Activity 1

Find the Center

I.Objective:
Locate the epicenter of an
earthquake using the triangulation
method.
II. Materials:
• hypothetical records of
earthquake waves
• Philippine map
• drawing compass and ruler
III. Procedure:
1. Study the data showing
the difference in the arrival
time of P-wave and S-wave on
three seismic recording stations.
2. Compute the distance of the
epicenter from each of the
stations using this formula:
d = Td x 100 km
8 seconds
Where: d = distance (km)
Td = time difference in the arrival
time of P-wave and S-wave
(seconds)
3. Choose one of the recording
stations and measure the
computed
distance on the map scale (the
scale of the map in Figure 3 is 1.5
cm:200 km). Set your compass for
that computed distance.
4. Center your compass on the
station you have chosen. Draw a
circle.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the
rest of the stations. You should
get three circles that intersect or
nearly intersect at a point. This
intersection is the epicenter.
Q1. Where is the epicenter of this
hypotheticalearthquake?
Q2. What difficulty will you
encounter if you only have data
from two recording stations?
Q4. What do you think is the
importance of determining the
epicenter of an earthquake?