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Castles in the Sand     Brief exhibit. Sandcastle Science. Why don't they collapse? To make sand castles, you've got to be down near the water. That's where you'll find damp sand - dry sand just won't hack it. From Castles made of sand http://whyfiles.org/shorties/sandcastle.html

VolcanoWorld     Source for many types of information on volcanoes. Particularly notable are the "Volcanoes" and "Volcano Adventures" sections. From Volcano World -- The Premier Source of Volcano Info on the Web http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/

Tornadoes     How do tornadoes work? Can we predict them? As the residents of Fort Smith, Ark., try to understand why their town stood in the path of the whirlwind. From Twister! http://whyfiles.org/013tornado/

Fire alarm     Ecological effects of forest fires. the role of fire in natural systems, and the role of science in understanding wildfires. From Woods ablaze http://whyfiles.org/018forest_fire/

Volcano lovers     The searing story of volcanoes. Since Earth's early days, volcanoes have shaped our planet. Now we know they've shaped other planets as well. From Under pressure http://whyfiles.org/031volcano/

Polar energy     Polar Science. Hot stories from the frozen poles. In October, 1997, a big group of polar researchers deliberately froze a good, working ship into the Arctic ice pack, and then left it for a year to drift with the slow-moving polar ice cap. From Breaking the ice http://whyfiles.org/061polar/

Tsunamis     Understanding the killer waves. On July 17, 1998, three huge waves smashed across the northeast shore of Papua New Guinea, a Pacific island nation with a mountainous spine and hundreds of indigenous tribes. From Tsunamis in the news http://whyfiles.org/068tsunami/

Hurricanes     New picture of the cataclysm. They are the greatest storm, a regular late-summer and fall visitor to certain coastlines. Born over water, blown by winds, they can simmer for weeks. From An ill wind http://whyfiles.org/073hurricane/

Global warming     The debate heats up. When the global warming debate first heated up in the late 1980s, scientists warned that the Earth our grandkids walked might be cooking like a fried egg on an El Paso sidewalk. Graphs and recent interpretations of the threat of warming. From The ultimate heating season http://whyfiles.org/080global_warm/

The sky is falling     Asteroids and what they can tell us about our solar system. Find out exactly what a "shooting star" is, and learn more about the early history of the earth. Focus on 1998 appearance of comet Hale-Bopp. From Exploratorium Magazine: Space http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/space/

Why the Earth Shakes: Seismic Science     How motions of the earth's crust are involved in earthquakes. Continental drift, different types of faults, P waves, S waves, love waves and more. Measuring, Monitoring, and Predicting. Make your own highway seismograph and compare the energy released in earthquakes with an Energy Equivalence chart. From Exploratorium: Life Along the Faultline: Seismic Science / Page 1 http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/earthquakescience/

Building for the Big One     Engineering buildings to survive earthquakes. And when the shaking stops, some structures are heaps of rubble, while others still stand. One side of a street is destroyed; the other seems undamaged. Traffic still streams on a freeway nearby, yet an elevated highway a mile away lies collapsed. From Exploratorium: Life Along the Faultline: Buidling for the Big One: Page 1 http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/engineering/

Loma Prieta: 10 years later     In the fall of 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck California. A personal account: Glasses crashed in the kitchen and my television took a nose dive off its shelf. As I braced myself in the doorjamb, I remember thinking that this was the loudest, most terrifying noise I'd ever heard. From Life along the faultline series. From Exploratorium: Faultline: Loma Prieta, Ten Years After http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/loma_prieta/

Glacier: Antarctica     Ice sheets have existed on Earth for half of the last one billion years! In the last million and a half years, geologists believe that the ice sheets have expanded to twice the size of today, and then shrunk, more than 20 times! From GLACIER: Land- -- Tableofcontents http://www.glacier.rice.edu/land/5_tableofcontents.html

Weather: Antarctica     It is amazing to know that Antarctica plays a huge role in the global weather system, yet weather observations really have been recorded only for the last 200 years. From GLACIER: Weather- -- Introduction http://www.glacier.rice.edu/weather/3_introduction.html

Warnings From the Ice     Explore how Antarctica's ice has preserved the past - from Chernobyl to the Little Ice Age - going back hundreds of thousands of years, and then see how the world's coastlines would recede if some or all of this ice were to melt. Also check out scores of astonishing facts about the White Continent, and what it's like to live and work there. From NOVA Online | Warnings from the Ice http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/warnings/

Savage earth online     From the legendary fury of Mt. Vesuvius in the year 79 A.D. to the devastating convulsion of Kobe, Japan, in 1994. Scientists struggle to understand, and the people whose lives are forever changed. From SAVAGE EARTH Online http://www.wnet.org/savageearth/

The Great Shake: San Francisco, 1906     Photo essay. I was awakened by a loud rumbling noise which might be compared to the mixed sounds of a strong wind rushing through a forest and the breaking of waves against a cliff. In less time than it takes to tell, a concussion, similar to that caused by the nearby explosion of a huge blast, shook the building to its foundations and it began a series of the most lively motions imaginable. Accompanied by a creaking, grinding, rasping sound, it was followed by tremendous crashes as the cornices of adjoining buildings and chimneys tottered to the ground. From The Exploratorium: Faultline: 1906 http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/1906/

Solar Max 2000     Discussion and images detailing the effects of the solar maximum, that part of the sunspot cycle when there will be maximum activity.Ê The year 2000, it isÊ believed, will be the solar maximum for theÊ current solar cycle. From http://www.exploratorium.edu/solarmax/index.html