Name: _______________________________Grade and Section: _____________________Group no.

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Worksheet No.__
Locating Earthquake Epicenter
TASKS
In this activity, you will be working as an amateur seismologist to locate the epicenter of a
fictional earthquake. Your tasks are as follows:
1. interpret seismograms from three seismograph stations;
2. determine the difference in time between the arrival of the P waves and arrival of the S
waves from the earthquake;
3. use a travel-time graph to determine how far each seismograph station is from the
epicenter;
4. and use the technique of triangulation to pinpoint the location of the quake.

Materials:
Time-Travel Chart, seismograms, drawing compass, pencil

Procedure:
1. Record the P- and S- wave arrival times on your data table. Use the chart below. Each little
line is about 1.5 seconds.
2. Subtract the P-wave arrival time from the S-wave time to find the lag time.
3. Use the Travel Time Chart to determine the distance from the epicenter.
4. Use the scale in the middle of the maps to find the distance from the station.
5. Use the compass to draw a circle around the station the correct distance from the epicenter.
6. The epicenter is the place where at least three of the circles meet. Put a star on that spot.

DATA:

Chicago

Kansas
City

Santa
Seattle
Barbara

Seattle

Newport

Tucson

McMinnville
Seismographic Station City p-wave arrival time s-wave arrival time Lag Time Distance from City
Chicago
Kansas City
Santa Barbara
Seattle
Earthquake 1:

Earthquake 2:
Seismographic Station City p-wave arrival time s-wave arrival time Lag Time Distance from City
Newport
Tucson
McMinville

Analysis and Conclusions:

1) When a seismograph station is far away from the earthquake epicenter, what do you notice about the
distance between the arrival times of the P and S waves?

2) Why didn’t the P-waves and S waves arrive in each city at the same time?

3) Why can you not determine the location of an epicenter using only two seismograph stations?

4) Why would a seismograph station in a particular city not record any data about some earthquakes?

5) Why is it important to know the epicenter of the earthquake?

6) Many third-world nations experience more deaths due to earthquakes than industrialized nations.
Propose one reason for this.