Going Further

Examples of datasets that can be investigated with the techniques of this chapter include: stream flow conditions, global land and sea surface temperatures, and many others with latitude and longitude coordinates, such as those gathered with a GPS. Specifically, data from the EET chapters Exploring Regional Differences in Climate Change and Using GLOBE Data to Investigate the Earth System can be brought into AEJEE using the same procedures as in Parts 1 and 2 of this chapter.

Instead of limiting the data to the high magnitude earthquakes, one could investigate the low magnitude earthquakes.

Consider investigating other relationships in the earthquake data. Some questions to investigate might include:

• Where are really deep earthquakes located? Where are really shallow earthquakes located? Is there a relationship between depth and plate boundaries?
• Is there a relationship between the magnitude of an earthquake and its depth?

On May 12, 2008 a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck near the city of Chengdu, China. Below are files and links that can be used to explore this event.

• This file contains just the 7.9 magnitude earthquake.
  May 12 Earthquake near Chengdu (Comma Separated Values 107bytes May13 08)
• This file contains May 12 and May 13 Earthquakes with a Magnitude of 5.0 or greater.
  Recent Earthquakes (Comma Separated Values 2kB May13 08)
• Here is a link to additional shape files for China.
  China Shapefiles
• Here is an article about the quake from ScienceNOW:
  Chinese Quake Likely a Mega-Catastrophe
• Here are two sample hotlink files that can be imported into AEJEE:
  For Mac (Comma Separated Values 161bytes May13 08)
  For PC (Comma Separated Values 156bytes May13 08)

Explore a Year's Worth of Earthquakes (Symbolizing Earthquakes by Magnitude). Go to the USGS Earthquake website and download all the earthquakes that took place during the past year. (If needed, refer to Part 1 for help.)

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The data and analysis techniques described in this chapter can also be used in My World GIS and ArcGIS.

Other EET chapters that investigate similar topics include:

Analyzing Plate Motion Using EarthScope GPS Data—Learn how GPS monuments make precise measurements of Earth's surface. Graph motion data and map velocity vectors to explore tectonic motion and surface deformation in the Pacific Northwest. This chapter also focuses on the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Other EET chapters that use My World GIS and/or other GIS software include:

How Cities Affect Their Local Climate—Explore the urban heat island effect using student collected surface temperature data. Subset large datasets, buffer others, examine spatial relationships, and gather statistics to investigate temperature differences in urban and rural school sites.

Detecting El Nino in Sea Surface Temperature Data—Create and analyze fifteen years of average SST maps to find El Niño and La Niño events.

Evidence for Plate Tectonics—Identify relationships among sea-floor age, earthquakes, and volcanoes to understand how they support the theory of plate tectonics.

Exploring Monsoon Precipitation and Streamflow in a Semi-Arid Watershed—Investigate the effect of summer thunderstorms on streamflow in a semi-arid watershed in Arizona.

Investigating Earthquakes with AEJEE—Download earthquake data from the USGS. Bring it into a GIS and analyze it to predict where the next big earthquake will occur on Earth. 

Is Greenland Melting?—Explore map layers to examine annual melting and long-term changes of Greenland's ice sheet.

Mapping Local Data—Follow a study of Urban Heat Islands as an example of a map-based science research project.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: What's in Your Woods?—Investigate forest biodiversity in Maine using a spreadsheet and My World GIS. Then consider the environmental factors that contribute to tree species diversity. 

Protecting Wetlands from Exurban Development—Examine land-use changes around Macclenny, Florida. Propose locations for future development that minimize impacts on wetlands. 

Tsunami Run-up Prediction for Seaside, Oregon with ArcExplorer GIS—Download and examine global, historical tsunami run-up patterns. Acquire DEM contours and import them into AEJEE GIS. Then visualize the potential sea-level rise that could occur during a tsunami run-up event near Seaside, Oregon.

Looking into Earth with GIS—Examine seismic wave data in MyWorld GIS and analyze wave velocities to infer the depth of the crust-mantle boundary.