The Educational & Outreach Group of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV, Rome, Italy) designed a portable museum to bring on the road educational activities focused on the
understanding of geomagnetism, plate tectonics, seismology and seismic hazard. Here the main experiments, models and exhibits which have been successfully installed in Genoa for the Science Festival (2003, 2004) and in Rome (2005) with enthusiastic audience participation are shown.Published375-3815.8. TTC - Formazione e informazioneN/A or not JCRope

Alfonsi, Lu.

Arcoraci, L.

Badiali, L.

Baroux, E.

Berardi, M.

Bono, A.

Burrato, P.

Carosi, A.

Castellano, C.

Ciaccio, M. G.

Cultrera, G.

De Santis, A.

De Santis, P.

Di Felice, F.

Di Laura, F.

Di Stefano, F.

Doumaz, F.

Ficeli, P.

Frepoli, A.

Macrì, P.

Marsili, A.

Meloni, A.

Nostro, C.

Palone, S.

Piccio, A.

Piersanti, A.

Piscini, A.

Riposati, D.

Scarlato, P.

Tertulliani, A.

Vallocchia, M.

Winkler, A.

English

Earth-prints

INTERACTIVE EXHIBITS FOR GEOPHYSICAL EDUCATION: 
UNCOVERING THE SECRETS OF THE EARTH 
 
Aldo Winkler, Concetta Nostro, Pasquale De Santis, Corrado Castellano, Luca Arcoraci, Michele 
Berardi, Alessandro Carosi, Antonio Meloni, Emmanuel Baroux, Lucilla Alfonsi, Antonella Marsili, 
Giovanna Cultrera, Pietro Ficeli, Andrea Bono, Fabio Di Felice, Alessandro Piccio, Daniela Riposati, 
Francesca Di Laura, Francesca Di Stefano, Sabrina Palone, Andrea Tertulliani, Patrizia Macrì, Antonio 
Piersanti, Angelo De Santis, Massimiliano Vallocchia, Alessandro Piscini, Lucio Badiali, Fawzi 
Doumaz, Pierfrancesco Burrato, Alberto Frepoli, Piergiorgio Scarlato, Maria Grazia Ciaccio 
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica & Vulcanologia 
Via di Vigna Murata, 605 00143 Rome 
ITALY 
winkler@ingv.it    http://www.ingv.it 
 
Abstract: - The Educational & Outreach Group of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV, 
Rome, Italy) designed a portable museum to bring on the road educational activities focused on the 
understanding of geomagnetism, plate tectonics, seismology and seismic hazard. Here the main experiments, 
models and exhibits which have been successfully installed in Genoa for the Science Festival (2003, 2004) and 
in Rome (2005) with enthusiastic audience participation are shown. 
 
Key-Words: - Geophysics, education, geomagnetism, plate tectonics, seismology, portable museum 
 
 
1   Introduction 
Since 2003 INGV has started the realization of a 
portable, modular and expansible museum containing 
installations and experiments to explain to the most 
general audience the principles of geophysics. In 
2003 we brought in Genoa, for the first festival of 
Science, the exhibits on plate tectonics and 
seismology, with a particular attention on the 
explanation and popularization of seismic risk. The 
second step, opened for Genoa second festival of 
Science in 2004, was the realization of a new area of 
experiments and exhibits on the Earth’s magnetic 
field, giving a full opportunity to learn the Earth from 
the inner core to the interaction with the Sun. We 
recently completed and improved this museum for a 
three-weeks installation in Rome, confirming a wide 
participation of classrooms and citizens. A virtual 
tour of this museum is proposed in this paper, starting 
with the description of the magnetism experiments 
and following with a section on seismo-tectonics. 
 
2   The planet Earth 
In the first hall the public can wear a pair of special 
glasses to watch an intriguing 3-dimensional movie 
about the solar system; all planets and many satellites 
are explained in their peculiarities, with a 3-
dimensional effect so impressive that the planets 
seem to run over the audience. The last planet in this 
movie is the Earth, and, after, the real visit starts. 
3   The Earth’s magnetic field (EMF) 
The exhibition on the Earth’s magnetic field is mainly 
divided in the following sections. 
 
 
3.1   The magnetic compass and orientation 
In this propaedeutic hall there is a large model with 
an aerial view of the area of Rome (Ostiense quarter) 
where the museum is installed; a magnetic compass is 
also present in this room; the model can be rotated, 
and the aim is to understand how a map can be 
magnetically orientated. As soon as the audience has 
understood where the geographic North is in the 
model, they have to align the same map according to 
the magnetic compass direction, obtaining, in this 
way, a geo-referenced map (Fig.1); this was, 
historically, the first heuristic knowledge of the 
Earth’s magnetic field. 
 
 
Fig.1: an aerial view of the quarter of the museum 
with a compass used to orientate the model. 
3.2   An overview of the Earth’s magnetic field 
In the following projection room a video explains the 
key-role of the EMF in allowing life on the Earth. 
This film starts with a description of how (probably) 
the turtles orientate by means of magnetite grains in 
their brains, going on with the mechanisms behind the 
EMF generation, its maintenance, its fundamental 
role in shielding the atmosphere from the solar wind. 
Some stunning auroras are shown too, as a visible 
consequence of the interaction between solar wind, 
EMF and atmosphere. 
 
3.3   Elementary magnetism 
The main hall is divided into two series of 
experiments; a first row of tables contains games and 
instruments to understand the main principles of 
magnetism. In particular, the first two games have 
been realized to illustrate the interactions between 
magnetic poles of the same sign, by means of a 
magnetic pendulum oscillating in a unpredictable way 
and with three magnets which, falling, cannot reach 
the base of the exhibit and bounce approaching the 
same polarity of another magnet. These games are 
also a good demonstration of the concept of “field” 
and distant action (Fig. 2, Fig. 3). 
 
 
Fig. 2: a pendulum oscillates in a peculiar way when 
magnetism influences its movement. 
 
 
Fig. 3: three magnets fall and, instead of reaching the 
base, bounce... 
 
After understanding the magnetic interaction between 
different and same polarities, the audience can 
visualize the “shape” of a magnetic field, introducing 
the concept of magnetic field flux lines with the 
typical experiments of small ferrimagnetic particles 
oriented and aligned by means of different magnets 
(Fig. 4). 
 
 
Fig. 4: the cylinder contains iron particles disposing 
along the magnetic flux lines generated by different 
magnets 
 
The next experiment, very spectacular, has been made 
with a particular magnetic oil which shapes up as a 
magnet approaches, giving a stunning 3-dimensional 
“ball” view of the magnetic field (Fig. 5). 
 
 
Fig. 5: a particular ferromagnetic oil shapes up as a 
magnet approaches. 
 
3.4   How the EMF is generated; first 
hypothesis, a magnet inside the Earth 
After understanding the basis of magnetism, we are 
ready to apply these principles to the Earth, 
illustrating the theories which can explain how the 
EMF is generated and its behavior. 
The first model is an half-Earth with a bar magnet 
inside (Fig. 6); all the compasses on its surface align 
to the N-S direction, as it roughly happens in reality. 
Is this hypothesis correct? The magnet inside the 
Earth produces flux lines which are resembling the 
real flux lines (at a first order) of the EMF, but is it a 
physically correct model? Is there a bar magnet inside 
the Earth? 
 
 
Fig. 6: The Earth with a magnetic bar inside; the 
magnetic compasses on the crust follow the N-S 
direction. 
 
3.5   The Curie temperature 
The demonstration that no magnet can exist inside the 
Earth is evidenced in the next experiment; an iron 
wire is attached to a magnet (Fig. 7); as soon as the 
iron wire reaches about 600°C (by an electrical short-
circuit), the magnet detaches from the wire and 
remains in vertical position influenced only by the 
gravity field. Inside the Earth, were the temperature 
reaches thousands of degrees, no magnet can exists, 
and, thus, there must be another mechanism behind 
the EMF generation. 
 
 
 
Fig. 7: the Curie temperature; as the temperature of 
the wire increases, the magnet detaches. No magnet 
can exist at temperatures larger then about 600°C 
degrees. 
 
3.6   Three magnets falling 
The next exhibit consists of three different vertical 
tubes where a concentric magnet can fall for gravity 
(Fig. 8); the three tubes are respectively made of 
aluminum, plastic and copper; the magnet falls with 
different speeds, going fast when there is a plastic 
tube, slow for aluminum, and very slow for copper. 
All these materials are magnetically negligible (not 
ferromagnetic), and the different effects are due to the 
ability in conducing electricity; the magnet, moving, 
induces electrical currents opposite to the directions 
of the movement; the consequent magnetic field, for 
the falling magnet, results a sort of “magnetic 
friction”. This effect is obviously as strong as 
conductive is the medium. This is a first view of the 
strong connection and interaction between magnetism 
and electricity. 
 
 
Fig. 8: the three different tubes with a concentric 
magnet free to fall. 
 
 
3.7   The electromagnet 
The next exhibition shows a dynamo, which is used 
to produce electricity, connected to a coil; a coin is 
close to this coil, and, as someone rotates the handle 
of the dynamo, the coil becomes an electromagnet 
and the coin remains attached to its iron core (Fig. 9). 
This demonstrates that electricity can produce 
magnetism and, inside the Earth, electricity can be the 
source of the EMF. 
 
 
Fig. 9: A dynamo is electrically connected to a coil 
with a coin near its core; as the dynamo works, the 
coin is attached to the iron core of the coil. 
3.8   A magnet falling in a coil 
The next experiment completes the precedent one, 
and shows how a magnet, falling and moving inside a 
coil, can produce electricity, with a small lamp 
switching on. A different height of falling correspond 
to a different light intensity (Fig. 10). We have now a 
complete view of how a magnetic field can generate a 
current and how, vice versa, a current can be the 
source of a magnetic field. 
 
 
Fig: 10: A magnet falling into a coil induces an 
electrical current and the small lamp switches on. 
 
3.9   A correct model of EMF 
The last model is again an half-Earth with compasses 
all around its surface; instead of having a magnetic 
bar inside, there is a big coil (Fig. 11), and, switching 
on the circuit, audience can see the magnetic needles 
moving and orientating according to the N-S 
directions. Geomagnetic field inversions are 
compatible too, simply reversing the direction of 
electrical current. This is the correct interpretation of 
the EMF; instead of a big magnetic bar, there is an 
electrical current produced in the field, and this 
electrical current is generated in the liquid outer core, 
where liquid iron, conductive, rich of free electrical 
charges (comparable to a plasma), moves for 
convection and Earth’s rotation and produces 
electrical currents responsible of the EMF generation. 
 
 
Fig. 11: A coil parallel to the Earth axis; electricity is 
the real source of the EMF, and it is due to the liquid 
iron moving in the outer liquid core of the Earth. 
3.10   Further steps, the interaction between 
Earth and Sun 
A TV set is placed on the next table, and a magnet 
can be used to “change” the image on the video. This 
means that a magnetic bar, placed near the screen, 
produces colored flux lines on the screen. This is a 
simple way to illustrate how the solar wind can be 
shielded by the EMF, since, as it happens for the TV 
set, the electrons “drawing” the images are deflected 
by the magnet. Videos with auroras are projected near 
this area, and it is explained why they occur and the 
relationship between the solar activity, the magnetic 
storms and these stunning natural phenomena. 
 
3.11   The EMF variations 
The trip on the magnetic field closes with some 
computer programs and diagrams to illustrate the 
short-time (of external origin) magnetic field 
variations and the long-time (of internal origin) 
magnetic field variations. Particularly interesting is 
the magnetic inversion time-scale, one of the crucial 
open problems in geophysics and one of the most 
intriguing aspect of modern research. 
 
4  Plate tectonics, seismology and 
seismic hazard 
After visiting the part of the museum about 
magnetism, the audience can enter into a big model of 
the Earth where they can learn the subdivision of the 
lithosphere in plates, the inner structure of our planet 
with the mantle, the convection that moves the plates. 
This exhibit explains that the Earth is made up of 
many layers characterized by different 
temperature, density, viscosity and that the 
convection is one of the driving force behind the 
movement of the plates. The origin of magnetism 
in the outer core is recalled too. This works as an 
introduction to the second part of the museum, 
which is devoted to the understanding of Earthquakes 
and, consequently, of plate tectonics. After a 
documentary in which are shown the main 
Earthquakes occurred in Italy in the last centuries, the 
museum starts with two main halls where the plate 
tectonics principles are explained. 
 
 
4.1   Africa and Southern America 
A moving diorama reconstruct the connection 
between Africa and Southern America 200 million 
years ago; rotating a wheel it is possible to proceed in 
time (a digital counter tells the age) until the actual 
situation, with the progressive separation of the two 
continents and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge splitting the 
Atlantic Ocean, as a common example of a divergent-
plate boundary (Fig.12). Similar fossils and geology 
on both continents were the first evidences of the 
original contact between these two continents. 
 
 
Fig. 12: Africa and South America changing their 
relative positions from 200 million years ago to today 
and the mid-Atlantic ridge 
 
4.2 The tectonic plates; destroy and 
reconstruct the Earth crust! 
The crust of a 3-D Plates puzzle (1m diameter, Fig. 
13) is divided in real shaped tectonic plates; with an 
handle it is possible to “violently” detach these plates 
(which are magnetically attached) and, then, the 
visitor is invited to put them again in the correct 
position, reconstructing, practically, the actual 
continents configuration.  
 
 
Fig.13: The crust of the Earth as a tectonic puzzle 
 
 
4.3   Why does an earthquake occur? What is 
a fault? 
The next exhibit is a 3-dimensional reconstruction of 
a fault zone, with a 1 meter long strike-slip fault 
between two blocks (Fig. 14); the surface has 
buildings, bridges, trees, and when the left block is 
pushed, the earthquake occurs, with the buildings fell 
down according to the strength of the push. In this 
way it is possible to understand what is a fault, the 
geometry of a fault and the seismic energy, so that 
different forces produce different magnitude 
earthquakes and, consequently, destruction. 
 
 
Fig. 14: A strike-slip fault and an earthquake; moving 
a block, all the buildings are destroyed. After pressing 
a bottom, the model returns in its original 
configuration. 
 
 
4.4   Mountains and eruptions 
A model (courtesy of Geolab, San Gemini, Italy), 
shows a system with three typical tectonic situations, 
explaining, with a recorded voice, why a mountain 
forms in the case of converging plates, the divergent 
plates, and a case of seduction with volcanoes (Fig. 
15). 
 
 
Fig. 15: Mountains, divergent margins and 
subduction, the key elements on plate tectonics theory 
 
4.5   From tectonic plates to Earthquakes 
Three monitors show on a map, by means of an 
educational program developed by Alan Jones [1], the 
main earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from 1960 
to present. It is evident in that way the relationship 
between earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and plate 
boundaries, and the impressive amount and the 
location of seismic events demonstrate that these 
natural hazards are not random, but they are related to 
the plate boundaries. 
 
 
 
 
4.6 The INGV National Seismic Network 
Center 
The seismic hall of the INGV National Seismic 
Network has been reconstructed (Fig. 16). It is 
possible there to watch seismic records in real time, 
to locate the Earthquakes and to change the automatic 
localization by means of wave interpretation. Six 
monitors show real time ground velocity data from 
several chosen stations in Italian territory and 
different kind of maps (seismicity, modified Mercalli 
intensity distribution, tectonic sketch of Italy, seismic 
risk) illustrate the spatial distribution of past 
seismicity in Italy, offering good arguments on how 
we can protect ourselves from seismic risk. 
 
 
Fig. 16: The seismic hall of INGV, wave 
interpretation, localization and real time signal 
analysis. 
 
Conclusions 
This portable geophysics museum has been exposed 
three times to an always increasing audience; the best 
effort has been made to produce a complex and 
complete installation easy to be understood 
independently of the cultural and scientific level, with 
correct and elementary experiment that can be curious 
and intelligible from primary school children to 
secondary school boys and general public. 
Electromagnetism principles are usually poorly 
explained in the classrooms, and magnetism is always 
a fascinating subject. The explanation of the EMF 
generation, the magnetic inversions, the Space 
Weather are topics of particular contemporary 
interests, and this museum is also a good way for 
teachers to understand the new fields of research and 
to learn new practical ways to interact with the 
students. Concerning Earthquakes and plate tectonics, 
Italy is a country with high exposure to the seismic 
risk, and people is really interested in knowing the 
techniques to measure an earthquake, the difference 
between Mercalli intensity and Richter magnitudo, 
and how we are able to collect seismic data in real 
time from any Italian region. The link between 
research and practical aspect has been particularly 
treated in order to explain to the audience how from 
geophysical theories (plate tectonics etc.) it is 
possible to understand the seismic risk. 
The feedback has been excellent, and we received 
many request of keeping this museum as a stable 
installation. 
We will try, in the future, to expand this show with 
further aspects, as volcanism and aeronomy. 
 
 
Acknowledgements: 
First of all, a special mention and acknowledgement 
to Paco Lanciano and his staff- “Mizar per la 
divulgazione scientifica”,who projected and installed 
the exhibits of the museum. 
 
Moreover, We wish to thank all the following people, 
whose help and encouragement has been fundamental 
for this third exhibition in Rome. 
 
• Enzo Boschi, President of the Istituto Nazionale di 
Geofisica e Vulcanologia; 
• Cesidio Lippa, General Director of the Istituto Nazionale 
di Geofisica e Vulcanologia; 
• all scientific guides (INGV colleagues and valuable 
University students and graduated) 
• Sonia Topazio and Antonella Cianchi - Ufficio stampa, 
INGV; 
• Guido Parisi, Gennaro Tornatore, Florindo Ruta - 
Istituto Superiore Antincendi and Dipartimento dei 
Vigili del Fuoco del Soccorso Pubblico e della Difesa 
Civile; 
• Patrizia Cologgi and her staff - Ufficio 
Extradipartimentale della Protezione Civile, Comune 
di Roma; 
• Carlo Rosa and his staff - Dipartimento Ambiente e 
Protezione Civile, Provincia di Roma; 
• XÓÔLAB DESIGN for project design. 
 
 
References: 
[1] Jones A. L., Braile L. W., Braile S. J., A Suite of 
Educational Computer Programs for Seismology, 
Seismological Research Letters, 74, 5, 605-617, 2003. 
 


Interactive Exhibits for Geophysical Education: Uncovering the Secrets of the Earth

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Interactive Exhibits for Geophysical Education: Uncovering the Secrets of the Earth

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