Forces That Shaped The Bay - Berkeley, CA - Outdoor Interactive Science Displays on Waymarking.com

This outdoor science park at the Lawrence Hall of Science explores the seismological forces that created and still affect the entire San Francisco Bay area. Exhibits show maps of the bay area, with fault lines drawn in and also dots on the map to show earthquake active spots.

Several hands-on or feet-on exhibits display how earthquakes can uplift lands and then be eroded down by rain and creeks. A kid-favorite exhibit is one where the kids stand with one foot on each of two closely fitted rocks. A nearby friend can push a button, which triggers an "earthquake", where the two rock shift in opposite directions, indicative of how the Pacific plate is sliding north of the North American tectonic plate.

Two muddy hands-in, sloping slides, can be used to show how water running downhill carries mud and sediment down the slope to the bottom, showing how surrounding creeks have deposited 2,000 feet of sediment in the San Francisco bay on top of the bedrock.

A static exhibit shows a Metagraywacke rock from the Berkeley hill, from the North American tectonic plate and next to it is a piece of granite rock from the Farallon Islands off the coast on the Pacific Plate. The exhibit depicts how these two unlike stone types from different areas have been brought nearby, by the travels of the tectonic plates.

A man-made waterfall empties in to a pool where kids can play in the shallow water.

Scientific Principle(s) being demonstrated: Tectonic Plate Movement, Earthquakes, Erosion Briefly explain if the experiment was effective for you. Could it have been better?: • One moving exhibit is made from two adjacent rock slabs representing an earthquake fault line. You can stand with one foot on each slab, and a nearby button initiates a sliding "slippage" between the two plates, as if an earthquake shifted the plates. • A clear cylinder with water and clay sediment, can be shaken to mix and then see how the sediment settles out of the water, replicating the effect of rivers and creeks carrying sediment to the San Francisco Bay. • A waterfall play area is used to show how flowing water breaks downs and erodes the earth. When is the apparatus/experiment available to the public: Hours of the Lawrence Hall of Science: 10AM to 5PM

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