A NEW VIDEO FOR TEACHING UNDERGRADUATES AND THE PUBLIC HOW PLATE TECTONICS INFLUENCES CLIMATE

Videos and animations are excellent tools to demonstrate complex geologic concepts and processes such as how plate tectonics influences the habitability of our planet. These processes are commonly difficult for lower division university and community college students to conceptualize. As part of our Plate Tectonics Basics series, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzpHDPjNs-iHjUyX7jjV3zfup3gfmc34k , creation of a new episode on the relationship between plate tectonics and climate is underway. This video targets undergraduates and will explain the four key ways in which plate tectonic processes impact climate: 1) by releasing gases that warm (CO₂) or cool (SO₃) into the atmosphere; 2) by the Supercontinent and Wilson Cycle which generate new continental configurations and oceans as well as causing sea level to rise and fall by hundreds of meters; 3) by forming mountains that continuously expose fresh rock to weathering; and 4) by storing carbon in carbonate rocks and organic carbon, subsequently burying them in sedimentary basins and subducting them back into the mantle. Treatment of this complex topic will not be exhaustive, but it will cover the basics and hopefully motivate some students to want to learn more on their own. This video is intended to be used as a supplementary tool in the classroom and will incorporate a whimsical design to attract as broad of an audience as possible. We seek feedback from the community on the accuracy of scientific content of the video as well as instructors interested in piloting the video and accompanying pre/post content assessment in their classrooms.