Virtual Earthquake
Become a seismologist and begin your job today! There has been an earthquake and you need to locate the
epicenter. Besides doing the normal duties of your job, you need to answer a few questions about different
terms and fundamentals that will make earthquakes an easier phenomenon to understand for the media.
Go to the following address: http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eec/Earthquake/
Travel Time
1. How are seismographs and seismograms different?
2. What is an S-P lag time? (use tutorials for help)
3. How is the epicenter of an earthquake different than its focus?
4. What do you notice about the time between the S and P waves and the distance from the epicenter?
5. What is the name of the graph you completed for the 4th and 5th task?
6. If you were 400 km from the epicenter of the earthquake then how long would it take between p
and s waves? (Figure 3)
7. If the S-P lag time at your location was 20 seconds then how far away are you? (Figure 3)
Epicenter and Magnitude
8. How do you calculate the amplitude of an earthquake?
9. What do you notice about the amplitude of an earthquake and the distance from the epicenter?
10. How do you determine the location of an epicenter?
11. How many seismographs does it take to locate the epicenter of an earthquake?
12. What 2 items do you need to determine the Richter magnitude of an earthquake?
13. If I was 30 km from the epicenter of an earthquake and the amplitude of the earthquake was
500mm. What is the magnitude of the earthquake? (Figure 2)
14. For figure one shade in the S-P lag time with a colored marker.
15. Print out a certificate for each member of your group
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