Name: Charles Jeremiah A.

Lipura Date: 06/10/18

Grade and Section: 10 –Sapphire Score:_______
Activity 1
Find the Center
Objective:
Locate the epicenter of an earthquake using the triangulation method.
Materials:
• hypothetical records of earthquake waves
• Philippine map
• drawing compass and ruler
Procedure:
1. Study the data showing the difference in the arrival time of P-wave and S-wave on
three seismic recording stations.
Recording station Time difference in the Distance of epicenter
arrival time of P-wave from the station (km)
and S-wave
(seconds)

Batangas 44.8
Puerto Princesa 32
Davao 38.4
2. Compute the distance of the epicenter from each of the stations using this formula:

Where: d = distance (km)

Td = time difference in the arrival time of P-wave and S-wave (seconds)
This formula is suited because 8 seconds is the interval between the times of arrival of
the P-wave and S-wave at a distance of 100 km.

3. Choose one of the recording stations and measure the computed distance on the
map scale (the scale of the map in Figure 3 is 1.5 cm: 200 km). Set your compass for
that computed distance.

4. Center your compass on the station you have chosen. Draw a circle.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the rest of the stations. You should get three circles that
intersect or nearly intersect at a point. This intersection is the epicenter.
 http://earthquake.usgs.gov
Figure 3. Map of the Philippines
 http://stream2.cma.gov.cn/pub/comet/Environment/TsunamiWarningSystems/comet/tsunami/
warningsystem/print.htm
Figure 4. Distance-time graph
The distance-time graph above shows that the S-P interval is about 10 minutes.

Guide Questions:
Q1. Where is the epicenter of this hypothetical earthquake?

Q2. What difficulty will you encounter if you only have data from two
recording stations?

Q3. What is the distance of the epicenter from the seismic station?

Q4. What do you think is the importance of determining the epicenter

of an earthquake?

Generalization/Conclusion: