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Discovering earthquake hazard regions of California using GPS data and code

The GeoCoder. Code blocks click together to create programs that students run to create visualizations. In this image, students plot the locations and their velocities of the GPS stations in Central California.

Posted on October 7, 2024 By Shelley Olds

Shelley Olds is an Instructional Designer at the EarthScope Consortium. Many middle and high school students learn about earthquakes by studying California since it is the most seismically active state in the contiguous United States. Students learn that there is an earthquake cycle and that the cycle that ends with an earthquake. But what happens […]

Using multiple visual representations to understand the earthquake cycle

The GeoCoder model displays block code (procedural representation, left), the Deformation Simulation (geometric representation, upper right), and the deformation over time graph (graphical representation, bottom right).

Posted on September 27, 2024 By Christopher Lore

Symbols, objects, maps, graphs, and simulations are all powerful tools for conveying information. However, some complex ideas just can’t be captured in a single representation. In these cases, multiple visualizations can be used together to convey and connect several pieces of related information. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, news organizations used a combination of […]