Earthquakes Webquest
1. During its early years, the earth's outer layer was much hotter than it is today. Over time, the
surface of the earth cooled and hardened. Cracks formed in the hardened surface, creating
huge plates of rock. These plates carry the continents and make up the ocean floor, floating
like islands on the hot, taffylike rock below.
 http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/basics/tectonics.html
a) What happens where the edges of these plates meet?
2. Over the last 200 million years, the continents have moved apart. While we think of their
locations now as permanent, they are actually moving around very slowly.
 http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/basics/tectonics.html
a) On average how many inches do these continents move per year?
3. The theory that describes this movement is called plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the
outcome of thinking that began with an idea posed by German meteorologist.
 http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/basics/tectonics.html
a) What was the name of the German Metrorologist who proposed Plate Tectonics? What year did he
propose this idea?
4. The Earth's crust is made up of a series of twelve interconnected landmasses that are called tectonic
plates. What are the major plates that affect the United States and Canada?
 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/graphics/news/gra/quake/frame.htm
5. Use the animation at the following website and answer the questions below.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7533950.stm
a) List the layers of the earth:
b) What causes the plates of the earth to move:
c) List the names of 5 plates:
d) What happens when plates converge?
e) What happens when plates collide?
f) What happens when plates diverge?
g) What is found at the edges of plates that move past eachother?
h) Sometimes plates get locked together. What happens when the plates finally give?
i) What are the 3 waves of energy released from an earthquake?
j) Surface waves radiate outword from the:
k) Rayleigh waves create what type of motion?
l) Love waves create what type of motion?
6. What is the largest earthquake in 2012? What was the magnitude?
 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/byyear.php
7. What is the deadliest earthquake in 2012? How many people died?
 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/byyear.php
8. What are the three basic types of plate boundaries? Describe each briefly.
 http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/plate-boundaries.html
9. What are tsunamis, what causes them and how fast do they travel?
 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/tg/wtsunami/wtsunami.htm
10. How much more energy is released by a 7.2 earthquake than by a 6.2 earthquake?
 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php
11. What is the name of the instrument used to detect earthquakes? Where was the earliest of these
machines made? What year? What was his name?
 http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/quakes/seismo/
12. In what ways are these machines better today than they were before?
 http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/quakes/seismo/modern.html
13. Where did the most recent earthquake happen?
 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
14. Can scientists predict earthquakes?
 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/science/geology/2001-03-04-quake-predict.htm
15. How do scientists know where an earthquake actually occurred?
 http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/earthquake5.htm