GIS Lab: Plate Tectonics: From the Inside Out!
A.
Earthquake Patterns
A half million earthquakes occur on the Earth each year. Many are small and go unnoticed, while others are large
and can cause a great deal of damage. Earthquakes are one of the physical processes constantly changing the
face of our dynamic planet. Other agents of change include volcanoes and faults. Do these processes occur
anywhere on the Earth? Where do they occur?

Go to the website http://arcims.mathsciencecenter.info and open the web based GIS mapping page titled
‘Plate Tectonics’ by clicking on the picture to the right. A map of the world should be visible with layers on
the right and tools on the left. Use your mouse to put a check in the ‘Visible’ column and a dot in the ‘Active’
column for ‘Quakes95’ like this:
. Click
located at the bottom of
the ‘Layers’ list. This layer shows 353 of the hundreds of thousands of earthquakes that occurred worldwide
during 1995. Use your mouse to click on the
‘Identify’ tool to the left. Now using your mouse click on
one of the earthquakes in the map. A ‘results box’ will appear showing the data for that particular
earthquake. This data comes from the National Earthquake Information Center, a service of the U.S.
Geological Survey that records moderate to large size earthquakes.
1. What information is given about each earthquake?
To find out more information, we can search through the data tables and determine the first earthquake or
the strongest or weakest earthquake of 1995. To obtain this information we must conduct a ‘query’ of the
data.
To identify the first earthquake of the year you must:
1.
Make the ‘Quakes95’ layer active and visible like
2.
3.
Click on the
‘Query’ button.
Set the following ‘Query’ builder options
a. Field: DATE
b. Operator: =
c.
d.
.
Press the ‘Get Samples’ button and
should appear in
Sample Values Box.
Press the ‘Add to Query String’ button. Check to make sure your window appears as below
e. Press the ‘Execute’ button
4. A list of the first earthquake of the year should appear in your window now.
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2. Where did the first earthquake of the year occur and what was its magnitude?
The magnitude of an earthquake refers to its strength as measured by the Richter scale. The Richter scale
is logarithmic, which means that an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 is ten times stronger than one of
magnitude 6.0 and 100 times stronger than one of magnitude 5.0. The infamous San Francisco earthquake
of 1906 had a magnitude of 8.3.

Use the
Query builder to answer questions 3 and 4.
To identify the strongest earthquake of the year you must:
4.
Make the ‘Quakes95’ layer active and visible like
5.
6.
Click on the
‘Query’ button.
Set the following ‘Query’ builder options
a. Field: MAGNITUDE
b. Operator: >
c.
d.
e.
.
Press the ‘Get Samples’ button and use the arrow key to select
in Sample Values Box.
Check to make sure your Operator did not change; if it did change it back to >.
Press the ‘Add to Query String’ button. Check to make sure your window appears as below
f. Press the ‘Execute’ button
4. A list of the strongest earthquakes of the year should appear in your window now.
3. What is the highest magnitude earthquake in the ‘Quakes95” data layer?
4. What is the lowest magnitude earthquake in ‘Quakes95” data layer?
B. Visualizing geographic data on a map
Trying to determine geographic patterns from just data in a table can be difficult. Creating a map with this data can
make it easier for you to see the distribution of earthquakes.

You will notice as you move your cursor over the map of the world in the bottom left hand corner of your
browser sets of numbers will change. The first two sets of numbers are your longitude and latitude.
5. What does it mean if a longitude value is negative? A latitude value is positive?
6. Observe the map closely. What do you see? Is there a pattern in the way the earthquakes are
distributed?
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7. Briefly describe the pattern of earthquake distribution.

Use the ‘Query’ builder to observe the pattern of high magnitude earthquakes for the ‘Quakes95’ layer.
To observe the high magnitude earthquakes of the year you must:
1.
Make the ‘Quakes95’ layer active and visible like
2.
3.
Click on the
‘Query’ button. Notice another window will appear.
Set the following ‘Query’ builder options
a. Field: MAGNITUDE
b. Operator: >
4.
.
c.
d.
e.
Type in ‘7’ in the Values box like this:
.
Check to make sure your Operator did not change; if it did change it back to >.
Press the ‘Add to Query String’ button. Check to make sure your window appears as below
f.
Press the ‘Execute’ button
All the earthquakes with magnitude greater than 7 will appear as large yellow dots
on your map.
8. Where do high magnitude earthquakes tend to be located?

The list of earthquakes you queried is below the map. Scroll to the bottom of the list.
9.

How many earthquakes had a magnitude greater than 7.0 in 1995?
Zoom-in to one of your selected earthquakes. Click the
identify button to get information about
this earthquake. To quickly zoom back out to the full map, click the
‘Zoom to Full Extent’ button.
10. What are the location, date and depth of your earthquake?

Let’s take a look at all of the earthquakes that occurred from 1970 to 1993. Add the layer ‘Quak7093’ to
your map by using your mouse to put a check in the ‘Visible’ column and a dot in the ‘Active’ column for
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‘QUAK7093’ like this:
list.
. Click
located at the bottom of the Layers
11. How are the earthquakes distributed? Briefly describe any patterns you see.

Query the ‘Quak7093” layer for earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 7.0 by clicking the
query
button. Use the same steps as we did to answer #10. (Hint: you can also click on the ‘High Mag Quak’ layer)
12. Where do high magnitude earthquakes tend to be located?
C. Volcanoes, faults and plates
Laying dormant for thousands of years, yet capable of violent eruptions with explosive ash or molten lava, volcanoes
are another physical process constantly changing the surface of the Earth. Where do volcanoes occur in relation to
earthquakes? Let’s examine 919 major volcano locations around the world.

Add the layer ‘Volcano’ to your map by using your mouse to put a check in the ‘Visible’ column and a dot in
the ‘Active’ column for ‘Volcano’ like this:
bottom of the ‘Layers’ list.
. Click
located at the
13. How does the distribution of the volcanoes compare to that of the earthquakes? Describe any
noticeable patterns.

Zoom in on a volcano of your choice. Then use the
choice.
‘Identify’ button and click on the volcano of your
14. What is the name, elevation, and type of the volcano you chose?

Now let’s take a look at the Pacific Plate boundary. Add the layer ‘PacificPlate’ to your map by using your
mouse to put a check in the ‘Visible’ column like this:
. Click
located at the bottom of the Layers list. The pattern of earthquakes and volcanoes surrounding the Pacific
Ocean is known as the “Ring of Fire”. Put a dot in the ‘Active’ column for ‘World94’ like this:
. Use the
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‘Identify’ button to answer #15.
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15. Identify three countries that border the Ring of Fire.

Faults are cracks on the Earth’s surface. Fault lines often stretch for miles and can sometimes be seen from
the air. Let’s look at where faults are located worldwide. Add and display the ‘Faults’ layer like
this:
. Click
located at the bottom of the Layers list.
16. How does the distribution of the faults compare to that of earthquakes and volcanoes? Describe any
noticeable patterns.

The upper portion of Earth’s surface is made up of giant pieces, known as tectonic plates. The oceanic and
continental land masses ride on top of these plates and move with them. Geologists have mapped the
boundaries of these plates based on data such as those you have explored in this lesson. In fact, the
pattern of earthquake and volcanoes was among the most important evidence in the development of the
plate tectonics theory. Add and display the ‘Plate_Lin’ layer like this:
and click the
‘Refresh Map’ button. This theme draws the lines of plate boundaries. Take the time to display different
combinations of themes related to volcanoes, earthquakes, and faults by checking and unchecking the
visible box and then click on
17.

.
How do the locations of earthquakes, volcanoes and faults compare to the plate boundaries?
Add and display the ‘Plate_Pol’ layer. This layer displays the shapes of the plates and labels the names of
each plate.
18. Name all the plates that are shown on this map.
*Turn this layer off when finished by unchecking ‘Plate_Pol’ layer and click ‘Refresh Map’

Now let’s figure out what percentage of earthquakes from 1995 occurred within 200 miles of our plate
boundaries. To do this we will select the plate boundaries and then ‘Buffer’ it to show all the ‘Quake95’
earthquakes within 200 miles.
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To show all the earthquakes within 200 miles of a plate boundary you must:
1.
Make just the ‘Quakes95’ layer visible like:
2.
Make the ‘Plate_Lin’ layer visible and active like:
3.
Click on the
‘Select’ button. We want to select all the plate lines. Move your cursor to the upper left
hand corner of the map and press your mouse button down but don’t let up, as you do this drag your cursor to
the bottom right hand corner of the map and release. As you drag you will notice a red box. The idea is we
need all the plate lines to turn yellow meaning they are selected.
4.
Click on the
‘Buffer’ button. Notice the bottom window changes.
a. Highlight features from: QUAKE95
b. Within a distance of: 200 miles
c.
d.
5.
.
Display attributes: Checked
Check to make sure your box appears as below
e. Press the Create Buffer button. This may take several seconds, be patient.
The window below the map will display the earthquakes within 200 miles of the plate boundaries.
19. If there are a total of 353 earthquakes in the ‘Quake95’ layer what percentage of earthquakes occurred
within 200 miles of a plate boundary?
20. Do you think you would get a similar percentage if you buffered the layer ‘Quak7093’? Why or why not?
21. Why do you think earthquakes and volcano’s occur most often near plate boundaries?
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