Seismology and Global Earth Structure

Robert Cicerone

Bridgewater State College

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This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process. This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.

Initial Publication Date: July 5, 2007

Summary

This laboratory exercise reviews the basic concepts of how seismic body waves travel through the Earth and how seismologists use these waves to determine global Earth structure. Also, the students analyze waveforms recorded from an earthquake to determine the earthquake's location, magnitude, and focal mechanism.

Seismology | College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

undergraduate course in geophysics
Designed for a geophysics course

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

The student must understand how seismic body waves propagate through the Earth.

The students must understand how earthquake data (i.e., travel times, ampliduted, and first motions) are used to determine the parameters of an earthquake (location, magnitude, focal mechanism).