Wellington earthquakes

Wellington earthquakes

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is involves reading an article and answering questions about earthquakes. 
Read the article about earthquakes.
 

Gentle quake the latest in swarm

The latest in a swarm of earthquakes gave Wellingtonians a gentle shake after lunch yesterday. The earthquake, measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale, was centred near The Brothers islands 30 km northwest of Wellington at 1.53 p.m., and was felt mainly in the greater Wellington region.

An Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences technical officer said the latest quake was part of the swarm first noticed by the public last week. He said there had been no reports of damage and no reports of the earthquake being felt further afield than Wellington.

Reproduced by courtesy of The Evening Post, Wellington

Question 2Change answer

a) Explain what is meant by a 'swarm' of earthquakes. 

Question 2Change answer

b)  The Richter scale reading for the Wellington earthquake was 4.2.
     What aspect of the earthquake does the Richter scale measure? 

Question Change answer

c)  On the map below, place an 'X' to mark the location of the epicentre of the earthquake reported in the newspaper article.
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online.
Copyright: 
Copyright: permission granted for extract, Evening post. 
Level:
5
Curriculum info: 
Science, Knowledge, Planet Earth
Keywords: 
Earth systems, earthquakes, article, news articles
Description of task: 
Students are provided with a newspaper article titled 'Gentle quake the latest in swarm' and use this to answer three questions.
Curriculum Links: 
 
 
Answers/responses: 
 

Y10 (04/1998)
a) A series of earthquakes. very easy
b) Ground motion/energy. very difficult
c) Direction: NW (within lines)
Distance @ 1.2 cm (within circles)
 moderate
moderate