Earthquake Worksheet

1. Observe the three circles you have drawn. Where is the earthquake's epicenter? The Earthquakes epicenter is in Kentucky because all the circles i drew around the hits meet in Kentucky.

2. Which city on the map is closest to the earthquake epicenter? How far in kilometers is this city from the epicenter?

It is Chicago and it is located 600 kilometers away from Chicago.

3. In which of the three cities listed in the data table would seismographs detect the earthquake first and last?

The first place the seismographs would detect the earthquake in is Chicago because of the close distance. The last one is Denver because it is the farthest. And obviously the second in Houston because it is in between.

4. About how far from San Francisco is the epicenter you found? What would be the difference in arrival times of the P waves and S waves for a recording station in San Francisco?

The epicenters is roughly 3,200 kilometers away from Chicago that means it take 4.4 minutes for the waves to arrive. P waves (primary waves) can travel through anything no matter if it is sold or liquid, however secondary waves (S waves) cannot. In San Francisco the primary waves would arrive a lot earlier than S waves because they travel faster going through both solids and liquids while S waves can only travel through solid.

5. What happens in arrival times between P waves and S waves as the distance from the earthquake increases?

While the distance from the earthquake is increasing the force is setting lower and its going farther away from the epicenter. P waves will still have the advantage of distance but they wont travel as fast because they don’t have enough or as much energy. When S and P waves meet, surface waves are formed.

6. Review the procedure you followed in this lab and then answer the following question. When you are trying to locate an epicenter, why is it necessary to know the distance from the epicenter for at least three recording stations?

If a station only had one hit for an earthquake they will not know where the epicenter si exactly, it could be anywhere within in the circle. When you have ti from 3 stations you can see that the path the earthquake was taking and the vibrations that it made. The you join them all together to find the epicenter.

Finding the epicenter without 3 points is very close to hard. If a stations only has 1 hit of the earthquake, they will not know where exactly the epicenter was, it could be anywhere in the circle. Having found recordings from 3 recording stations, one may see the path the earthquake is going and its vibrations, and then join all of the points together to find the exact epicenter!

National Data Bouy Notes:

National Data Bouy Notes:

Hypothesis:  Before I went on the Buoy website I predicted that the biggest waves would be found in an ocean because that is a place where there are already natural waves and there are already animals living in there creating movement and there are rocks and coral already creating barriers and its just like one big wave experiment. Also I think it will be the;largest in the pacific ocean because the pacific ocean has the largest natural waves. 

Where are waves the highest and the lowest?

This website was a little but confusing and I wasn't exactly sure how to read it. But I am defiantly sure that the site shows many points are around America the west coast, Hawaii and there are also a lot on the East coast

What do you think makes them so high?  

What I think makes them very high is disturbance. Depending on the strength and size of it will effect the size and force of a wave. Also it depends on where it starts. Waves that are close to the shore are actually much more fierce then the waves far out because what happens is the waves build up and accumulates and then when it comes to the shore it breaks.

What types of buoys were they? 

I saw quit a few. I notices that there were some that were collecting data. Others would mark safe areas for swimming and others would have warnings. There were also ones that recorded the actual waves themselves. There were many others as well.

What atmospheric pressure or wind speed was at that location?

The location I chose was station 46086 NDBC and its atmospheric pressure is 30.03 in and the wind speed is 7.8 kt going to 11.7 kt

What causes waves to become so high or low?  

 What causes waves to be so high or low is disturbance and barriers causes disturbances. Disturbance affects it the most because what happens is it hit the water and that is what makes waves strong or weak. Also the stronger the disturbance the bigger the wave.

Why might these buoys be helpful to meteorologists, cities on the coast (seaside), boatsmen, you...?  

They are helpful because the show when the wave is coming. If it is up that means its coming toward the shore. They also help because they help collect data for that body of water.