Plate Tectonics videos

Videos note: this page still under construction

Hawaii Volcanism: Great footage. Very high cinematic quality. A must see.
1 1/2 mins

2011 Japan tsunami: Wild footage of this tsunami.
5 1/2 mins

Yellowstone Time Lapses: Jaw dropping footage of Yellowstone.
1 1/2 mins

Japan Tsunami 2011: Wild footage of HUGE cresting waves reaching shore. You really get a sense of the shear power of a tsunami when it hits the jetty at 1:40. Oh my...
2 min 30 sec

Volcanoes Explained [HMNH]: Brief explanation of volcanoes from The Harvard Museum of Natural History. Professionally done.
2 1/2 mins

Seismic Waves [HMNH]: Good overview of seismic waves. Wave diagrams get a bit complex toward the end.
4 mins

Lava Meets Ocean: Hawaii lava flow footage.
1 1/2 mins

Convection Currents: Good visuals for convection currents (if a bit fantastical.)
1 min

Divergent plate boundary animation [IRIS EPO]: Not exactly exciting, but a serviceable animation. Monotone voice-over; odd choice of soft jazz piano. But it does a very good job showing the movement.
1 min

Convergent Boundary/Tsunami Animation [IRIS EPO]: A solid animation for teaching.
1 min

Hot Spot Animation [IRIS EPO]: A solid animation to show how hot spots work.
1 1/2 mins

Magnetic Stripes Animation: Very basic, but good. I've always struggled to show this type of movement and this really helps me when teaching magnetic reversals. I like that this video shows stripes of varying thicknesses, as they are in the real world.
18 secs

Magnetic Reversals: Nice and thorough explanation of magnetic reversals.
3 mins

Magnetic Reversal [History Channel]: Overview of magnetic reversals including some of the history behind their discovery.
2 mins

Yellowstone: Professionally shot with great visuals. It's a tourism video and not a science video so it has a noticeable bend toward tourists, but still great to show in class.
2 mins

Geyser Animation: Low-budget animation, but it does a great job showing how a geyser works.
3 mins

Old Faithful Geyser: Everyone needs to experience an eruption of Old Faithful at least once in their lifetime. Until you see it for yourself, this amateur sightseer video gives you a very real feel for what it's like.
2 mins

1989 Loma Prieta, CA Earthquake: Footage from various surveillance cameras during this quake.
1 min

1989 Loma Prieta CA Earthquake [NY Times]: This Retro-Report video goes back and looks at this now-famous quake.
11 mins

Volcanoes Around the World [hugefloods] Very good overview of the volcano types with good image and real world footage. I love this guy from hugefloods.
4 mins

Hawaii Lava Flow Meets the Ocean: Really cool.
1 1/2 mins

Future Plate Motions over the next 250 million yrs [Christopher Scotese]: Students are always interested in plate motions in the future.
59 sec

Underwater lava flow: Pro-shot from Discovery Channel. Well done.
2 mins

Visualize S and P Waves Shadow Zones [Gazdonian Productions]: A basic visual of how the standard 2-D diagrams relate to the 3-D Earth.
3 min 38 sec

And here's the shorter "raw footage" video if you don't want all my yappin'.

The second string: Videos that are more on the fringe of the topic. But still cool.

Seismic Effects of Seahawk Fans [NY Times]: Seismologists wire up the Seahawks stadium prior to a 2015 playoff game to record the seismic effect of the crowd. Interesting video but it leaves you hanging as to the result of the trial.
1 min

Pillow Lava: Grainy underwater footage of pillow lava. Students are always interested in what happens when lava meets water. They dig this.
3 1/2 mins

Why is it Hot Underground? [Minute Earth]: Students often ask this exact question. This is a decent answer to that question (though students seem to think the pace of Minute Earth videos is too fast for them)
3 mins

Living in Lava's Path [NY Times]: A report on a Hawaiian town threatened by lava flows. I like that it shows the human element of plate tectonics. And I love the quote at the end, "I get it - hot lava is cool."
3 1/2 mins

Earthquake-Proof Table [Arthur Brutter]: Cool demonstration of a newly designed table made for earthquake safety.
1 min 42 sec

May 2018 Hawaii Lava Flow [Live Storms Media]: Interesting time lapse of a lava flow.
34 sec

And here's a short NY Times video that has a variety of quality footage.