This post was edited by maria bernard on Mar, 2009
I have just completed my activity and it went really well. I did a simplified version of what we did with Earthquakes and GIS. Students were highly engaged in the lessons. My original plan was to have students work in teams but I changed it to individually and group analysis. We created an excel file of significant US earthquakes (4.0-9.9 magnitude from 1500-1989). I wanted to capture Massachusetts earthquakes however there was too much data for excel to handle!!! The Canadian database didn't really have the magnitude (that I could see). What was exciting was that the fault in Maine might be connecting someday to the Fault in Massachusetts due to a series of earthquake activity in Maine.

Interesting that the data overpowered Excel. Perhaps if the amount of memory that can be used by the program was increased for the Excel Program in the computer you were using the program might better be able to handle the data.

As a student I would be very interested to know if there were any earthquake activity around where I lived as well as if there were any potential for earthquakes such as California has had in my own area. Interesting also to hear of the potential of the fault meeting up between NH, MA, and Maine. I hope that is a long, long, time in coming!

Nice lesson!
Anne Marie

I was surprised too about how much seismic data was collected when I dropped the search to a 1.0 magnitude. I hear through the grapevine that Excel may be increasing the number of rows due to large datasets in industry as well. This is the first time it has happened to me. As for the potential fault, they are both a similar type fault and it looks as it may be lengthening in Maine and possibly down to Massachusetts. I do not believe it will happen in "our" lifetime!!!

Oh! I misunderstood you had run out of rows! That was hugh then. Good - not in our lifetime. I'm chicken.

Maria, What a wonderful opportunity for students to work with genuine data... from the "real world" as opposed to text book scenerios... I suspect that thereare more Canadian data bases out there that deal with the magnitude.

Maria,
This is a very good lesson for the eighth grade classes. It seems pretty complicated. I would need help from my computer teacher to do this.
Rich Briody

Maria,
This is a very good lesson for the eighth grade classes. It seems pretty complicated. I would need help from my computer teacher to do this.
Rich Briody

Maria,
This is a very good lesson for the eighth grade classes. It seems pretty complicated. I would need help from my computer teacher to do this.
Rich Briody

Maria,
This is a very good lesson for the eighth grade classes. It seems pretty complicated. I would need help from my computer teacher to do this.
Rich Briody