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Locating Earthquake Epicenter

In order to locate the epicenter of an earthquake, you will need to examine its seismographs
as recorded by three different seismic stations.

O
n each of these seismograms you will have to measure the -SP time interval (in seconds). The S- P
time interval will then be used to determine the distance the waves have traveled from the origin to
that station.The actual location of the earthquake's epicenter
will be on the perimeter of a circle drawn
around the recording station.

The radius of this circleepicentral

is the distance
. One S- P measurement will produce one epicentral distance: th
direction from which the waves came is unknown. Three re needed
stations
in order
a to "triangulate" the location.

Earthquake ’s Seismographs
Use these three seismograms to estimate the -SP time interval for each of the recording stations. Record your
measurement for the S-P interval in the box below each seismogram.

Chichuahua Seismic Station Lag (S-P) Interval=__65__ seconds

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Mazatlan Seismic Station Lag (S - P) Interval=___44__ seconds

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Rosarito Seismic Station Lag(S - P) Interval=__59___ seconds

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Epicentral Distance
Use the S-P graph to the left and the estimates you made for the
-P time
S intervals for the three seismograms
(shown again for your convenience)to complete the table below. Examine the graph to the right, a graph
of seismic wave travel times. There are three curves on the graph: The upper curve shows S wave travel -
time graphed versus distance, the center one shows P wave travel time versus distanc
e, and the lower one
shows the variation in distance with the difference of the S and P travel times.
For the rest of this exercise
you won't be needing the individual S and P curves, only the-PScurve.

Station Lag Time (S-P) Interval(seconds) Epicentral Distance (km)

Chichuahua 65 650

Mazatlan 44 425

Rosarito 59 580

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Triangulation (Location of Epicenter)

The illustration to the right shows a map of the earthquake region.
The radius of the circle is equal to the
epicenter distance.Locate the epicenter.

Epicenter

Tolerance
I’ll accept your readings if you’ll get an actual reading ±𝟓, otherwise you will repeat this
activity.