Earthquakes - Shifting vertical layers

Materials:

Cake pan

Strips of cloth or plastic

Sand

Toy cars, houses, etc.

Lay two separate strips of cloth or plastic next to each other on the bottom of a cake pan. Let the excess length of one strip hang out at one end of the pan, the other at the other end. Cover the strips with damp soil up to the edge of the pan and pack it down firmly. Place toys on the soil to represent houses, cars, and bridges. Now pull the protruding strip at one end and the other at the other end simultaneously. Children describe what happens; they predict what might happen if similar objects were to occur on earth.

Natural Science, http://server2.greatlakes.k12.mi.us/explorer/GLCbrowse/Natural^Science/index.html