Earthquake - Determination of Epicenter


Using multiple earthquake recording stations, determine the epicenter of an earthquake by analyzing the arrival of the primary and secondary seismic waves at each recording station. Real-time charts are generated, providing data that allows for the triangulation of the epicenter.

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Assessment Questions (5):

  1. Which of the three recording stations was closest to the epicenter of the earthquake, based on the seismograms shown below?

    three seismograms
  2. Suppose you have seismograph data from two recording stations for an earthquake. You have calculated the distance of the epicenter from each station, which is indicated with the circles shown below. What do you know about where the epicenter of the earthquake was located?

    two earthquake recording stations
  3. Suppose that an earthquake occurs, and the epicenter is 80 km from a recording station with a seismograph. At that recording station, how much time will pass between the arrival of the first P wave and the arrival of the first S wave? (In other words, what will deltaT be?)
  4. Recording station X has determined that the epicenter of a recent earthquake was 250 km away. No information is available yet from any other recording stations. What can you conclude about the location of the epicenter?
  5. Two different recording stations have found that they had the same value for deltaT after an earthquake. If this is all the information they have so far, what can they conclude?

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