Block 2: Subduction & Transform Deep Dive + Sim Demo
Tōhoku 2011 was a magnitude 9.1 quake offshore of Japan. San Andreas quakes happen on land, along a strike-slip fault.
Task: Predict: which one produces a tsunami, and what does the answer depend on?
Answer in your Field Notebook, dated.
I can identify the dominant hazards of subduction and transform boundary types, and explain why those hazards differ.
I can explain how Earth's surface features are built and reshaped by processes working at very different speeds and sizes.
"Develop a model to illustrate how Earth's internal and surface processes operate at different spatial and temporal scales to form continental and ocean-floor features."
Where this runs:
- U2 B1: Weathering: How Rocks Break Down
- U2 B2: Erosion: How Earth Moves Itself Around
- U2 B6: Field Photo / Map Analysis Work Day
- U2 B7: Reading the Landscape: Worked Example + OPVL
- U3 B1: Inside Earth + Boundary Types
- U3 B2: Subduction & Transform Deep Dive + Sim Demo ← you are here
Assessed:
Landscape Reading: biography past + current processes (K/U strand, Components 1–2 lock U2 Block 6)
On track looks like:
Your location's biography names specific processes at specific timescales ('monsoon pulses move the beach yearly; the harbour changed it in decades'), not just 'erosion happened.'
The Field Geologist · Pallikaranai worked example (in Google Classroom)
I can explain, with evidence, how resources, hazards, and climate have shaped where and how people live.
"Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity."
Where this runs:
- U2 B5: Tropical Landscapes + Chennai Context + Landscape Reading Assigned
- U3 B2: Subduction & Transform Deep Dive + Sim Demo ← you are here
- U3 B3: Volcanism + Engineering Technologies
- U3 B5: Case Study Jigsaw + Hazard Profile Due
- U3 B8: Case-Study Mastery + Comparative Reflection Due
Assessed:
Landscape Reading: projections + recommendations (T/T strand, Components 4–5 lock U2 Block 8)
On track looks like:
Your 50-year projections connect physical processes to human decisions, and your recommendation names who would act and why.
What today is about
Connecting today to the unit's anchor question: How do you build for a planet that occasionally tries to destroy what you've built?
Last class you met the four boundary types. Today we go deeper on the two that account for most coastal-city hazards on Earth: subduction zones (Tōhoku, Cascadia, Sumatra) and transform faults (Anatolian, San Andreas). The same physics produces the same hazards everywhere a boundary type exists. By the end of class you'll be able to look at any city on a coast and predict, with reasonable confidence, what its dominant hazards are.
You'll also get your first look at the Tectonic City Builder simulator, the tool you'll use across Blocks 4–12 to design and defend a city plan under real tectonic constraints.
Before you start the work
Start with the Interact: the class works through it together on Mentimeter. The Watch and the Read cover the same ground if you want it again.
Today's work: choose one path
All four options build toward the same Learning Intention. Different modalities so you can find the one that works for how you learn.
Open your Class Notebook and type today's entry header as Heading 2:
A: Nov 18 | U3 B2 | Subduction & Transform Deep Dive + Sim DemoB: Nov 19 | U3 B2 | Subduction & Transform Deep Dive + Sim Demo
What you're submitting today
This is the evidence I'm collecting from today's work. It feeds into your unit grade through the rubric below.
Three sentences naming the dominant hazard of each boundary type (subduction, transform) and the geologic mechanism for each.
Submit via Google Classroom (link posted in August)One question before you leave
Three to five minutes. Your answer is saved to your reflection journal, where you can read back everything you have written this year.
No grade. This is the metacognitive close that makes the next block easier.
Today's reflection is in Google Classroom, under Reflection Journal.
Link posted in AugustSign in with your school account. Your teacher can see what you write here.