Click on the links below to view animations created specifically for Earth: Portrait of a Planet.
Animations require Macromedia's Flash Plug-in.

Beach Drift

This animation illustrates the sawtooth motion that causes sand to gradually migrate along beaches in a process called beach drift, and shows how this can create sand spits in places where the coastline indents landward.

Additional Resources

The abundance of geology-related websites speaks to the active and exciting nature of this field. In the space below we link to external websites that explore topics covered in this chapter.

These links are selected carefully and updated regularly; however, their contents may change over time. Please click here to report a bad or missing link.

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	Long Shore drift 9/20/2004 South West Grid for Learning
		This simple animation illustrates the sawtooth-like motion of an object carried along the beach by a long-shore current.

	tsunami animation 4/11/2005 NOAA
		An animation showing the inundation of a portion of the Australia shoreline by a tsunami.

	Ocean Tides Animation 4/22/2005 Declan DePaor, ScienceProf.com
		Ocean tides vary during the Lunar month according to the combined influences of the Sun and Moon. In this animation the viewpoint is fixed relative to the Earth, and so the Sun and Moon appear to orbit clockwise. The Sun is much more massive than the Moon, but is also much further away. Thus, its gravitational pull (yellow arrow) is only about half that of the Moon (gray arrow). Note the new moon (top, right) and spring tide (left) at the start of the month. As the month proceeds, the Sun's apparent motion is faster than the Moon's. Thus the Moon's gravitational pull lags behind that of the Sun, leading to a neap tide after 7 days. On day 14, the Moon is opposite the Sun, resulting in a full moon.

	National Geophysical Data Center 5/23/2005 NOAA
		Provides access to a great variety of information about the solar system and about Earth's surface (including the sea floor), as measured geophysically.