Plotting earthquakes from real-time data

Students are introduced to plotting real-time earthquake data on a map. Students will discover the clustering of earthquakes and identify patterns of distribution that are associated with plate boundaries.

Activities are ordered so that students will connect what they have learned about earthquake locations to volcano locations.

Ideas for introducing Lesson 1:
Refer to the Prerequisite Lesson – Latitude and longitude; review latitude and longitude. When would it be important to use latitude and longitude? What professions would use these measurements? Why? Elicit the response that geologists use latitude and longitude to track the occurrence of geologic events such as earthquakes.

Activities in this lesson: 2
Classroom time: 2-3 class periods

From this lesson, students will understand that:

- Earthquakes cluster in certain places (CA Standard: 6.1a)
- Most earthquakes occur along plate boundaries (CA Standard: 6.1e)

Vocabulary: