Activity Purpose:

 Is there a relationship between magnitude and depth of an earthquake?

Vocabulary: 

magnitude, depth, horizontal, vertical, axis, shallow, kilometer(km)

Materials: 

USGS Real Time Earthquake Data List
Ruler
Graph Paper
Crayons, markers, or color pencils
Pencil
Acetate overlays

Procedure:
 

1.  Internet specialist should print out USGS Real Time Earthquake Data list and graph  paper.
2.  Give your graph paper a title (i.e.- Magnitude and Depth of Current World    Earthquakes).
3.  Label the horizontal axis Magnitude.
4.  Label each line on the Magnitude axis 0 to 9 (intervals of 1).
5.  Label the vertical axis Depth (kilometers).
6.  Next to each line on the vertical axis, label with numbers 0 to 100 (intervals of 100).
7.  On your USGS Printout find the columns labeled Dep (Depth - km) and Mag (Magnitude).  Round each number to  the nearest whole number.
8.  For each date plot an X on your graph.

Draw Conclusions:
 

1.  Do earthquakes occur at different depths beneath the earth's  surface?
2.  Why do you think this happens?
3.  At what magnitude did most of the earthquakes occur?
4.  Which earthquakes are most powerful, most shallow, or deepest?
5.  Is there a relationship between the depth and magnitude of the earthquakes you plotted?