A new interactive map created by Ian Webster, curator of the internet's largest dinosaur database, places our planet's ever-shifting surface into stark relief. Using plate tectonics and paleogeographic maps by C.R. Scotese of the PALEOMAP Project, Webster's map can show you how the earth under your current address changed over the course of some 750 million years.

After this lesson, students should be able to:
Describe several parts of a volcano.
List the three main types of volcanoes.
Name at least one famous volcano.
Explain that engineers build devices used to predict volcanic eruptions.

In this video excerpt from NOVA: “Deadliest Volcanoes,” students will learn why the Yellowstone supervolcano is located in the middle of the North American Plate instead of along a plate boundary, where most volcanoes form. Scientist Bob Smith uses a network of seismometers to record seismic waves from earthquakes and construct a three-dimensional model of the magma located beneath Yellowstone. He uses the model to investigate the geologic process responsible for the active volcanism. Data reveal a mantle plume—a column of magma that is rising from deep within Earth’s interior through the North American Plate to create the active volcanism at Yellowstone