Author:  Joseph J. Kerski, Geographer, jjkerski@usgs.gov, 303-202-4315.

1)  [.shp]

2)  [ G ] 

3)  

[ .dbf ] 

4)  

[ I ] 

5)  

[ The sbx, sbn, and shx files are the "S" part in GIS; the systems part; they link the G and the I parts together. ] 

6)  

[ The last seven days. ] 

[Answers will vary.  Usually only a few hours. ] 

8)  

[ Answers will vary ] 

9)  

[ Answers will vary; usually a dozen or more. ] 

10) 

[ Usually, more earthquakes occur than is commonly believed. ] 

11)  

[  Number will vary should match what the list indicated on the web. ] 

12)  What kind of file did you edit above (.dbf, INFO, or .txt?) _____[ TXT]______________[b].

13)  

 [ longitude ] 

14)  

 [ latitude ] 

15)  

 [ This answer will very depending on the number of quakes during the past seven days.  

Answer should be the same as in questions 9 and 11 above. ] 

16)  

[ Answer should be the same as in questions 9 and 11 above because you are mapping the number of earthquakes in the past few days. ] 

17)  

[ Answers will vary.  Earthquakes are most frequent along a line that is over the plate boundaries; more frequent along coastlines; more frequent along the Pacific Rim, etc. ] 

18)  

[ Answers will vary ] 

19) 

[ There will be a different symbol for each different earthquake. ] 

20)  

[ plate boundaries ]

21)  

[ Most frequent along plate boundaries. ] 

22)  

[ Plates shift, causing earthquakes.  Not all plates are shifting in the same way, accounting for the fact that some plate boundaries contain more, and/or deeper and/or more intense, earthquakes.] 

23) 

[ Yes, subduction zones are more active.  West Pacific Ocean, western South America, Aleutian Islands Alaska are some of the most active. ]  

24)  

[ These are the plate polygons and indicate the names of the plates, unlike the plate lines, which are only the plate boundaries. ] 

25)  

[ Answers will vary.  Most North American students live on the North America Plate ] 

26) 

[ South American Plate ] 

27)  

[ Unique Value - Magnitude field.]

28)  

[ The higher magnitude quakes occur along the plate boundaries. ] 

29)  

[ Answers will vary.  You need to sort the table on magnitude, select the highest magnitude earthquake, and zoom to selected. ]

30)  

[ Answers will vary.]

31)  

[ Answers will vary.]

32) 

[ Aftershocks are indicated by earthquakes that have nearly the same latitude and longitude; that is, they are in close proximity to each other.] 

33) 

[ Answers will vary ] 

34)  

[ Answers will vary.  The deep earthquakes are usually along Western South America, the Western Pacific, Aleutians. ]  

35)  

[ Sometimes, particularly along subduction zones, but not always. ] 

36)  [ Printed Layout. ] 

37)  

[ Answers will vary.  Example:   earthquakes.apr ] 

38)  

[ Answers will vary.  Example:    c:\gis\world_earthquakes\earthquakes.apr ] 

39)  

[ Answers will vary, but the most recent quakes follow a similar pattern to the 2001 earthquakes because of the plate boundaries and fault lines, which do not change much from year to year. ] 

40)  

41)  

[ Most earthquakes occur along the tectonic plates.   The plates constant motion causes earthquakes to occur. ]

42)  

[ decimal degrees ] 

43)  

[ Look at the Quakes2001.shp attribute table and see that 14856 earthquakes in 2001 fall within 200 km of a plate boundary.       ((14856 / 23581) * 100) = 63%   ] 

44) 

[ Look at the Quakes2001.shp attribute table and see that about 20% of the earthquakes fall within 50 km of a plate boundary.      ((4668 / 23581) * 100) = 20%  ]

45) 

[  Answers will vary.  It may be surprising that 1 in 5 worldwide earthquakes occur such a short distance from the plate boundaries. ]

46) 

[ If 63% of all earthquakes fall within 200 km of the plate boundaries, then  37%  (100% - 63% =  37%) of all earthquakes occur further than 200 km of a plate boundary.   One is therefore much more likely to experience an earthquake within  200 km of a plate boundary than at a further distance away. ] 

47) 

[ 8.4  ]  

48) 

[ Peru ] 

49) 

[ Underwater.  But beware!  The continental outlines are quite generalized, and the shoreline could actually be closer to the epicenter, or perhaps the epicenter really was on the beach.  According to the data set as shown, though, the earthquake was underwater. ] 

50)  

[ The largest earthquakes would occur more often in Converging boundaries because one plate is moving under another.]

51)  

[ Transform - 363        Ridge -  336         Converging  - 54        Diffuse -  5    ] 

52)  

[ This file is made up of more and smaller line segments.   The line segments have been put in a category by plate type.  The line segments are also more spatially accurate than plat_lin.shp ]

53)  

[ Most of the quakes appear to be near the converging plate type.   Earthquakes  always occur along the plate boundaries. ]

54)  

[ Will very depending on earthquake occurrence.    Most earthquakes occur along the converging plate type.] 

55)  

[ The converging plate type was most active during 2001.]

56)  

[ Answers will vary depending on where the student lives. ]

57)  

[ Transform ] 

58)  

[ Most is on land. ] 

59)  

[ Land ] 

60)  

[ Converging.  Yes, it matches my earlier prediction (or it should match the student's earlier prediction) ] 

61)  

 [ Fiji ]

62)  

[ 686 km ] 

63)  

[ Converging ] 

64)  

[ In South America along the west coast.  The South American plate is moving over the Nazca Plate, forming the Andes Mountains and causing earthquakes. ] 

65)  

[   Converging   -  This is where one plate is riding over another plate.] 

66)  

[ Converging -  This is where one plate is riding over another plate.] 

67)  

[ The Pacific Ocean is split in two sides, east and west.] 

68)  

[ Looks like you are looking down on the Pacific Ocean from Space.    The flat world now looks like a sphere.]

69)  

 [ No ] 

70)  

[ When the projection is changed the coordinate system was also changed. ] 

 71)  

 [ Meters ] 

72)  

[ 11 ] 

73)  

[ Yes ] 

74)  

[ plotted map] 

75)  

[ No ]  

76)  

[ All the fields that were in the cntry95.shp table -- the identification for each country and its attributes. ] 

77)  

[ Yes ] 

78)  

[ No ] 

79)  

[ Those earthquakes that occurred in the oceans. ] 

80)  

[ United States, mostly because of the Aleutian Islands (Alaska) earthquakes. ]  

81)  

[ 1,474 ] 

82)  

[ Alaska - Aleutian Islands ] 

83)  

[ 1,049 ] 

84)  

[ United States - 1,474                         Chile - 1,049                           France  -   867 ] 

85)  

[ The earthquakes in France can mainly be found in the mountains where the French and Italians share a border, and also where the French and Spaniards share a border--the Alps and the Pyranees Mountains.  These areas are not as populous as the rest of the country.   The quakes are in the lower magnitude range so the country is not too vulnerable to earthquakes.

Chile's earthquakes are in the higher ranges.    The earthquakes are spread along the entire coast  of the country.  The country would be more vulnerable to earthquakes than France.

The most vulnerability in the United States is along the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and in Central Alaska, but the population density is not high there.  The greatest vulnerability is along the west coast of California and in Missouri. ]

86)  

[ Yes -   150 countries had no earthquakes in 2001.]

87)  

88)  

[ You first need to join the quakessum.dbf table with the cntry95.shp table using the Cntry_name field as the field to join.  This will add a column to the cntry95.shp file that will  contain the count of earthquakes by country.    Then sort decending the cntry95.shp table by the sqkm_country field.     Look for the first three counties that have no value in the count field.      (Sudan, Libya, Mali) ]

89)  

[ Mali is not located near a plate and has a very low population which makes it less vulnerable to earthquakes.  Libya and the Sudan having larger populations lie near plates.  These last two countries would be more vulnerable to earthquakes even though none occurred in 2001.  It is also likely that few earthquake building codes exist in those countries, which could mean greater potential structural damage. ] 

90)  

[ There were 23,581 earthquakes in 2001.   The total number can be obtained from the number listed in the Quakes2001.shp table.   The number of earthquakes that occurred in the oceans is listed in the column with no country name.     23,581 - 12,324 = 11,257 quakes occurred on land. ] 

91)  

[ More earthquakes under the oceans.      11,257   land     12,324  oceans ] 

92)  

[ Cities by the oceans are vulnerable to tsunamis or giant waves from underground earthquakes.] 

93)  

[ Japan, United States, Australia, New Zealand,  Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, Chile, Mexico, Russia and many more. ] 

94)  

[ 1,474 earthquakes occurred in the United States in 2001.] 

95)  

[ None ]  

96)  

[ South -  Nebraska ] 

97)  

[ 387.87 km   or a number within range.    The earthquake occurred on 11/13/01.] 

98)  

[ Magnitude was 3.3 which usually causes very little damage. ]