Tool and Data

Tool 1

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel or similar spreadsheet program, such as Open Office. This chapter was written using Microsoft Excel 2008.

Tool Builder

Microsoft Corporation
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
Home Page for Excel

Tool Cost

Microsoft Excel is available as a free trial: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/try/

Open Office can be downloaded for free from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/office.aspx

Tool Help

Excel help is available online: Excel Help Page

Tool 2

ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education (AEJEE)

Download page for ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education

ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education (AEJEE) is a downloadable, lightweight Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool for exploring geographic data. It is possible to combine point, line, polygon, and image data in a GIS such as AEJEE. AEJEE comes with a large selection of built-in data that can be used in projects. AEJEE can save and open projects, so work can be shared between users, or between school and home. AEJEE can classify and symbolize shapefiles, display image data, project on-the-fly shapefiles stored in decimal degrees, and use data distributed over the Internet from ArcIMS services from the Geography Network, or other hosted ArcIMS sites.

It is also possible to use AEJEE with data that is downloaded from a GPS unit to create custom layers of information that then can be related to scientific and other types of data. GIS Data is often freely available over the Internet from cities, counties and federal organizations such as the National Park Service (NPS) and the United States Geologic Survey (USGS).

Tool Builder

ESRI

Tool Cost

AEJEE is free

Tool Help

Download page for ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education

This Introduction to AEJEE (Acrobat (PDF) 2.1MB Nov19 10) (in PDF) is packaged with the software. It contains helpful information for users new to AEJEE.

Data Source

Historical and near real-time earthquake events compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/

Data Provider

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

For more information about this data set see: Exploring Seismology in the Classroom Using the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Data

Additional Data

Last 8 to 30 Days of Earthquake Activity
As earthquakes scroll off the recent list, they are available from the Quick Epicenter Determinations (QED) bulletin.

Historic Earthquakes
These lists provide a range of U.S. and worldwide coverage, including centuries old earthquake events.