Name: _________________________ Date: ____________ PD. ______
Mapping Earthquake and Volcanic Activity
Objectives:
Students will…
 relate earthquake and volcanic activity to the location of crustal plate boundaries
Introduction:
Every day the earth demonstrates its tectonic power with movements of the crust in the form of
earthquakes and volcanoes. The force driving this activity has its beginning back with the formation of the earth.
For millions of years the broken crust has been moving and colliding at three types of plate boundaries: convergent,
divergent, and transform fault. Convergent boundaries are moving toward each other, divergent are moving away
from each other and transform faults are sliding past one another. This activity will compare current volcano and
earthquake activity with tectonic plate boundaries.
Materials:
 2 different colored pens or pencils
 map with latitude and longitude
 map of the tectonic plates boundaries
 Earth Science book
Pre-Lab (10 points)
Read the objectives, introduction and procedure and answer the following questions:
1. What am I trying to find out?
2. How am I trying to find this out?
Predict: Hypothesis (5 points)
3. Where do you think most of the activity will occur? (If, Then statement)
Procedure:
1. Choose one color to represent volcanoes and another color to represent earthquakes. Make a key of these
colors on the map provided.
2. Using the color chosen for earthquakes, map each of the recent earthquakes by placing the corresponding
number on the correct coordinates. Some earthquakes may be very close to each other or at the same
location. Write the numbers as close to each other as possible.
3. Using the color chosen for volcanoes, map each of the recent volcanic eruptions by placing the
corresponding number on the correct coordinates. Some volcanic activity may be very close to each
other or at the same location, or it may be in the same location as an earthquake. Again, just write
the numbers as close to each other as possible.
4. Once all of the volcanic and earthquake activity has been mapped, use the completed map and a map of the
tectonic plates to answer the essential lab questions (page 256 in the Earth Science book).
Coordinates:
EARTHQUAKES
Longitude
Latitude
154 0 E
460 N
126 E
1N
146 E
54 S
144 E
20 N
178 W
29 N
126 E
1S
100 E
0.5 S
100 E
0.5 S
76 W
2N
48 E
33 N
169 E
20 S
136 E
37 N
169 E
20 S
157 E
8S
155 E
7S
136 E
34 N
72 W
45 S
179 W
19 S
VOLCANOES
Longitude
150 E
55 E
83 W
168 E
123 E
159 E
155 W
160 E
145 E
152 E
78 W
112 E
161 E
62 W
122 W
129 E
78 W
70 W
Latitude
370 N
21 S
10 N
16 S
7S
54 N
19 N
56 N
4S
4S
2S
8S
56 N
16 N
46 N
29 N
1S
16 S
Essential Lab Questions;
1. Overall, what did you find out about this lab?
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2. What does this mean to you, how will it affect you in real life?
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3. Why should you care (don’t tell me you don’t)?
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4. Which directional areas on the map showed the most earthquake activity?
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5. Which directional areas on the map showed the most volcanic activity?
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6. Did any directional map location experience both volcanic and earthquake activity? If so, where?
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7. Are these areas located at tectonic plate boundaries? If so, which ones?
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8. Which type of boundary seems associated with the most earthquakes (3 to choose from)?
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9. Which type of boundary seems associated with the most volcanoes (3 to choose from)?
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10. The area around the Pacific Plate is often referred to as the Pacific Ring of Fire. Look at the map and the
text, if necessary, and explain why it has this name.
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WEST
EAST
NORTH
SOUTH
KEY