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Musical Plates
Preliminaries
1. Where are the most recent earthquakes occurring and are they more
likely to occur in certain locations?
Hypothesis: Think they are more likely to occur along the plates of the crust.
2. Is there any way to determine what parts of the world are most prone to
earthquakes?
Hypothesis: The areas located along the plates are more prone to
earthquakes due to the increased seismic activity.
3. Is there a relationship between earthquakes and volcanoes?
Hypothesis: Due to increased seismic activity the volcanoes located closer to the edges of
the plates will be more active due to ruptures in the crust causing lava to freely flow
through the crust and out the volcano.
4. What is causing earthquakes?
The shifting of the plates on the surface of the Earth Causing the plates to run into each
other or pulling apart causing earthquakes to take place or for mountains to form.
How are you going to test your ideas?
We are going to research the seismic activity for 2 weeks and plot it on a map.
We are going to use the internet to find this in formation and other such
necessities. We will work out the problem step by step and as we go we will
compare our hypothesis with the results we are getting. If we are far off on 1 we
will see how we messed up and try and fix it in the future.
Look for patterns
Part 1.
1Do the earthquakes appear to occur all over the earth's surface or only in
isolated regions?
The earthquakes seem to occur more often in areas closer to plate boundaries
than in the middle of the plate. There are a few isolated earthquakes located
more toward the center of the plates but not many.
2Is there a recognizable pattern to where earthquakes seem to occur?
Yes, they occur in the same areas day after day showing where the plates are
moving more or less.
3If such a pattern does exist, could you use it to determine where high risk
earthquakes zones are located?
Yes, you could tell where the earthquakes could occur due to where the most
earthquakes are. They seem to follow a trend so you could just locate the most
concentrated areas of earthquakes and see where the risk zones are. You could
also look at the areas with the stronger earthquakes and stay away from there.
4A few high risk zones you should stay away from are all around the plate
boundaries. One of the most major regions is the edge of the Pacific Ocean. This
area is called the ring of fire it has very strong earthquakes and there are also a
lot of them here. The main areas of activity around this area are California,
Alaska, and the islands north of Australia.
Part 2
Do you see any relationship between the map you created and the map above
showing tectonic plates?
Yes, there is a relationship between the plates and the earthquakes. There are
more earthquakes where the two plates rub up against each other and move the
earth.
Do you think that there might be a correlation between tectonic plates and
earthquakes?
Yes, I think there could be a correlation between the two. Wherever one is the
other will be too.
What do you think this correlation is?
I think the correlation is that when you have a plate you will most likely have an
earthquake or two.
What do you think is happening in the places where two plates are touching each
other?
I think the plates are hitting each other and raising mountains and creating
earthquakes at the same time.
When two plates rub against each what might the results be? Why? How might
this relate to earthquakes?
Shifting in the plates and they will rub together causing shaking because of the
friction and movement this creates waves which can travel and cause
earthquakes.
Part 3
Do deep earthquakes seem to correlate to any particular type of plate boundary?
If so, what type of boundary?
Yes, Convergent boundaries.
Do shallow earthquakes seem to correlate to any particular type of plate
boundary? If so, what type of boundary?
No
If there is a correlation, can you explain it?
Where will your home be in a million years?
1. Use the scaling arrow at the bottom of the left-side of Global Velocities
map to determine the speed at which station HILO is moving ("5 cm/yr -->"). See if you can answer these questions:
2. A. How fast is it moving in one year? 7 cm/yr
B. How far will it move in 10 years? 100 years? 1,000 years? 100,000
years? a million years?10 yrs 70cm. 100 yrs 700cm. 1000 yrs 7000 cm. 100,000
yrs 700,000 cm. 1,000,000 yrs 7,000,000 cm’s.
3. Determine the plate on which station HILO is located. What plates are
touching it? Station HILO is located on the pacific plate. The plates
touching it are the nazca, cocos, Antarctic, Indo-Australian, North
American, and Eurasian plates.
4. Use the "direction arrow" for station HILO to determine the direction that
that station will move in. Assuming that station HILO remains moving in
that direction, use the scale on your map to determine where station HILO
will be in for each of the time periods above. In 10 yrs station HILO will be
70cm NE, in 100 700cm NE, 1000 7000cm NE, 10000 70000 cm NE,
100000 700000 cm NE, in 1000000 7000000 cm NE.
5.
Do the same activity for station AUCK in Auckland, New Zealand.
AUCK is moving 4cm a year so it will be 40 cm in 10 yrs, 400 in 100, 4000
in 1000 40000 in 10000, 400000 in 100000, and finally 4000000 in
1000000 yrs.
AUCK is on the Indo-Australian plate it is touching the pacific, Eurasian,
Antarctic, African, and the Indian plates. In 10 yrs station AUCK will be 4
cm N, 100 400 cm N, 1000 4000 cm N, 10000 40000 cm N, 100000
400000 cm N, 1000000 4000000 cm N.
6. See if you can answer these questions:
a. How would the movement of either station affect the climate that
plants and animals located on the land mass would experience?
b. How might this change in climate affect the habitat on the land
mass?
c. How might this habitat affect the animals?
d. What animals living in the region might become extinct and which
might be able to survive?
A. It would get hotter or colder depending on where the islands move.
And because of that the animals would die out because they cannot
leave the island.
B. The habitat will become hotter or colder which will make the animals
and plants have to adapt or die out really destroying the ecosystem.
C. The animals will evolve and change like in the past they had to
change to adapt to a hotter world they may have to adapt to an even
hotter world and change the kind of skin they have or there fur or
feathers.
D. The insects will probably stay around considering they are one of
the most adaptive animals on the planet. The birds will also probably
survive because they can fly away and go to a different island or landmass they can live on. Some of the mammals and reptiles will die out
because they have no way to leave the island if something should go
wrong.
How do volcanoes fit in the picture?
1. Take out the world map that on which you previously plotted the
earthquakes.
2. Look at recent volcanic activity and add the locations of at least 5 active
volcanoes to your map.
1. Weekly Volcanic Activity Report
2. Current Eruptions from Volcano World
3. Earth's Active Volcanoes from Michigan Tech
3. From your map, can you determine whether or not volcanoes have
anything to do with the plate boundaries? Yes it seems that volcanoes are
also located right along the plate boundaries just like the earthquakes.
4. Do earthquakes and volcanoes often appear in the same locations?
Support your answer with an example from the map (e.g. the Etna volcano
is located ...). Yes they do, they all appear along the edge of a plate in
general. There are a few exceptions like Hawaii in the middle of the pacific
plate, this could be caused by the shock waves from some strong
earthquakes up in Alaska.