visual estimation of mineral percentages. The website features instructive photographs of thin ... Full description.

This collection features examples of using visualization in teaching and includes concept maps, microscope videos, and animations of crystal structures. The concept maps are used to show how information can be linked. The scope videos are used to show how optical properties change as a function of orientation. These videos show minerals in plane polarized light, cross polarized light, and conoscopic ... Full description.

This website describes the animations and software Crystal Movies, XtalDraw, and XPow. Crystal Movies are gif animations that illustrate the evolution of crystal structures as functions of pressure, temperature, chemistry, or orientation. XtalDraw is an interactive Windows-based software that draws ball and stick, polyhedral, and thermal ellipsoid representations of crystal and molecular structures. ... Full description.