Earthquakes

By: Luke Carlson and Caleb Tonozzi

How Many Supercontinents did Wegner’s Theory Assume?

• There was 1 supercontinent called Pangaea.

• Over millions of years Pangaea has broke apart.

What are the Major Plates that Affect the United States?

• It is mainly affected by the Gorda, Cocos, and the Caribbean Plates.

• The map on the right shows the plate boundaries.

Why does California have a lot of earthquakes but not Florida?

• California is on a fault line called the San Andreas fault line. Florida does not sit on a fault line.

• The red line show the San Andreas Fault line in California.

What is considered the most destructive earthquake in history?

• It was the earthquake of Sumatra. It occurred December 26, 2004. It happened off the west coast of Northern Sumatra.

• It had a magnitude of 9.1 on the Richter Scale. It killed 227,898 people.

What are the Three Basic Plate Boundaries?

• A divergent plate boundary is where 2 plates move away from each other.

• A convergent boundary is where 2 plates come together.

• A transform boundary is where 2 plates grind past each other side by side.

What are Tsunamis?

• A tsunami is an enormous ocean wave.

• This is a picture of a tsunami flooding a city.

What Causes a Tsunami

• Tsunamis are caused by undersea earthquakes.

How Fast Do Tsunamis Travel?

• Tsunamis travel at a very fast speed.

• Tsunamis can get up to a speed of 500 mph.

What are the 2 Types of Energy Waves made by earthquakes?

• One type of wave is a p-wave.

• The other is a S-wave it is its is known as a secondary wave.

• The differ because secondary waves do not travel as fast as primary waves.

How Much More Energy is Released by a 7.2 Than a 6.2?

• A 7.2 earthquake releases ten times more energy than a 6.2 earthquake.

• The top is a 7.2 earthquake and the bottom is a 6.2 earthquake.

Question #9What applications does seismology have besides

measuring magnitude and location of earthquakes?

• Reflection and refraction seismology can be used in geophysical exploration to locate layers of varying density.

• For example, they can be used to locate underground hydrocarbons in the oil and gas industry.

Where did most earthquakes happen last week?

• Most of the earthquakes that happened last week were located in Alaska.

• Look at Alaska it had a lot of earthquakes.

Can Scientists Predict Earthquakes

• Earthquake prediction is currently not possible.

How do Scientists know where earthquakes actually occur?

• They use the data collected from as many seismographs as possible.

• They perform a calculation called triangulation, this involves using p-waves and s-waves travel times recorded at each station to find the distance of the earthquake from each seismograph. Once you have enough data, you can plot circles of the appropriate radios on a map. Where all these circles meet is called the epicenter.

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