Activity 1

Find the Center

Objective:
1. Locate the epicenter of an earthquake using the triangulation method.
Materials:
• hypothetical records of earthquake waves
• Philippine map
• drawing compass and ruler
Procedure:
1. Study the data showing the difference in the arrival time of P-wave and S-
wave on three seismic recording stations.

2. Compute the distance of the epicenter from each of the stations using this
formula:

Where: d = distance (km)

Td = time difference in the arrival time of P-wave and S-wave (seconds)
This formula is suited because 8 seconds is the interval between the times of
arrival of the P-wave and S-wave at a distance of 100 km.
3. Choose one of the recording stations and measure the computed distance on
the map scale (the scale of the map in Figure 3 is 1.5 cm: 200 km). Set your
compass for that computed distance.
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 intersect at a point. This intersection is
the epicenter.

Guide Questions:
Q1. Where is the epicenter of this hypothetical earthquake?
Q2. What difficulty will you encounter if you only have data from two
recording stations?
Q3. What is the distance of the epicenter from the seismic station?
Q4. What do you think is the importance of determining the epicenter of an
earthquake?