Forces That Shaped The Bay - Berkeley, CA
Posted by: DougK
N 37° 52.713 W 122° 14.795
10S E 566257 N 4192607
This outdoor science park at the Lawrence Hall of Science shows how earthquakes and erosion have shaped the San Francisco Bay area,
Waymark Code: WMF4YH
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 08/23/2012
Views: 2
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.