How Do You Locate An Earthquakes Epicenter?
We have all heard about earthquakes in the news. And, always, the epicenter of the earthquake is given. However, if you have ever wondered how scientists figure out the epicenter of an earthquake, there are some simple steps anyone can follow to figure it out. Look at a seismogram that depicts an earthquake as recorded at one seismic station. Read the x-axis of the seismogram to determine the arrival times of the earthquake’s P-waves and S-waves at that seismic station. The P-waves travel faster than the S-waves so they will always arrive first. Use these arrival times to calculate the difference (in minutes) of arrival times of the two waves. Look at your travel time curves graph that shows two curves, the S-curve and the P-curve. Find the place on the graph where the P-curve and the S-curve are separated by the difference in arrival times found in step one. The difference in arrival times is read on the y-axis of the travel time curves graph. Draw a vertical line using your ruler and
