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SALVADORI'S GUIDE
TO TALKING WITH
YOUR STUDENTS
EARTHQUAKES
SALVADORI'S GUIDE TO TALKING
WITH YOUR STUDENTS
EARTHQUAKES
Introduction.......................................................................1
Exercise 1: The Cracked Egg........................................2
Exercise 2: Falling Towers............................................3
Exercise 3: Scraping Plates...........................................4
Exercise 4: Liquefaction Game.....................................5
Questions to Ask Your Students..................................6
Vocabulary...........................................................................7
Resources.............................................................................9
www.salvadori.org
Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Part 1: Earthquakes
Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students is intended to help you have a conversation with
your students about natural disasters. Hands-on exercises can help students understand the
phenomenon. Also included is a vocabulary list and a list of resources for further exploration
and earthquake safety.
Why the earth quakes: The earth’s crust is like a broken eggshell, and the pieces are called plates.
Plate tectonics – the movement of the earth’s crust – create bands that contain fault lines. These giant
plates are constantly shifting in relation to each other, causing the earth to quake.
How do earthquakes affect people? Approximately 1.3 million earthquakes happen around the world
every year, but most are too small to affect us. On average, there is only one earthquake of 8.0
magnitude (or higher) every year; these earthquakes release more energy during fault ruptures and can
be hazardous. The figure below shows that strong earthquakes occur mainly on the West Coast of the
United States. Though New York City does not sit on a seismically active fault line, moderate
earthquakes are a possibility (on average, NYC has one every one hundred years). The strongest one
was recorded at 5.2 magnitude in 1884, and another was recorded at 2.4 magnitude in 2001.
Figure courtesy of USGS:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/products/conterminous/
The ground-shaking generated during an
earthquake is unlikely to affect people directly
(besides startling or frightening them). It is
what these ground motions can do to the
natural and man-made environments around
us that can significantly affect us. So, while
the possibility of a strong earthquake
occurring in New York City is low, the risk is
heightened by a huge population, the number
of structures in the city, and the intricate,
aging infrastructure. In New York City’s
metro area, building codes require buildings
to be designed to withstand the Maximum
Considered Earthquake (one with a two
percent chance of happening at any point
within a 50-year period).
Salvadori has put together some activities that will help you explain to your students how the earth
moves and what happens to the built environment during an earthquake.
Questions for discussion…
 Has anyone experienced an earthquake? If so, what was it like?
 If the continents are constantly shifting, what do you think will happen to them
over time?
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Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Exercise 1: The Cracked Egg
In this experiment you will use a boiled egg to simulate the behavior of the
tectonic plates on the earth’s surface.
You’ll Need
 1 pre-cooked egg
 1 clock or timer
The Exercise
 Strike the boiled egg, and break the eggshell into a number of pieces, some large and some
small. They will be the tectonic plates of your “earth.”
 If you now squeeze the egg gently between two fingers, the “plates” will move. Some will bump
against adjoining plates, others will slide along them, and some will move away from each other.
A plate may even slide under an adjoining plate.
Tectonic plates diagram
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Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Exercise 2: Falling Towers
To show how earthquakes can damage buildings and harm people, try
this demonstration.
You’ll Need
 8 wooden cubes
 1 helper
The Exercise
 Have your helper erect two towers, with three or four wooden cubes each, on the back of one or
both of your hands, as shown in fig. 1.1.
FIGURE 1.1
 Push your hands together and suddenly let them slide against each other (fig. 1.2). The cube
towers will likely collapse.
FIGURE 1.2
 Now imagine that the wooden towers were buildings and your hands were tectonic plates. The
devastation can be immense.
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Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Exercise 3: Scraping Plates
Using only hands, this experiment allows you to feel how tectonic plates
bump into each other and create earthquakes.
You’ll Need
 2 hands (you can do this by yourself or with a classmate)
The Exercise
 Make both hands fists with the knuckles bulging out. The backs of your hands will be your
“plates” and the knuckles will represent the rough “edges” of the tectonic plates.
 Push your knuckles together and at the same time try to make one hand slide up and against
the other. The harder you push your knuckles together, the harder it will be to make your hands
slide; you will feel the stress increase along your knuckles, just as it increases between the
rough edges of the plates.
 If you keep pushing for a while, the muscles of your “plates” will start hurting because the
knuckles are preventing the sliding. But eventually one “plate” will suddenly slide, releasing the
energy accumulated in your hands. This is how an earthquake happens.
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Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Exercise 4: Liquefaction Game
This experiment will show you what happens to a building set on weak soil
during an earthquake.
You’ll Need




1 brick
1 pail
sand (enough to fill the pail)
water (enough to cover the sand)
The Exercise
 First, fill the pail with the dry sand and set a brick vertically on the sand surface. If you shake the
pail slightly, as if it were hit by an earthquake, the brick may shake but it will not collapse.
 Now fill the pail with water to just above the sand’s surface (the sand should be fully saturated
with water). If you shake the pail now, as you did before you poured in the water, the brick will
slowly sink into the sand, tilting or toppling over or even disappearing (fig. 1.1). The brick
behaves like a tall building on mushy soil and shows how the water acts as a lubricant, allowing
the brick to slide into the sand. The same phenomenon takes place when a building is set on
weak soil, particularly on soil near a sandy seashore where it is completely saturated (fig. 1.2).
FIGURE 1.1
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FIGURE 1.2
Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Questions to Ask Your Students
Re-cap
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
What is an earthquake?
What causes earthquakes?
How do earthquakes cause damage?
Does the earth open up during an earthquake?
Where do earthquakes occur?
What is the intensity of an earthquake?
Can people cause earthquakes?
Does a small earthquake mean that a larger earthquake is coming?
Magnitude




What is the magnitude of an earthquake?
What is the difference between the magnitude and the intensity of an earthquake?
Is there a maximum magnitude for an earthquake?
At what magnitude do earthquakes begin to be felt? At what magnitude does damage start
to occur?
 How many magnitude scales exist? Why? What are they called?
Distribution and Frequency of Earthquakes

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How often do earthquakes occur?
Where can I find information on the world's earthquakes?
Are earthquakes really on the increase? If so, why?
What is the largest recorded magnitude of an earthquake in world history?
In Your State

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

How often do earthquakes occur in your state/country?
Where do earthquakes occur in your state/country?
Do damaging earthquakes occur in your state/country?
What is the largest earthquake ever recorded in your state/country?
Follow-up: Research Topics for Your Students
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What is the relationship between volcanoes and earthquakes?
Will more shocks be felt after a strong earthquake?
Can earthquakes be predicted?
Does the rate of earthquakes increase in cold weather?
Are there certain months of the year that are more seismically active than others?
Certain earthquakes have a negative magnitude, is this an error?
Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Vocabulary
Note: Most words are included (and highlighted) throughout the text; we also included additional words
your students may hear in the media.
Aftershock
a small earthquake that follows the main earthquake
Amplitude
the measure of peaks between waves on a seismograph
Compression
a forces that pushes on or squeezes a material
Deformation
the bending, tilting, and breaking of the Earth’s crust; the change in the shape of
rock in response to stress
Earthquake
a term used to describe a sudden slip on a fault and the resulting ground shaking
and radiated seismic energy caused by the slip; volcanic or magmatic activity, or
other sudden stress changes in the earth
Epicenter
the point on the earth’s surface directly above an earthquake’s center
Fault
a break in the earth’s crust along which movement can take place, causing an
earthquake
Intensity
a measure of the degree to which an earthquake is felt and the amount of
damage caused by an earthquake
Liquefaction
a process by which water-saturated sediment (such as sand) temporarily loses
strength and acts as a fluid
Magnitude
a number that characterizes the relative size of an earthquake, based on
measurement of the maximum motion recorded by a seismograph
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Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Plate tectonics
the theory that considers the earth's crust to be composed of several large, thin,
relatively rigid plates that move in relation to one another
Richter scale
a scale used to measure the energy released in an earthquake
Seismic activity
the types, frequency, and size of earthquakes that happen over a period of time
in a specific area
Seismic wave
a wave of energy that travels through the Earth, away from an earthquake in all
directions
Seismograph
a device that measures the strength of an earthquake
Seismology
the study of earthquakes
Shearing
stress that pushes masses of rock in opposite directions, in a sideways
movement
Tectonic plates
the large, thin, relatively rigid plates that move in relation to one another on the
outer surface of the Earth
Tension
a force that pulls on a material
Tsunami
an extremely large wave caused by an earthquake
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Salvadori’s Guide to Talking with Your Students
Earthquakes
Resources
 For more information and hands-on activities about earthquakes, visit Salvadori’s store:
http://salvadori.org/wordpress/store/
 For more information about earthquakes and New York City, visit:
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/em/downloads/pdf/hazard_mitigation/nycs_risk_landscape_chapte
r_4.8_earthquakes.pdf
 For information about earthquake safety and preparedness at home, visit FEMA’s site:
https://www.fema.gov/earthquake-safety-home
For more information about the Salvadori Center:
www.salvadori.org
Phone: 212.870.3970
Email: [email protected]
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