Experiment No.

4
Activity No. 1
Finding the Center

Objectives Locate the epicenter of an earthquake using the triangulation method.

Material Needed
Records of earthquake waves drawing compass and ruler
Philippine Map calculator
Procedure
1. Study the data showing the difference in the arrival time of P – wave and S – Wave on three
seismic recording stations.

Time difference in the Distance of the

Recording Station Arrival time of P-wave epicenter from the
and S-wave (sec.) station (km)
Batangas

Puerto Princesa

Davao

2. Compute the distance of the epicenter from each of the stations using the formula:
d = Td x 100
8dsec
where: d = distance in km
Td = time difference in the arrival time of P and S-wave
3. Choose one of the recording stations and measure the computed distance on the map sale.
Scale = 1.5 cm = 200 km
4. Center your compass on the station you have chosen. Draw a circle.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the rest of the stations. You should get three circles that intersect
or nearly inter at a point. This intersection is the epicenter.
Questions

1. Where is the epicenter of this hypothetical earthquake?

2. What difficulty will you encounter if you only have data from two recording stations

Note: In the previous activity, the hypothetical earthquake happened locally, that is why we used the
formula stated in the procedure. But if the earthquake took place at a far greater distance,
seismologists use the distance-time graph similar to the figure below in determining the location of the
epicenter.

3. What is the distance of the epicenter from the seismic station?

4. What do you think is the importance of determining the epicenter of an earthquake?
Group No. ________ Section: ________________ Score:
Members: ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ 20

Experiment No. 4
Activity No. 1
Finding the Center

Data and Results

Time difference in the Distance of the

Recording Station Arrival time of P-wave epicenter from the
and S-wave (sec.) station (km)
Batangas

Puerto Princesa

Davao

How to compute the Computed distance on

Recording Station
distance on the map the map (cm)
Batangas

Puerto Princesa

Davao

Questions

1. Where is the epicenter of this hypothetical earthquake?

___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What difficulty will you encounter if you only have data from two recording stations?

___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What is the distance of the epicenter from the seismic station?

___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What do you think is the importance of determining the epicenter of an earthquake?

___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________