Name/ Section:

Activity 1
Find the Center
Objective:
Locate the epicenter of an earthquake using the triangulation method.
I. Materials:
• hypothetical records of earthquake waves
• Philippine map
• drawing compass and ruler

II. Procedure:
1. Study the data showing the difference in the arrival time of P-wave
and S-wave on three seismic recording stations.

Recording station Time difference in the Distance of epicenter Computed

arrival time of P-wave from the station (km) Distance on the
and S-wave map
(seconds
Batangas 44.8
Puerto Princesa 32
Davao 38.4

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)
This formula is suited because 8 seconds is the interval between the
times of arrival of the P-wave and S-wave at a distance of 100 km.
9
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.

III Observation

Guided Question

1. Where is the epicenter of this hypothetical earthquake?

2. What difficulty will you encounter if you only have data from two
recording stations
3. What is the distance of the epicenter from the seismic station?
4. What do you think is the importance of determining the epicenter
of an earthquake

IV. Conclusion