Abstract

EarthScope has created a new, Free, earthquake analysis toolkit which adopts an inquiry-based approach. It empowers students to select either recent or historical earthquakes, browse and pick seismic stations, and subsequently engage in analyzing and interpreting real data to pinpoint the epicenter of the earthquake. This toolkit incorporates modern techniques such as grid search, perpendicular bisector, and residual minimization. By utilizing the P-wave first arrival, this activity facilitates earthquake location and includes guided labs tailored for both teachers and students. These tools provide invaluable experience for students in utilizing computational models to address seismic inquiries.

Context

This tool can be used in any classroom that currently uses an earthquake location activity as a more modern depiction of real world science. This includes high school and undergraduate classrooms.

Why It Works

The earthquake location activity has been the primary seismology related lab in Earth Science classrooms for many years. While traditionally accomplished with paper maps and compasses, the increased access to tablets, chromebooks and other computers in the classroom created a unique opportunity to update this classic Earth Science lab and provide access to real seismic data for recent events. This tool lets students experience the use of a computational model to answer seismology questions.