How Many and What Location did M5.0 or Larger earthquakes Occur During a Four-Day Period?
Summary
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Successfully interact with the USGS Earthquake Tracker to identify a subset of earthquakes based on magnitude.
2. Understand the relationship between earthquakes and Plate Tectonics.
KEY WORDS: Earthquakes, magnitude, U.S. Geological Survey
Learning Goals
Content/concepts goals
Goal: Reinforce conceptual understanding of earthquake magnitudes/location to tectonic plates.
Higher order thinking skills goals
Skill goal: analyze the relationship between damaging earthquakes and tectonic plates.
Other skills goals
1. Successfully interact with U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake data website to query and identify subset of earthquakes over a given period of time.
2. Gather data in a simplified form using a common application.
Context for Use
Type and level of course
This activity is designed for an introductory Earth Science course for non-majors.
Skills and concepts students should have mastered
Skills needed include ability to navigate to a web site, query an online database using available tools, and input data into a word processing application.
Concepts to understand include Plate Tectonics, earthquake magnitude scale, locating earthquake epicenters, and relationship between earthquakes and tectonic plate boundaries and intraplate occurrences.
How the activity is situated in the course
This is a standalone exercise.
Description and Teaching Materials
Website: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
GlobalEarthquakeTrackingAnalysis (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 1.9MB May2 17)
Teaching Notes and Tips
Assessment
2. Students correctly determine the type of plate boundary the majority of earthquakes occurred on during the effective time period.
References and Resources
This site is required to collect the current M 5.0+ earthquake epicenter data for the assignment.