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6th grade · Social Studies · Unit 5 of 9

Earthquakes, Volcanoes & Hazards

Natural and human-made hazards and how people respond

What your child practices

Alaska's natural hazards (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, wildfire, flooding, erosion and avalanches) and human-made ones like oil spills, with the 1964 earthquake, the 1989 oil spill, and how communities prepare and rebuild.

Alaska content standards learning standard: SS.6.1.16.2; SS.6.1.16.3 · the impact of natural and human-induced hazards on people, and how people respond to disasters past and present

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Natural hazards: earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis (waves from undersea quakes), wildfires (often started by lightning) and ice-jam floods.
  2. Human-made hazards include oil spills.
  3. Communities respond: Valdez moved after the 1964 earthquake; clearing brush protects from wildfire.

Example: What is a huge ocean wave caused by an undersea earthquake? The sea floor moves suddenly. That pushes up a giant wave. Answer: a tsunami

Earthquakes, Volcanoes & Hazards in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 5 of 9 in 6th grade Social Studies, after Alaska's Physical Regions and before Peoples of Alaska.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    In 1989 the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled oil into…

    • Prince William Sound
    • Lake Iliamna
    • the Yukon River

  2. Question 2

    The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 had a magnitude of about…

    • 9.2
    • 4.0
    • 6.1

  3. Question 3

    A huge ocean wave caused by an undersea earthquake is a…

    • tsunami
    • bore tide
    • breakup

  4. Question 4

    The ring of volcanoes and earthquakes around the Pacific Ocean is called the…

    • Ring of Fire
    • Arctic Circle
    • Great Divide

  5. Question 5

    When river ice jams during breakup, what can happen?

    • the ice turns to rock
    • the river dries up
    • water backs up and floods towns

  6. Question 6

    Why can a disaster hurt a remote village more than a big city?

    • help and supplies take longer to arrive
    • villages have more people
    • cities have no roads

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