Science 10 – Quarter 1 ǀ Lecture
MODULE 1: Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Mountain Ranges
Lesson 1: Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Mountain Ranges
Quarter: 1st ǀ S.Y. 2023-2024
Teacher: Kyle A. Fernandez
Plate Tectonics
Earth’s lithosphere consists of layers, the crust, and the
upper part of the mantle.
The crust is made of a variety of solid rocks like
sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. It has an average
density of 2.8 g/cm3 and its thickness ranges from 5 to 50
km. The crust is thickest in a part where a relatively
young mountain is present and thinnest along the ocean
floor.
Two kinds of crust: the thicker but less dense continental
crust and the oceanic crust which is relatively thinner
but denser than continental crust.
According to the plate tectonics model/theory, the entire
lithosphere of the Earth is broken into numerous segments
called plates.
The plates move very slowly but constantly, and this
movement is called tectonics; thus, the theory of moving
lithospheric plates is called plate tectonics.
The lithosphere is said to be in constant but slow motion.
These motions can range widely.
Activity 1: Remember Where the Edges Meet
Questions:
a. How are earthquakes distributed on the map?
b. Where are they situated?
c. How are volcanoes distributed?
d. Where are they situated?
e. How do you compare the location of majority of
earthquake epicenters with the location of
volcanoes around the world?
Transcribed By: Kyle A. Fernandez
f. How will you relate the distribution of mountain
ranges with the distribution of earthquake
epicenters and volcanoes?
g. What do you think is the basis of scientists in
dividing Earth’s lithosphere into several
plates?
Answer:
a. Earthquakes are not randomly distributed.
They are concentrated in some areas.
b. Some are located near the edges of the
continents, mid-continents, or in oceans.
c. Volcanoes are not randomly distributed. Most
are found on the edges of the continents.
d. Edges of some continents.
e. Both situated on the same locations.
f. Mountain ranges are found in places where
volcanoes/earthquakes are located.
g. Geologic activities; volcanism., and mountain
formation.
Key Concepts:
• Plates are large pieces of the upper few
hundred kilometers of Earth that move as a
single unit as it floats above the mantle.
• The plates are in constant motion. As they
interact along their margins, important
geological processes take place, such as the
formation of mountain belts, earthquakes, and
volcanoes.
Activity 2: Find the Center
• Triangulation Method - Triangulation can be
used to locate an earthquake.
The seismometers are shown as green dots.
The calculated distance from each
seismometer to the earthquake is shown as a
circle. The location where all the circles
intersect is the location of the earthquake
epicenter.
1. Compute the distance of the epicenter from
each of the stations using this formula:
Where:
d = distance (km)
Td = time difference in the arrival time of P-
wave and S-wave (seconds)
 earthquakes, crusts can either meet or move
apart and form mountains and volcanoes.

This formula is suited because 8 seconds is

the interval between the times of arrival of the
P-wave and S-wave at 100 km.

2. 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.
Questions:
1. What difficulty will you encounter if you only
have data from two recording stations?
2. What do you think is the importance of
determining the epicenter of an earthquake?
Answers:
1. If the two circles will intersect, the circles will
intersect at two points. Therefore, there will be
two locations that could possibly be the
epicenter.
2. Locating earthquake epicenters will pinpoint
which fault lines are active. Usually, the less
active fault line stores great amount of
potential energy that could cause major
earthquake once released. Therefore, places
near fault lines that remain inactive for a long
period of time are due to experience a major
earthquake.
Key Concepts:

• To locate the epicenter of an earthquake, you

need to determine the time interval between
the arrival of the P and S waves (the S-P
interval) on the seismograms from at least
three different stations. You must measure the
interval to the closest second and then use a
graph (Distance-time graph on page 10 of the
LM) to convert the S-P interval to the
epicentral distance.
• Once you have the epicentral distances, you
can draw circles to represent each distance on
a map. The radius of each circle corresponds
to the epicentral distance for each seismic
recording station. Once you have drawn all
three circles and located the point where all
three intersect, you will have successfully
located (triangulated) the epicenter of the
earthquake.
• Remember that plates are in constant motion.
As they interact along their margins, important
geologic processes take places such as the
formation of major mountain ranges, active
volcanoes, and earthquake epicenters. It
means to say that, where there are