Unit 3 WebQuest - Internet Project
Earthquake
Introduction
| Task
| Process
| Guidance
| Conclusion
| Questions
Introduction
Have you ever felt an earthquake? Earthquakes are very frightening and can cause great destruction. An earthquake occurs when the tectonic plates of the Earth split or travel by each other. Some areas of the Earth seem to have more earthquakes than others. The table below shows the top ten states in the United States for the number of earthquakes recorded from 1974 to 2003. It also shows the percent of total earthquakes in the U.S. represented by each state’s total.
State | Number of Earthquakes | Percent of Total U.S. Earthquakes |
Alaska | 12,053 | 57.2 |
California | 4,895 | 23.2 |
Hawaii | 1,533 | 7.3 |
Nevada | 778 | 3.7 |
Washington | 424 | 2.0 |
Idaho | 404 | 1.9 |
Wyoming | 217 | 1.0 |
Montana | 186 | 0.9 |
Utah | 139 | 0.7 |
Oregon | 73 | 0.3 |
Source: neic.usgs.gov
In this project, you will explore how functions and relations are related to locating, measuring, and classifying earthquakes.
The Task
You plan to enter a science contest that requires you to submit a research report on some type of natural disaster. You have chosen to write a report on earthquakes. If you prefer, the report can be published as a Web page and displayed on the Internet for the judges to review. You must choose one important earthquake on which data is available. Your report (Web page) needs to contain the following information:
- the name, epicenter, and date for the earthquake you have chosen;
- a map of the location of your earthquake relative to other countries, states, or areas of the world;
- an explanation of how the epicenter of an earthquake is located. Be sure to include any tables, graphs, diagrams, or other information that is needed to explain this process;
- an explanation of two measurement scales used to classify earthquakes. You should also give the measure of your chosen earthquake using at least one of the scales.
You will get some ideas about how to complete your project from the Exercises in the textbook in Lessons 8-3, 9-3, and 10-1.
The Process
To successfully complete this project, you will need to complete the following items.
Guidance
Here are some additional questions and ideas you may want to consider for your project.
- What is a tsunami? How is it related to earthquakes? What are the dangers of tsunamis?
- What was the economic impact of the earthquake that you chose to study?
- How do people prepare for a possible earthquake?
- Where in the U.S. are earthquakes most likely to occur? Make a map graph showing the most likely locations.
- How are cities changing building standards to address the possibility of earthquakes?
- Can earthquakes be predicted and/or prevented? What are researchers doing in the field of earthquakes?
Conclusion
Here are some ideas for concluding your project.
- Present your project to your class or at a family night.
- Present the information on a Web page. Have other students critique your project and help you to make improvements to your project.
- Interview a person who works in researching or recording information about earthquakes. Find out what mathematics this person needs to use in this career.
Questions
Lesson 8–3
To pinpoint the epicenter of an earthquake, information is often obtained from three different seismograph stations. Circles are drawn with each station as a center. The point where the three circles intersect is most likely the epicenter of the quake.
- On grid paper, carefully draw these three circles where each center is the location of a station on a coordinate grid.
Circle 1: center at (0, 0); radius 3 units
Circle 2: center at (-6, 0); radius 4 units
Circle 3: center at (-2, -6); radius 4.25 units
What are the approximate coordinates of the intersection of the three circles?
- Write an equation for each of the three circles.
- Show that the intersection point found in Exercise 1 satisfies the three equations you wrote in Exercise 2. (Your results probably will not be exact since your measurements may have been slightly inaccurate, but they should be close.)
Lesson 9–5
Primary and secondary seismic waves from an earthquake arrive at different times at seismograph stations during an earthquake. The table shows the arrival times for primary and secondary waves relative to the distance that the station is from the epicenter of the earthquake.
Distance from the Epicenter (km) | Time for Primary Wave to Arrive (seconds) | Time for secondary Wave to Arrive (seconds) |
0 | 0 | 0 |
1000 | 2 | 4 |
2000 | 4 | 7.5 |
3000 | 5.5 | 10.5 |
4000 | 7 | 12.75 |
5000 | 8.5 | 15 |
6000 | 9.75 | 17 |
7000 | 10.75 | 19 |
8000 | 11.75 | 20.5 |
9000 | 12.5 | 22 |
Source: www.scienceworld.wolfram.com
- On the same coordinate plane, make two scatter plots of the data from the table.
- What type of function do you think would best model the scatter plots? Find an equation to model each function.
- Find the difference between the arrival of the secondary wave and the primary wave. Make a scatter plot of distance (x-axis) and difference in time (y-axis). What type of function do you think would best model the scatter plot? Find an equation to model the function.
- Compare the equations you wrote for the scatter plots. Describe similarities and differences between the three equations.
Lesson 10–1
The Richter scale describes the intensity of an earthquake. It was developed by Charles Richter in 1935. The table shows how the intensity of an earthquake increases as the number increases.
Richter Number | Increase in Magnitude |
1 | 1 |
2 | 10 |
3 | 100 |
4 | 1000 |
5 | 10,000 |
6 | 100,000 |
7 | 1,000,000 |
8 | 10,000,000 |
Source: The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference
- Use a graphing calculator to make a scatter plot for the data in the table.
- Find an equation for an exponential equation to fit the data.