The Eyes in the Sky II project website has not been significantly updated since 2012. We are preserving the web pages here because they still contain useful and ideas and content. But be aware that the site may have out of date information.
So far in this course, you have practiced querying, classifying, and symbolizing data. All of these efforts helped you to sort and organize the data displayed on the map so that you could look for relationships and patterns in data. Now you will use spatial and database querying to sift out even more details about the earthquake events of 2009.
If you worked through the "Introduction to Mapping Tabular Data" section, then you can use the Add Data button to bring up the previously mapped earthquake data. Otherwise, you'll need to use Add Event Theme to map the 2009 earthquakes.
Choose ONE of the following two options to add 2009 earthquake data to the map.
On September 30, 2009 a Magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake originated at a moderate depth of 81 kilometers. At the surface, over 1100 people were killed and 2650 buildings were damaged in the earthquake and subsequent landslides. Power and communications were disrupted. The earthquake was felt over a wide area and produced a small tsunami.
Imagine that you worked for an international disaster aid organization, and wanted to quickly identify Indonesian cities that might have been close enough to the quake to need your help.
Turn on the 2009EQ layer by clicking the checkbox next to its name. Then click on its name in the Table of Contents to make it the active layer.
Use a Query to locate the Sumatra earthquake:
Click the Query Builder button .
In the query builder, set up the following equation:
(Month = 9) and (Day =30) and (Magnitude = 7.5).
Click the Execute button.
Click the Highlight and the Zoom To buttons. (Note: If clicking the Zoom button does not zoom in on the highlighted earthquake, you will need to zoom in manually using the Zoom In tool )
Turn on the 2009EQ layer by clicking the checkbox next to its name. Then click on its name in the Table of Contents to make it the active layer.
Use a query to locate the Sumatra earthquake:
Click the query builder button .
In the Query Builder window, set up the following equation:
(Month = 9) and (Day =30) and (Magnitude = 7.5).
Click the Execute button.
In the Query Results list at the bottom of the Query Builder window, click to select the single found record.
At the bottom of the query builder window, click the Highlight and Zoom buttons.
The map will zoom to center on the highlighted Sumatran earthquake. (Note: If clicking the Zoom button does not zoom in on the highlighted earthquake, you will need to zoom in manually using the Zoom In tool ).
Close the Query Builder window.
The Sumatran earthquake should be highlighted and centered on the map.
A buffer is a zone drawn around a given map feature or features, measured in units of distance or time. A buffer can be drawn around points, lines, or polygons as well as groups of pixels in raster data. Buffering, or the process of creating a buffer, is a commonly used proximity function. Once the buffer is drawn, it defines what is inside or outside of the given space.
Buffering involves complex mathematical computations, which can use a lot of computer processing power — and time. It is best to buffer simpler shapes rather than highly complex ones, such as the Louisiana Soils or Elevation > 2km layers.
To create a set of concentric buffers around the earthquake:
With the Sumatran earthquake highlighted, click the Buffer tool to open the Buffer window.
In the Buffer window, set the Buffer Distance to 1 mile and click the Apply button.
Change the Buffer Distance to 100 miles and click Apply again.
Repeat this process to create buffers of 300 and 600 miles.
You should see a series of concentric rings around the earthquake epicenter. Keep the Buffer window open.
Now, you'll go back to your original scenario of identifying major Indonesian cities that might be affected by the earthquake. To do this, you will add a world cities layer and use the buffer tool to select any cities within each of these radii.
Click the Add Data button . Navigate up one level to the EarthquakesAE folder, select cities.shp, and click OK.
Right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac) the cities layer and open the Properties window. Symbolize the cities as 8 point red squares and close the Properties window.
In the Buffer window, set the Buffer Distance to 600 and the Buffer Units to Miles. Check the Use buffer to select features from this layer option and choose cities from the list of layers.
Click the Apply button. The cities within the buffer zone should be highlighted. Keep the Buffer window open.
Right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac) the cities layer and open the Attribute Table. Scroll to the bottom of the table to find out how many cities were selected. In this case, 30 cities were selected.
Change the Buffer Distance and repeat the procedure for 100 miles and again for 300 miles.
A containment query finds all the features within a given boundary, such as all of the Tamarix plants in the State of Arizona or all of the lakes in Canada.
How would you select all the earthquakes in a given country? For example, say you wanted to find all the earthquakes in Chile.
Right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac) the 2009EQ layer and open the layer's Attribute Table. Scroll down the attribute table. The selected records are highlighted in blue. How many records were selected?
Result: 190 earthquakes are selected. (Hint: Look at the bottom of the attribute table window for the total number of records selected.)
Right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac) any of the field names of the attribute table and choose Sort Selected Data to Top from the contextual menu. The earthquake records from Chile will be moved to the top of the table.
Proximity is how close one object is to another object. In this case you will learn how to find all the earthquakes that are within a set distance of a given type of plate boundary.
Right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac) the 2009EQ layer and open the layer's Attribute Table. Scroll down the attribute table. The selected records are highlighted in blue. How many records were selected?
Result: 657 earthquakes were within 50 miles of a Transform boundary. (Hint: Look at the bottom of the attribute table window for the total number of records selected.)
Right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac) any of the field names of the attribute table and choose Sort Selected Data to Top from the contextual menu. The records for earthquakes within 50 miles of a transform boundary will be moved to the top of the table.
Use the Select feature tool to drag a rectangular selection around the Northern Hemisphere. The Northern hemisphere will be highlighted yellow.
Click the buffer button, set the buffer distance to 1 mile, and use the buffer to select the 2009 earthquakes from within this containment.
Open the earthquakes attribute table. We got 4227 earthquakes selected, but your number may vary depending on where you defined the Northern Hemisphere.
Use the earthquakes layer and a database query to answer the question:
Find all the earthquakes of a Magnitude greater than 7.
Repeat the given in the example above, but change the initial data base query to (MARGIN_TYP = 'Convergent' ) and (MARGIN_TYP = 'Divergent').
Result: 2708 earthquakes were within 50 miles of a Convergent boundary; 902 earthquakes within 50 miles of a Divergent boundary; and 657 earthquakes within 50 miles of a Transform boundary.
Use the earthquakes layer and the cities layer to answer the question:
How many National Capital cities were within 20 miles of an earthquake in 2009?
Add the Cities layer from the EarthquakesAE folder.
Open the attribute table, take a look at the Status Field.
Set up and execute the database query ((STATUS = 'National and provincial capital') or (STATUS = 'National capital')). Recall that in queries, "or" is more inclusive than "and", so both of these types will be selected. Result: 214 cities are selected in this query.
Click the Buffer button, set the buffer distance to 20 miles. Use the buffer to select features from the 2009EQ layer.
Build Your Own Spatial Query and Take a Screenshot
Set up and execute a spatial query of interest to you. Use the data in the project folder or add another "add event theme dataset" from the folder provided and use the new layers to complete a spatial query. Add other layers of interest to your map and symbolize the layers.
Take a screenshot. Post this screenshot along with a description of the layers you used and the query you made. This is the screenshot that is needed for your required weekly activity.
The EarthquakeAE folder includes many datasets to explore that don't follow the seismology theme. Here are just a few of the possible combinations — there are many more!
Take the time to read more about the additional event theme data sets on the website links where they were downloaded from. The following PDF contains more information(Acrobat (PDF) 48kB Mar25 10) and links to the data sets.
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.
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button and navigate to the file named 2009EQ.csv. (Path: ESRI/AEJEE/Data/EarthquakesAE/csv_files).
Show me the shapefile and map
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