LOCATING EARTHQUAKES
Name: ___________________________________ Date: _______________________ Period: _____
Questions for thought (Pre-Thinking) Answer each question as completely as you can writing so I can
read it
1. When an earthquake occurs in a sparsely (thinly) populated region it is not
considered to be a disaster, Why ________________________________________
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2. In the activity Seismic Risk you created a map of the US that showed the amount of
risk each state had of an earthquake. What does this type of map do for people?
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3. If you know a region is prone to earthquakes but you want to build there anyway,
what kind of precautions may you take? ___________________________________
_______________________________________________________ would being
prepared work for any natural disaster, ____________________? In other words,
can you be prepared? __________________________________________________
4. Would a major EQ still be a disaster if we had emergency plans in place, and people
were made aware of the coming quake? Explain your answer. _________________
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5. Suppose you entered a town like Winchester, it is practically destroyed. What kind
of evidence (damage) would you be looking for to prove this was an earthquake?
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6. Why would structural damage to buildings not be an accurate picture of the epicenter
of an earthquake? ____________________________________________________
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7. Why would we want to know the location of an earthquake epicenter? ___________
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8. What are some immediate affects a large earthquake might have on a region? _____
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9. How could we determine where the epicenter of the Earthquake was located?
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10.Hazard:
Living in seismic prone areas means that seismic risk is unavoidable. It is impossible to
manage the risk through prevention of future earthquakes. But improvement of seismic
hazard assessment and providing reliable seismological and engineering-seismological
information for planning and design purposes is an important factor contributing to
efficiency of risk management programs.
Exposure (elements at risk):
When earthquakes occur in uninhabited areas they are not considered as disasters.
Sometimes civilization and urbanization make human beings more vulnerable to the
natural phenomena. It happens, in particular, when there is high concentration of
population and complicated infrastructure in earthquake prone zones. So, the processes
of land use and urban planning as well as development of new technologies should take
into account the existing seismic threat.
Vulnerability:
The bitter engineering truth is that earthquakes do not kill people, vulnerable buildings do.
Though future earthquakes cannot be avoided, the community can improve seismic
performance of buildings and lifelines, reconstruct or retrofit old structures and build new
earthquake-resistant constructions, in particular, for residential and critical buildings.
Awareness:
Lack of awareness (as a psychological component of vulnerability) contributes to seismic
risk considerably. It concerns people from every sector of the community, all members of
which are to realize how to prepare for possible disasters, how to behave if an earthquake
strikes and what to do after