Earthquake ExplorationBy: Delaney Ryan

2010, Last Year (Map #1)

Map #2 with buffer lines

The thick, yellow lines symbolize convergent boundaries and the green dots represent big earthquakes.

Map #3 Big Earthquakes

What have you learned about earthquakes and earthquake prediction?

Earthquakes are classified by a scale called the Richter scale, which ranges from 0-10 where 0 being the weakest and 10 the strongest.  With this, scientists can rate the earthquake, but they are also learning how to predict one.  The happening of earthquakes on Earth is not a random act of movement.  Earth is made up of plates that are moving frequently.  Usually earthquakes accumulate along these plate boundaries.  It is easy for scientists predict when an earthquake strikes, but predicting when, can be difficult.  In the next section we talk about what factors contribute to good predicted earthquake estimates.

What have you learned about earthquakes and earthquake prediction? (continued…)

Since Earth is always moving, shifting and constantly being pushed and pulled, much strain can be built up over time.  We have learned that earthquakes occur when strain has built up over a period of time is suddenly released.  When this happens the crust begins to shake and tremble, this movement is commonly referred to as an earthquake.  In some cases earthquakes can cause damage to cities and towns and even take lives, but depending upon the earthquake's strength and the location of the scene, earthquakes can be harmless or barley even felt by people. 

What factors influence earthquake prediction?

There are many different factors involved with earthquake prediction, one being the study of past events. Scientists will study the earthquake’s intensity is a specific place in order to help them predict what the next earthquake will be like that hits that location. Scientists would have been able to figure out the exact time of when an earthquake hits but due the very deep earth crust, they are unable too. However, they can use more factors to get them to a very close prediction

Can lead too

What factors influence earthquake prediction? (continued…)

Satellites are a more recent tool that scientists are using, with satellites scientists can see changes in ground motion as well as determining where areas of high strain are building up. Earthquakes can be spotted sometimes when ground temperature rapidly increases. Scientists can get the information by looking at infrared radiation which shares information on ground temperature. Seismographs are another factor in earthquake prediction, they tell scientists about ground movement along seismic waves. From past earthquakes too deep into the ocean and as far out as space, it all comes together to create a scientific earthquake prediction.

Where on Earth do most of the really big earthquakes strike?

Earthquakes in general happen along oceanic and continental plates and unusually big earthquakes happen on the same plates but the amount of stress and strain can contribute to a bigger (or smaller) outcome. Some examples of places that get bigger earthquakes are; Western North America, Western South America and islands off the coast of East Asia.

Top 10 areas

Area 1: (Alaska, southern) I chose this area because I noticed that many earthquakes have occurred there in the past year, leading to foreshocks and eventually and possibly a big earthquake.

Area 2: (California, Western North America) I chose this area because California is a more common place where earthquakes big and small occur.

Area 3: (Mexico, Northern Latin America) I chose this area because it gets so many earth quakes each year.

Area 4: (Chile, Western South America) The area was chosen because it is an area with not only a lot of earthquakes in general but the area also contains many BIG earthquakes as well.

Area 5: (Ice Land, in Pacific Ocean) I picked this area because it lies right on the pacific boundary and gets frequent earthquakes mostly small but occasionally bigger.

Area 6: ( Southeastern Africa) This area was chosen because although it doesn’t look like there are many earthquakes in the area there actually are, they are just very spread out within the area.

Area 7: (Above Africa) I chose this area because it is another area where there are MANY earthquakes clustered together and these could have been foreshocks leading up to a big earthquake that could happen soon.

Area 8: ( Saudi Arabia) I chose this area due to the excessive amounts of earthquakes this location gets, but most of the earthquakes are just small.

Area 9: ( Southern/Central Asia) This location gets many earthquakes and some of them are small but it also has a mixture of larger ones as well.

Area 10: (Japan/Eastern islands off the coast of Asia) I chose this area because there are many earthquakes big and small here, also Japan just had a Huge 9.0 magnitude earthquake probably caused by foreshocks.

Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magni

tude_scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometri

c_synthetic_aperture_radar http://serc.carleton.edu/eet/earthquakes2/

case_study.html http://www.geerassociation.org/GEER_Post

%20EQ%20Reports/Bhuj_2001/india_photo.htm

http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/49745/diagram-of-earthquake-illustration/

http://www.stanford.edu/group/radar/group.html

http://denali.gsfc.nasa.gov/sci_hi/sci_hi_12_01/dec01.html

http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/interior/plate_tectonics.html

http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=109