Can an earthquake happen -- that is, can a hypocenter be located -- directly beneath your feet, no matter where you choose to stand in southern California (providing you stand there for a long enough period of time)? And if the answer to that is yes, then is there a smaller chance of it happening in one particular place, compared to another? Such variations in probability can make a big difference when it comes to determining the earthquake risk for a specific area of the state. Let's study the distribution of recorded earthquakes in southern California, to see if we can find and describe any such variations.
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Investigate the distribution of earthquakes in southern California. |
The activity above looked at the epicenters of all recorded earthquakes. It's possible that the picture we see might look very different if we limited the focus of our investigation. For example, most people consider only damaging earthquakes to be of any interest, yet in Activity #1, we made no distinction between the magnitudes of the events plotted. If our plot focused only on the larger events, would this make a difference? Is the distribution of the largest earthquakes in southern California somehow different?
Where Do Earthquakes Happen?