Plates and quakes

In this activity, students take on the roles of seismologists, vulcanologists and geographers, using maps to look for patterns in the worldwide distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes and topographic features.

By the end of this activity, students should:

see patterns in the worldwide distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes and topographic features and develop an understanding of the idea of a dynamic Earth
understand that New Zealand’s location on a plate boundary explains why the country has so many earthquakes and volcanoes
be able to relate their findings to the positions of tectonic plates and their boundaries
be able to predict where future earthquakes might occur, use the latitude and longitude co-ordinates to plot the locations of earthquakes, compare with existing patterns and explain any new observations
understand that specialists collaborate to provide evidence to support their ideas.

Plate boundaries

There are three types of plate boundaries. They are each associated with different types of surface phenomena and are characterised by the way the plates move relative to each other. The different types are transform boundaries (which occur where plates slide past each other), divergent boundaries (which occur where two plates slide apart from each other) and convergent boundaries (where plates slide towards each other).

Rights: US Geological Survey (USGS)

Download the Word file (see link below) for:

introduction/background
what you need
what to do
extension ideas
part 1 – seismologist instructions
part 1 – vulcanologist instructions
part 1 – geographer instructions
part 2 – specialists working together instructions
world map for vulcanologists
world map for seismologists
world map for geographers
world map showing main tectonic plates
part 3 – predicting earthquakes.

Plates and quakes (472.85 KB)

Useful links

Find information on earthquakes that have happened around the world in the last 30 days at http://ds.iris.edu/sm2/eventlist and see the world map of recent earthquakes at http://ds.iris.edu/sm2/index.phtml.

You can use the Academic Kids website to carry out research on plate tectonics.

Acknowledgement

This activity was developed for the Earthquake Commission (EQC), now known as the Natural Hazards Commission, and has been kindly provided for use on the Science Learning Hub.