2012 California Science Education Conference

Designed with them in mind, this lecture will be sure to please all earth science teachers. California's landscape, resources, and hazards all have resulted from the action of plate tectonic processes over millions of years. Discover how earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic hazards are a direct result of recent plate motions and their effects on California's land surface. The history of North America's Pacific margin beginning about 650 million years ago, with the separation of ancient North America from Antarctica, Australia, and eastern Asia to open the Pacific Ocean basin, to today will be presented. What happened millions of years ago and how that has had major implications for California and the United States in recent history will be explored. You will earn how Earth's movements have played a role in the financing of the Civil War, the opening of the Sea of Cortez, and the development of California's spectacular coastline and the California Water Project.