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Activity Grade 10

This document provides instructions for locating the epicenter of a hypothetical earthquake using triangulation based on seismic data from three stations. The procedure involves: 1) Calculating distances from each station using a formula relating time differences between P and S wave arrivals to distance. 2) Drawing circles centered at each station with radii equal to the calculated distances. 3) Finding the point where all three circles intersect, which indicates the epicenter location. Questions at the end ask students to determine the epicenter based on the provided data and discuss challenges with only two stations and the use of distance-time graphs to locate more distant quakes.

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Xemnas Delacroix
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913 views3 pages

Activity Grade 10

This document provides instructions for locating the epicenter of a hypothetical earthquake using triangulation based on seismic data from three stations. The procedure involves: 1) Calculating distances from each station using a formula relating time differences between P and S wave arrivals to distance. 2) Drawing circles centered at each station with radii equal to the calculated distances. 3) Finding the point where all three circles intersect, which indicates the epicenter location. Questions at the end ask students to determine the epicenter based on the provided data and discuss challenges with only two stations and the use of distance-time graphs to locate more distant quakes.

Uploaded by

Xemnas Delacroix
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Activity No.

1
Find the Center
Group Name:_________________ Grade and Section:_________________
Teacher:_____________________ Date: June 27,2017

Objective:
Locate the epicenter of an earthquake using the triangulation method.

Materials:
Hypothetical records of an earthquake waves
Philippine Map
Drawing compass

Procedure
1. Study the data showing the difference in the arrival time of P-waves and S-waves on
three seismic recording stations.

Recording Station Time difference in the arrival time of P-


wave and S-wave (seconds)
Batangas 44.8
Puerto Princesa 32
Davao 38.4

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


= 100
8
Where:

d= distance
Td= time difference in the arrival time of P-wave and S-wave (seconds)

This formula is situated because 8 seconds is the interval between the times of arrival of
P-wave and S-wave at a distance of 100km

3. Choose one of the recording stations and measure the computed distance on the map
scale (the scale of the map below is 1.5 cm:200km. 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
Data and Analysis

Recording Station Time difference in the Distance of epicenter Measurement for the
arrival time of P-wave from the station (km) compass
and S-wave (seconds)
Batangas 44.8
Puerto Princesa 32
Davao 38.4

Guide Question:

1. Where is the epicenter of this hypothetical earthquake?


_____________________________________________________________________________

2. What difficulty will you encounter if you only have data from the two recording station?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
In the previous activity, the hypothetical earthquake happened locally, that is why we use the
formula stated in the procedure. But if the earthquake took place at a far greater distance, seismologist
use the distance-time graph similar to the figure below in determining the location of the epicenter.

The distance-time graph above shows that the S-P intervals is about 10 minutes
Guide Question
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?


________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

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