Download Term Project Exercise 1

IST868 Visual Analytics
Term Project Exercise 1:
Examine worldwide earthquake activity
This worksheet is to become familiar with the data you will use in the term project. In particular, you
will use ArcGIS to visualize where earthquakes are most common and where the largest earthquakes
occur throughout the world. You will then take a detailed look at earthquakes to discover where
earthquakes of varying depths occur.
You will be guided to map worldwide earthquake locations in relation to plate boundaries. What we hope
is to find evidences that are related to the common belief/theory/illusion about Earthquakes. Some of
these are stated in the reading “Shaky Preparation” (available from ANGEL). For example, it is common
belief that most earthquake activity occurs along the boundaries between the tectonic plates. To see
evidences, we can perform an attribute query of earthquake magnitude to show that large earthquakes are
generally distributed along the plate boundaries. An attribute query of earthquake depth demonstrated that
extremely deep earthquakes occur along the plate boundaries around the Pacific Ocean, usually in
subduction zones. A spatial query of tsunami run-up locations and countries illustrated that tsunamis
primarily affect countries around the Pacific Ocean.
PART I: Understanding Earthquake risk and hazards
The first step to prepare your project is to complete a seminal reading “Shaky Preparation” which is
available as a PDF in ANGEL “Term Project” folder. Discuss with your team and answer the following
questions:
What are the common beliefs or myth about earthquakes?
What are the active Earthquake places in the US and in the world that were mentioned in the paper?
What is EFZ (earthquake fault zone)? How such map information is generated and used?
How is ground shake intensity measured in scale?
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What is MMI (modified Mercalli Intensity) scale?
How earthquakes on the eastern US differ from those of western coast?
Part II: Mapping World Earthquakes
The data for this exercise is in the following folder: \\UPFS1\VA\data\GeoHazards\Earthquake\World\
Start ArcMap. Open WorldEarthquakes.mxd from the folder \\UPFS1\VA\data\GeoHazards\
Save a personal copy of this to \\UPFS1\VA\IST868\XXXX folder.
Step 1
Start ArcMap and open a document
Design a map showing the distribution of the tectonic plates and boundaries around the world.
SHOW RESULT
Develop a map showing where major earthquakes around the world have occurred between 1970 and 1993.
SHOW RESULT
Step 2 Examine areas with high levels of seismic activity. Generate visual evidences (in
the form of properly symbolized map) to support the following observation or hypotheses.
You may use more than one map if necessary
(2.1) Most major earthquakes are concentrated in narrow geographic belts. For example, one of
these belts surrounds the Pacific Ocean with a large concentration of earthquakes in Southeast
Asia.
SHOW RESULT
Make a bookmark of this map in ArcMap and save. Name the bookmark as “Southeast Asia.”
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(2.2) The heavily populated region of Southeast Asia experiences an enormous amount of
seismic activity. Another concentration of major earthquakes extends from the Mediterranean
Sea to the Himalayas.
SHOW RESULT
Make a Bookmark for this map, and name it as “Mediterranean”.
Examine the distribution of the earthquake locations around the Mediterranean Sea.
Why do you think earthquakes occur lined up in some regions? Offer your explanation and illustrate it with a map.
Step 3
Examine earthquake locations in relation to plate boundaries
Produce one or more maps to support the following hypothesis.
[Hypothesis] Most major earthquakes occur along the narrow boundary zones between the plates.
[Hint] In ArcMap, turn on the Plates layer and show it together with countries and Earthquakes. Set the projection
of the data frame to be “Miller Cylindrical (World)”. Set the view to Full Extent. Using interactive query functions
to examine the plates of the Earth’s crust and their boundaries.
When you are finished, turn off the Plates layer.
Step 4
Examine earthquake attributes
Notice that the attribute table contains fields for the magnitude, depth, and date of each earthquake. These are
common attributes for earthquake data. Within the GIS environment, these attributes can be used for visualizing and
analyzing earthquake data.
To determine the range, mean, and standard deviation of an attribute, you can calculate basic descriptive statistics.
Right-click MAGNITUDE and choose Statistics. The statistics window appears.
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[Question ] What is the range of earthquake magnitudes shown in this layer?
(A) 0 - 9.7
(B) 0.7 - 5.6
(C) 4 - 8.2
(D) 4.2 – 8
Step 5 Symbolize earthquakes by magnitude
Symbolize the earthquakes according to their magnitude. Use Graduated Symbols (symbol size from 4
to 8), form 5 classes using Quantile on magnitudes
SHOW RESULT
Try another way to map Earthquake magnitude. This time, form 5 classes using Manual method and set
the break Values to 5.00, 6.00, 7.00, 8.00, and 8.20, respectively.
SHOW RESULT
[Question] In which regions have the strongest earthquakes occurred?
Step 6 Select earthquake magnitudes greater than 6
Earthquakes of a magnitude greater than six are considered large earthquakes. Show a map of locations
of only the large earthquakes.
SHOW RESULT
On the map, all locations of earthquakes greater than six are selected.
For all the Earthquakes that are of magnitude of 6 and higher, calculate their distances to the nearest plate
boundaries. Show a statistics of this distance.
SHOW RESULT
What is the percentage of those Earthquakes that are within 30 miles of a plate boundary?
Answer:
This exercise helps to Most large earthquakes have occurred along the plate boundaries.
[Question] Why are there also large earthquakes within the plates?
Step 7
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Query to find shallow earthquakes
Shallow earthquakes are those that originate less than 70 kilometers beneath the surface of the earth.
These earthquakes are common along transform (strike-slip) faults and tend to cause the most damage.
Show a map of those shallow earthquakes occur all over the world.
SHOW RESULT
Step 8 Query to find intermediate earthquakes
Intermediate earthquakes occur between 70 and 300 kilometers beneath the surface and are most common
in subduction zones.
SHOW RESULT
[Question] In which regions do intermediate earthquakes occur?
Step 9
Query to find deep earthquakes
So far, you have identified where shallow and intermediate earthquakes have occurred. You will now use
ArcMap to locate the deep earthquakes, which, like intermediate quakes, are most common in subduction
zones.
SHOW RESULT
Which regions experience deep earthquakes?
Step 11 Analyze tsunami data
Earthquakes that occur beneath the ocean floor can generate very large and destructive sea waves, called
tsunamis. In this step you will add tsunami run-up locations to your map.
Design a map showing where tsunamis hit the coastline during the years 1970 to 1993.
SHOW RESULT
Step 12
Select countries affected by tsunamis
With the tsunamis and country data both in ArcMap, you can select the countries that have been struck by
tsunamis.
SHOW RESULT
[Question}. Which countries were affected by tsunamis from 1970-1993?
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Step 13
Create a report of countries affected by tsunamis
From the Tools menu, choose Reports, then click Create Report to open the Report Properties dialog box.
If necessary, select the Fields tab. Here you need to specify which fields will be used to create the report.
From the Layer/Table drop-down menu, choose Countries.
In the Available Fields list, double-click CNTRY_NAME to move it into the Report Fields list.
Make sure that Use Selected Set is checked.
For easier reading, you want the countries to appear in alphabetical order.
Click the Sorting tab. Click the first record under Sort (where it says None), then click Ascending.
Click Generate Report.
Examine the report of countries affected by tsunamis.
SHOW RESULT
Creating a report enables you to list attribute data that match the criteria of an attribute (or a spatial)
query.
Close the Report Viewer and the Report Properties dialog box.
Choose Yes when prompted to save the report. Navigate to your \\UPFS1\VA\IST868\XXX folder and
save the report with the name of your choice.
Step 14
Save your map
Final_WorldEarthquakes.mxd.