The Geosphere is associated with solid portions of the Earth. It includes the continental and oceanic crust and all other layers of the Earth's interior.  This includes all rocks, sediments and soils, surface landforms and the processes that shape the Earth's surface.

The purpose of this activity is for students to create a desktop soil profile based on the biome region of the United States where your school is located.

Teachers, are you looking for resources to help you engage students in data analysis related to Volcanic Eruptions? Check out this image. These data show the number of known volcanic eruptions during the Holocene epoch (about 10,000 years ago to present) at each grid point on a 1-degree-by-1-degree grid. 

In this activity, students investigate three different soil samples with varying moisture content. They use a soil moisture probe to determine the percentage (by volume) of water in each of the soil samples.

Review this page to learn about the background of volcanoes and their eruptions.

This mini-lesson guides students' observations of soil moisture anomalies (how much the moisture content was above or below the norm) for the continental US in May 2018.

Examine the images to see the projected differences in land use between 1900 and 2100. 

Learn about volcanic ash and watch a visualization of the Calbuco volcano to see how ash travels around the world. 

Students review Earth System phenomena that are affected by soil moisture.  They analyze and evaluate maps of seasonal global surface air temperature and soil moisture data from NASA satellites. Building from their observations, students will select a location in the U.S.

Students use albedo values of common surfaces along with photographic images of Earth taken from the International Space Station to make an argument about specific anthropogenic activities that impact Earth’s albedo.