Earth is a dynamic planet. Its crust is continuously forming and deforming, constantly pushed and pulled as it moves. When strain that has built up over time is suddenly released, the crust shakes, and we call this movement an earthquake. Depending upon their strength and where they strike, earthquakes can inflict severe property damage and claim thousands of lives.
Click the Add Data button. The Add Data window opens.
Navigate to the csv_files folder within the EarthquakesAM folder. In that folder, select the 2009EQ.shp file that you created the last time you added this data as Add XY Data data. Then click OK.
Right-click on the 2009EQ layer in the Table of Contents. Then select Attribute Table.
Look at the bottom of the Attribute Table to find out how many earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater occurred in the past year. (Remember that this data set has only earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater.)
Click the Add Data button. The Add Data window opens. Navigate to the csv_files folder within the EarthquakesAM folder. In that folder, select the 2009EQ.shp file that was automatically created the last time you added this data as Add XY Data. Then click OK.
Right-click on the 2009EQ layer in the Table of Contents. Then select Attribute Table.
Look at the bottom of the Attributes of 2009EQ table to find out how many earthquakes of a magnitude 4.0 or greater occurred in 2009.
How many earthquakes of a magnitude of 4.0 or higher occurred in 2009?
Add the significant and big earthquakes from 2150 BC to 2007 AD
Choose Tools > Add XY Data to map historical Significant and Big earthquakes using Longitude and Latitude coordinates. The Add XY Data window opens.
Click the Browse button to navigate to the file named sig_big.csv. (Path: c:/eyeinthesky2/week7/EarthquakesAM/csv_files). Select sig_big.csv and click Open.
Select Longitude for the X Field and Latitude for the Y Field.
The options in the Add XY Data window are as follows:
Choose Tools > Add XY Data to map historical Significant and Big earthquakes using Longitude and Latitude coordinates. The Add XY Data window opens. Click the Browse button.
Navigate to the file named sig_big.csv. (Path: c:/eyesinthesky2/week7/EarthquakesAM/csv_files).
It may take several steps to move the full path back to the eyesinthesky2 folder, and then to the week7 folder.
Once you are in the csv_files folder, select the file named sig_big.csv. Click Open.
Select Longitude for the X Field and Latitude for the Y Field.
Turn off the 2009EQ layer by unchecking the box next to its name. Now observe the sig_big layer. This layer maps "big" earthquakes ranging from the earliest recorded events to 2007. To learn more about this layer, open the Attribute Table to see the date range. This layer is a combination of recorded data and data based on other information, such as historical writings.
Turn the 2009EQ and sig_big layers on and off to get a sense of how they are similar and different.
Move the Plate Boundaries layer, to the top of the Table of Contents.
Click and hold the bounds layer in the Table of Contents and drag it up to the very top of the Table of Contents.
This is what the map looks like with the plate boundary layer on top.
What type of plate boundary is associated with the historical Significant and Big earthquakes (i.e. ones that have a magnitude of 7.0 or greater)?
The Plate Boundaries are where the plates are interacting. The purple lines show convergent boundaries that are coming together. The red lines show divergent boundaries that are spreading apart. The green lines show transform boundaries that are moving horizontally past one another. The blue lines represent an unknown boundary type.
Where are the Big Earthquakes Mostly Likely to Occur in the Future?
As you discovered, most "big" earthquakes are concentrated at convergent plate boundaries. It is possible to characterize a risk zone using a GIS. For example, through querying and buffering, we can find out how many magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquakes have occurred within a specified distance of a plate boundary.
Turn off the 2009EQ earthquakes layer, but make sure the sig_big earthquake layer is on.
Select the convergent plate boundaries by querying the Plate Boundaries layer for Margin type.
Click on the Selection > Select by Attributes menu option.
Complete the Select by Attributes window patterning your responses after the screenshot. When entering the query expression, you can type the following expression into the input box: (MARGIN_TYP = 'Convergent') or you can double click on MARGIN_Typ, single click on =, and double click on 'Convergent' .
When the Select by Attributes window is complete, click OK.
Here is what the map looks like with the convergent plate boundaries highlighted.
Set a buffer to select earthquakes from the sig_big layer that are within a specified distance
Click the Selection > Select by Location menu option and in the Select by Location window that opens, set all options per the screenshot. Make sure to set the buffer to a distance of 100 miles and 200 miles respectively. Then click Apply and click OK.
Click the Selection > Select by Location menu option and in the Select by Location window that opens, set all options per the screenshot. Set the buffer to a distance of 100 miles. Then click Apply and click OK.
This is what the map looks like with a 100 mile buffer set around the convergent plate boundaries and with the intersecting earthquakes highlighted as well.
Click the Add Data button. Navigate to the world cities layer, cities.shp in the EarthquakesAM data folder. Click Add.
Choose Tools > Add XY Data to add the 2010_quakes data as you did above.
IMPORTANT: Right click and export the 2010_quakes to save them as a shapefile.
Change the symbol to another color of your choice, such as Orange or Cyan.
Compare 2010 earthquakes to 2009 and historical earthquakes. Thought Question: Observe the 2010 layer, does there seem to be a continuation of the historical pattern? Where might more earthquakes be due to happen in 2010?
Discover how far this earthquake was from a major city
How would you discover the distance that this earthquake was from a major city?
Now that this earthquake is selected, zoom in on it .
Use the identify tool and click on the cities to learn their names.
You can also turn on map tips to quickly find the cities names by hovering over them. Double click on the cities layer to open the Layer Properties window, and choose the Display tab.
Click in the show map tips box and then OK on the bottom.
Hover over the cities on the map to make sure it is working correctly. If the labels don't appear as expected you can control which field map tips displays by opening the cities Layer Properties window again and choosing the Labels tab.
Review the slide show: Haiti Chile Slides.pdf(Acrobat (PDF) 23MB Mar24 10) (link) to learn more about these two Earthquakes and why one was so much more destructive than the other.
Add other data from the EarthquakesAE folder, such as world volcanoes, tectonic plates or faults. Also included in the folder is world elevation and world topography.tif. Discover other stories you could tell with these pieces of data. top of page
Click the link to go to the SERC media library listing for the movie. The record will open in a new window.
On the SERC media library page, right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac) the link (below the movie on the Flash version pages) to download the movie file to your hard drive.
Download these versions to play on your computer. You'll need an appropriate movie player to view the file, such as Flash Player, Real Player (Mac / Win), or Adobe Media Player.
button. The Add Data window opens.
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