Daily Objectives

MEASURING EARTHQUAKES

n Calculate the speed of a P wave based on travel time and distance traveled.

Complete the remainder of this day's objectives working with your "Rock Your State!" group. If you wish, you may go to a computer lab to do this; however, you must turn in all three graphs and answers to all three questions before the end of the class period!

n Using the data posted by the class last time on the wiki page, create three graphs and answer three questions about them.

Graph 1: Show the travel time of the P waves from the Central Italy earthquake. (This graph should look something like the graph from the Indian Ocean tsunami earthquake of Dec 26, 2004--but just for the P waves.) Question: how does this graph compare to the Indian Ocean graph?

Graph 2: Show the travel time of the S waves from the Central Italy earthquake. (This graph should look something like the graph from the Indian Ocean tsunami earthquake of Dec 26, 2004--but just for the S waves.) Question: how does this graph compare to the Indian Ocean graph?

Graph 3: Show the distance to the Central Italy earthquake episode on the horizontal axis ("X" axis), and velocity of the P wave on the vertical axis ("Y" axis). Question: is there a relationship between velocity of the earthquake wave and how fast the wave travels? If so, describe and explain it.

Department of Earth Science | Northeastern Illinois University

Using the topographic quadrangles provided, find at least one place that illustrates each of the following features. Label and place a sticky note on one map or the other, to indicate the location of each feature. It is necessary to find each feature only once.
* a gentle slope * a steep slope * a closed depression * a round hill top * a ridge (elongated hilltop) * a lake * a benchmark	* a stream; find two places where contour lines cross the same stream and put sticky notes on the map to show both places. Tell what direction the stream is flowing. * a “Gaging Station” along a stream * a forested or undeveloped area (how can you tell?) * an urban area (how can you tell?)