Course: Exploring Earthquake Country

Enroll me in this course

Exploring Earthquake Country

This course is a series of lessons focusing on seismic data collected by the Southern California Earthquake Data Center. Students will learn how to create charts with seismic data using Excel, including logarithmic graphs. Data may be downloaded in a format compatible with Google Earth with the ability to animate a time sequence, and data may be visualized in three dimensions allowing students to explore depth and structure of seismic faults.

News forum

Introduction to Exploring Earthquake Country

These lessons are designed for all teachers to use when leading a class discussion. It is divided into eight modules, with each module containing a variety of images and animations, which can be used to illustrate key concepts. The format consists of a page full of background information and large-sized links, allowing a teacher to easily select an image or animation, while engaging the students in discussion.

Begin Lessons on Exploring Earthquake Country file

Download Your Data For Google Earth

This module allows you to download time-stamped data to animate it in Google Earth.

3D Interactive Seismic Data Viewer

The 3D Interactive Seismic Viewer allows you to view recent or archived seismic activity data in three dimensions. You can fly around under the surface of the earth and explore distributions of earthquake events as though you are right inside the faults.

Download Your Data For Use in Excel

This option allows you to download data in a comma-separated values format and open it in Excel for charting and analysis.

The Gutenberg-Richter Power Law of Earthquakes

This lesson provides a brief overview of power laws in nature and steps the student through the process of exploring the extent to which earthquakes conform to the Gutenberg-Richter Power Law using Microsoft Excel's charting and trend analysis features.