Seismology with Mel Zhang

In this webinar, Mel Zhang presents on: Seismology: What It Is and How I Got Into It

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About the Presenter

Mel is a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she studies the seismology of subduction margins where slow slip events ("slow earthquakes") have been observed. She's interested in the interactions and impacts between geohazards and people, and pursue research which has the potential to benefit communities vulnerable to such hazards.

Mel conducts her research in the Sheehan Geophysics Group at CIRES.

Through an outdoor program she participated in as an undergraduate in environmental studies, she had her first learning experience in what it is like to be a geoscientist, and she also learned of the vast imbalance in the ratio of female to male geoscientists. That inspired Mel to work on programs like Girls on Rock, which she sees as an important step to leveling a playing field which is inherently biased and wants to use her visibility as a member of the geoscience community to further awareness of these issues. When she's not doing science, she enjoys hanging upside down from various circus apparatuses, juggling, traveling, eating, and rock climbing.

Recommended Activities for e-Learning

Did you enjoy the visualization/animation that Mel used to demonstrate subduction? It can be found here.

Grades 3-12: Check out the Science on a Sphere Explorer from NOAA. The app allows students to explore phenomena right on the surface of the earth. Tie it into this week's webinar by sending your students on an Earthquake scavenger hunt. Looking for more ways to incorporate SOSx into your classroom? Check out their lessons.

Grades 4-8 will find this hands-on activity from the California Academy of Sciences useful for visualizing earthquakes and how they are measured. Students make their own seismograph with simple household materials.

PBS Learning Media offers a nicely packed suite of lessons, visuals, and videos for grades 6-13+ on earthquakes and plate tectonics.

 

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