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Earthquake Technology Worksheet
GLG/101 Version4 / 1

Associate Level Material

Earthquake Technology Worksheet

Answer the lab questions for this week and summarize the lab experience using this form.

Carefully read Ch. 9 of Geoscience Laboratory.

Complete this week’s lab by filling in your responses to the questions from Geoscience Laboratory. Although you are only required to respond to the questions in this worksheet, you are encouraged to answer others from the text on your own.

Questions and charts are from Geoscience Laboratory, 5th ed. (p. 153-168), by T. Freeman, 2009, New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Reprinted with permission.

Lab Questions:

9.1 Judging from the seismogram in Figure 9.4 of the lab book, which wave appears tobe the most damaging?

9.3 Determine the distance to an earthquake at a station that receives P and S waves 5.0 minutes apart. Hint: (a) Place tick marks on a scrap of paper equal to 5.0 on the minutes axis. (b) Fit that to the horizontal separation between P and S curves. (c) Read distance directly across on the distance axis.

9.5At this point, from the information in Figure 9.6B, how specific can you now be as concerns the location of that earthquake?

9.6At this point, from the information in Figure 9.6C, how specific can you now be as concerns the location of that earthquake?

9.10 Using the nomogram, determine the Richter magnitude for the three earthquakes listed (see, p. 169 in the lab book).

S arrival minus p arrival / Amplitude / Magnitude
(A) 8 seconds / 20 millimeters
(B) 8 seconds / 0.2 millimeters
(C) 6 seconds / 10 millimeters

9.14 The 2002 Afghanistan earthquake measured 5.9 on the Richter scale and killed 1,800 people. The 2001 western Washington earthquake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and killed only one person. Can you imagine why the huge difference in the numbers of deaths? Hint: It has to do with construction materials.

9.17 Where is the location of that June 19 quake (to the nearest tenth of a degree latitude and longitude)? Follow the steps 1 through 4 to complete the table below (see lab book pp. 164-165).

P arrival time / S arrival time / Difference in P & S / Distance
hours: minutes: seconds tenths of seconds / seconds / kilometers
LTN

9.20 One of the curious things about the loss of life in regions surrounding the Bay of Bengal is that some 38,195 lives were lost in Sri Lanka, whereas only 2 lives were lost in Bangladesh. How could this be? It certainly couldn’t be the difference in distance. Hint: To answer this question, you should first contour the map in Figure 9.20 (see p. 170 in the Lab book) and then follow ‘the rule.’ Note: You do not need to submit the contour map with this report.

Lab Summary:

Address the following in a 200-300 word summary:

  • Summarize the general principles and purpose of the lab.
  • Explain how this lab helped you better understand the topics and concepts addressed this week.
  • Describe what you found challenging about this lab.
  • Describe what you found interesting about this lab.

Write your summary here: