Enrichment/Extension Activities

Enrichment:

Primary Sources:

1. Read at least 4 or 5 of the personal accounts written by individuals who experienced an earthquake. Most of the eyewitness reports below were written many years ago, but some were recorded as recently as 1999.  Select accounts from both long ago and from the last twenty years.
• Famous Earthquake Accounts: Mark Twain, Jack London,Charles Darwin, John Muir
• Eyewitness accounts of 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
• Eyewitness accounts from Turkey quake
• Eyewitness to Disaster: California Earthquake Accounts(scroll down to find reports from the 1980's and 1990's)


2. Use examples from the eyewitness accounts above to answer the following questions in a synthesized essay response:
1. How did the earthquakes affect the personal lives of people you read about?
2. How did earthquakes affect their communities as a whole?
3. Were there differences in the reactions of the writers from different time periods? What were they?

Plotting Current Earthquake Data:

Materials
You will need either a small world map to plot the earthquakes individually or in a small group OR a large world map to plot the earthquakes as a class.  If you do not have a map, you can download a map from the National Geographic Xpeditions web site:

Large World Map (.pdf format) Large World Map (.gif format)

Instructions:

Click on one of the web sites listed below to see all of the earthquakes that have occurred over the last few days which were larger than 2.5 on the Richter Scale. Note that in the first two columns you will see the time and date for each earthquake. Note that in the second two columns you will see the latitude and longitude coordinates for the epicenter of the earthquake. TEXT-BASED (Recommend) USGS Earthquake Bulletin () NOTE: Magnitude Greater Than 2.5 Earthquakes From Around the World IRIS List of Earthquakes (last 30 days) NOTE: a latitude of + corresponds to degrees North and a latitude of - corresponds to degrees South a longitude of + corresponds to degrees East and a longitude of - corresponds to degrees West INTERACTIVE MAPS USGS Recent earthquakes with tectonic plate boundaries (last 7 days) Recent earthquakes (last 7 days) IRIS Seismic Monitor   Use the latitude and longitude coordinates to plot a dot on your world map which represents the epicenter of the earthquake. For older students, use a blue star if the earthquake occurred near the surface (less than 100 km) and use a red star if it occurred deep (greater than 100 km) in the earth (you will see the depth measurements in the table.) NOTE: You can use the links that appear in the last column of the table to assist you in finding the locations of the earthquakes if using the latitude and longitude coordinates is too difficult.   Do this for a period of at least two (2) weeks.

Adding Volcanic Activity:

Materials

World map that you have previously plotted the earthquakes Internet access

Instructions:

Take out the world map that on which you previously plotted the earthquakes.   Look at recent volcanic activity and add the locations of at least 5 active volcanoes to your map. Weekly Volcanic Activity Report Current Eruptions from Volcano World Earth's Active Volcanoes from Michigan Tech   From your map, can you determine whether or not volcanoes have anything to do with the plate boundaries?   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 ...).

Watch this Explanation on Amplitude:

Amplitude

Make a Disaster Preparedness Plan for You and Your Family:
Use the following websites to help create the plan:
Build a Family Disaster Kit
Kids Prepared for Every Situation
Warning Systems and Alerts
Choose a Disaster
Disaster Planning for Pets
Family Contact System

How to Make a Volcano at Home:
Make a Model Volcano