Earthquakes

Lesson Objectives:•To understand why earthquakes occur• To understand how we measure earthquakes.•To understand how to prepare/plan for earthquakes

Can you help me find my best mate

Boots?

WE FOUND HIM!!! Now, lets go and see Granny she lives in

San Francisco.

What happened to the city?!?!

Granny, What happened to the city?!?

Dora, you shouldn’t be here! A dangerous earthquake happened and almost

everything was destroyed! They said it was a 7.1 whatever that means.

STOP!!! YOU CANOT GO IN

THERE!!Why officer?

Because an earthquake happened and it’s not

safeOkay

mate ;)What

caused it?

Snip, snip,snip

Dora, STOP!!OUCH!

WHAAAAA?

Its dangerous here! Most earthquakes happen along

plate margins or boundaries. Earthquakes happen when two plates either collide, pull apart, overlap or rub against

each other!

BOOTS!

DORA!!

NO! You will never have boots back!

Activity 1: Cause of Earthquakes

• Remember the tectonic plates from last lesson?

• When these giant plates meet tension builds up and when it gets released we get earthquakes.

• clip

Activity 1: Cause of Earthquakes

• Copy and complete this sentence adding the right missing word from the box below.

E___________ occur when t________ builds up

between two tectonic p______ is released

causing the plates to move v_________.

Earthquakesviolently

plates

tension

Activity 2: Location, location

• Focus - The place where the plates move.

• Epicenter – The place on the surface directly above the focus.

Add Focus and Epicenter to your glossary

“The faster you try and throw a ball the less accurate the throw”

(speed-accuracy trade off)

Activity 2: Location, location

Write your own description of how distance from the epicentre affects how dangerous an earthquake is.

Activity 3: Measuring earthquakes

• ClipAdd the word magnitude to your glossary.

Copy and complete this sentence:

The R_______ scale is used to calculate the

m___________ of an earthquake. This means

how much energy was released by the

e____________.

Activity 4: Planning

• We cannot predict if an earthquake will occur, but we can prepare for it. One of the things to do is to make an earthquake emergency kit. Make a list in your exercise book of ten things you think you should have in your earthquake kit (e.g. water)

• Peer assess your earthquake lists.

Activity 4: Planning

• Earthquake drill

• Now its your turn. When your teacher gives you the signal you must:

‘drop, cover and hold’.