MACFI SCIENCE TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL

Quezon Blvd., Lamitan City, Basilan

Name: Date: Score:

Grade/ Year & Section: Subject:
Activity Title: Find the Center Activity No: 1
Reference (s): Estrellita A. Madriaga, 2017, Science Links 7 Worktext for Scientific and Technological Literacy, Rex Book Store,
Manila pp.

Learning Target/s:
a. Locate the epicenter of an earthquake using the triangulation method.

I. LEARNING EXPERIENCE:
a. Concept Notes
Earthquake – vibration of Earth due to the rapid release of energy.
Hypocenter(focus) – the point within the earth along the geological faults where the earthquake
originate
Epicenter – the point of the earth’s surface directly above the focus.
Triangulation Method – uses distance information from three seismic stations to locate
earthquake epicenters.
Two types of Body Waves
1. Primary (P) Waves – the first type of wave to be recorded in a seismic station.
2. Secondary (S) Waves – the second type of earthquake wave to be recorded in a seismic station.

Example:
1. Study the table below with the given P- and S-wave arrival of the three recording station.
Recording P-wave S-wave arrival Time Difference in the arrival Distance to the
Station arrival time time time of P-wave and S-wave epicenter
(seconds) (km)
A 18 sec 153 sec 135 s
B 58 sec 174 sec 116 sec
C 30 sec 107 sec 77 sec
2. Subtract the s- wave arrival time from the p-wave time to find the time difference.
Ex: 153 s – 18 = 135 sec
3. Use the triangulation formula to find the distance to the epicenter.
𝑇𝑑
d= 8 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠x 100km
where d= distance
Td= time difference
Solution
𝑇𝑑
d= 8 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠x 100km
135 𝑠𝑒𝑐
d= 8 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠x 100km
d= 1,687.5 km
4. Choose one of the recording stations and measure the computed distance on the map scale. Set
your compass for that computed distance.
 5. Center your compass on the station you have chosen.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the rest of the stations. You should get three circles that intersect at a
point. This intersection is the epicenter.

b. Checking for Understanding

Directions: Given the P- and S- wave arrival time. Find the epicentre of the earthquake on the three
recording stations. Show your solutions
Recording Station P-wave S-wave Time Difference in the Distance to
arrival time arrival time arrival time of P-wave and the epicenter
S-wave (km)
(seconds)
Batangas 20 sec 64.8 sec
Puerto Prinsesa 8 sec 40 sec
Davao 14.2 sec 52.6 sec
Plot the results:
c. Processing Questions:
1. Where is the epicenter of this hypothetical earthquake?

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

3. What do you think is the importance of determining the epicenter of an earthquake?

d. Framing Concepts
Directions: Using the venn diagram, differentiate P-Wave and S- Wave.

P-Wave S-Wave
Similarities