Mapping Epicenters and Estimating Magnitudes

Seismograms can be used to learn many important things about an earthquake. In this exercise you will learn how seismologists read seismograms to locate the epicenter of an earthquake and estimate the magnitude.
   
Your assignment is to:
  1. Visit the VirtualEarthquake web site hosted by California State University, Los Angeles;

  2. Complete the VirtualEarthquake seismogram interpretation activity for the San Francisco area. If you do an accurate job throughout the assignment, the program will award a "Certificate of Completion" at the end of the activity. Only very accurate work will earn the certificate - if you make an error, you will need to do the exercise again.

  3. Document your work by handing-in the "Certificate of Completion." You will do this by posting it as an attachment in the "VirtualEarthquake Certificates" conference. You can do this by following these steps (you might want to print this page so you will have the instructions when you need them):

    • place your mouse over the certificate and press the RIGHT mouse button
    • slide your mouse down the menu to the "Save Image As" option and press the RIGHT button again
    • save the image file on your computer or on a diskette (make note of the file name and where you saved it)
    • go to the "VirtualEarthquake Certificate" conference and open a new message
    • using the "Browse..." button below the message window, find the certificate file on your computer and attach it to your message
    • view your message and click on the attachment link to be sure that your certificate is attached and working properly (if it is not working properly, delete your message and try again)

connect to VirtualEarthquake