Exhibit Based Teaching Partnerships
Exploratorium Exhibit Services
Exhibits Partners Teaching Press Schedule About Contact
group group 1 group 2 group 3 group 4 group 5 group 6 group 7 group 8 group 9 group A group B group C group D group E group F
ExNET > Exhibits > Group D > Rift Zone

Rift Zone uses air bubbling up through fine sand to suggest a small-scale geothermal landscape. By turning a knob, viewers can change the pressure of the air rising up through the sand and alter the shapes and patterns of the landscape. The aerators that activate the sand are arranged in a composition of three elements: a circle, a line and a dot, corresponding to the three kinds of rift zones that occur on earth: solitary volcanoes, fracture zones such as the one spreading on the island of Hawaii, and the ring dike that forms in the crater of a volcano as the central plug cools and then a new eruption occurs around the perimeter in a circle.

Exhibit Specs
46"w X 26"h X 54"d
6.0 amps @ 120 volts
400 lbs.
Exhibit Materials
Maintenance Manual   PDF Format | Help?
Graphic (bilingual)   PDF Format | Help?

Rift Zone 1
550 X 370 JPEG | 32k
(Image appears in a pop-up window)

     
Rift Zone 2
550 X 450 JPEG | 32k
(Image appears in a pop-up window)
 
small [QuickTime, 334 Kb]
large [QuickTime, 616 Kb]
 
Back to Top

ExNET
| Exhibits | Partnering | Learning | Media | Schedule | About | Contact
© 2004 The Exploratorium | Center for Museum Partnerships