Earthquakes Living Lab: Locating Earthquakes
During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the second floor of this building collapsed, killing several people and trapping a pregnant woman and an elderly woman.Copyright 2008 miniwiki.org via Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sichuan_earthquake_building_collasped..JPG
Students use U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) real-time, real-world seismic data from around the planet to identify where earthquakes occur and look for trends in earthquake activity. They explore where and why earthquakes occur, learning about faults and how they influence earthquakes. Looking at the interactive maps and the data, students use Microsoft® Excel® to conduct detailed analysis of the most-recent 25 earthquakes; they calculate mean, median, mode of the data set, as well as identify the minimum and maximum magnitudes. Students compare their predictions with the physical data, and look for trends to and patterns in the data. A worksheet serves as a student guide for the activity.
Every year, thousands of people die in earthquakes, and many more homes and communities are destroyed or damaged. Many of these catastrophes can be mitigated, however, by smart engineering. The first step in protection is determining where earthquakes are likely to occur, and how severe they may be. Some techniques engineers use include looking at fault lines, examining previous earthquake data and identifying patterns and trends.
Scientists and engineers around the globe gather data through observation and experimentation and use it to describe and understand how the world works. The Earthquakes Living Lab gives students the chance to track earthquakes across the planet and examine where, why and how they are occurring. Using the real-world data in the living lab enables students and teachers to practice analyzing data to solve problems and answer questions, in much the same way that scientists and engineers do every day.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Describe what a fault is, and how it can cause earthquakes.
- Use USGS online maps to retrieve data.
- Explain how engineers use earthquake data.