An excellent educational tool has been developed to step students

Question # 00141754 Posted By: kimwood Updated on: 11/27/2015 02:56 PM Due on: 12/27/2015
Subject Geology Topic General Geology Tutorials:
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Question 1

An excellent educational tool has been developed to step students through the process of locating the epicenter of an earthquake and determining its magnitude. This interactive "Virtual Earthquake" activity is part of a series of "Geology Labs On-Line." These labs were designed by Gary A. Novak of the California University at Los Angeles and supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation and the California State University System.

The learning module nicely steps us through the analysis and completes the calculations. Please keep track of your answers along the way so that you can submit them here.

Visit this URL in a separate browser window:

http://www.sciencecourseware.org/VirtualEarthquake/VQuakeExecute.html

Read through and complete each step. Choose the Japan region for simulating the earthquake.

What are the three seismic stations and what are the S-P interval times for each of them?

Question 2

Convert the three S-P interval times to distances using the travel-time graph provided.

Question 3

Compare your calculated epicenter location with the true epicenter location. Where is the true epicenter in latitude and longitude?

Use this URL for a site which will provide latitude and longitude information on any major city in the world:

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/latitude-longitude.html

(Links to an external site.)

Question 4

Now we will proceed to calculate the magnitude of this earthquake. Follow the instructions in the online module. What are the three S wave amplitudes you measured?

Question 5

What is your estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake and how does it compare to the true magnitude?

Question 6

The National Earthquake Information Center provides immediate access to information on earthquakes as they are being recorded. Such a web resource allow us (and many other geologists) to utilize and interpret data collected across the globe. Let's learn more about this resource by using a few of its many features. Use the following URL to link to the NEIC:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/neic/

(Links to an external site.)

then click on "Current Worldwide Earthquake List"

What are the locations of the five highest magnitude earthquakes to have occurred in the last three days and what were their calculated magnitudes?

Question 7

Adjust the settings (the gear-shaped symbol near the top of the page) to select an interval of 7 days to view a world-wide map showing location, magnitude and depth.

What geographic area on the world had the most shallow earthquakes over the last 7 days? Which geographic area had the most deep earthquakes? Which geographic area had the strongest earthquakes overall (regardless of depth)?

Question 8

With respect to your answers for the previous question, what types of plate boundary (or non-boundary) is present at each of these three geographic areas? Do each of these plate boundaries fit with the types of earthquakes which have occurred there? Explain.

Question 9

Name an earthquake (according to its location) which has occurred over the last 7 days in a non-plate-boundary setting. You will need to click on the "Current Worldwide Earthquake List" and explore the world a little bit to find one. What might be a possible source for such a non-plate-boundary event?

Question 10

Finally, we will visit the University of Washington Seismology Lab website (at http://www.pnsn.org

(Links to an external site.)

). This world-renowned website is maintained by the UW Department of Earth and Space Sciences. This is the first place to check for important updates on hazard conditions when a local quake has occurred. Click on "Recent Earthquakes" to view a map showing the magnitudes, locations, and dates of the earthquakes which have occurred locally over the last two weeks.

For the strongest recent Pacific Northwest earthquake of the last two weeks, what was its magnitude, time of occurrence, distance from a major city, geographic coordinates, depth and topographic setting? (You will need to click on the square that shows that earthquake in order to get this detailed information.)

Question 11

Below is some web-recorded data for the Mt. St. Helens swarms from November, 2001. This information is presented as if it were actually produced on a standard paper-plotted seismogram, though it has been color-coded for convenience. Let's practice reading one of these plots:

About how long (in seconds) did each of these tiny earthquake events last? When (date and time to the nearest minute) did the largest earthquake occur on this graph?

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  1. Tutorial # 00136264 Posted By: kimwood Posted on: 11/27/2015 02:56 PM
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