This lesson provides an overview of destructive earthquakes and their connection to tectonic movements of the Earth's crust. It includes a discussion of some especially destructive historic earthquakes, and a brief introduction to contintental drift and the theory of plate tectonics. There is also discussion of basic seismology (types of waves) and measures of the magnitude of an earthquake (the Richter Scale). The lesson inlcudes an activity in which students use an online simulator to locate the epicenter of an earthquake using readings from three different seismograph stations. After they have completed the simulation, they attempt to locate the epicenter of a real earthquake using data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) earthquake website.

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This resource requires 'Virtual Earthquake'

This resource requires 'USGS Earthquake Website'

Publisher: Kennesaw State University
Environmental Science Activities for the 21st Century (ESA21)
http://esa21.kennesaw.edu/

Author: John Pratte
Arkansas State University