ESRI Live Earthquake Site Activity Sheet

ArcData Online allows you to browse a wide variety of geographic data to create maps of your areas of interest. Here you can access near-real-time seismic data to see maps of the latest earthquake locations. Earthquake maps are provided for both the world and the United States.

Getting started

Let's look at earthquakes on the world map first. Do you see regions with a great deal of earthquake activity? List those regions.







Now, using your world tectonic map, identify if these regions of heavy earthquake activity are near a plate boundary. If so, next to each region that you listed above, write down what type of plate boundary they are. Do you see any patterns?




If you scroll down from the map, you will find a list of the most recent earthquakes.Look at the Depth (km) column. See that the earthquakes are occurring at various depths beneath the Earth's surface. Do you remember what type of plate boundary produces the deepest earthquakes? Why is that so?





Let's look at earthquakes on the Untied States map now. Do you see regions with earthquake activity? List those regions. Hint: California is usually hit by a number of earthquakes daily. Most of these are very small, and may not show up on the map.




Look at your tectonic map. Are there any plate boundaries that would show up on that map (this includes Mexico, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and Sea of Cortez)?




Let's look at earthquakes occurring in California now. Click on the state of California. Do you see regions with earthquake activity? There are two or three very interesting things occurring in California that can cause earthquakes. The first is the San Andreas Fault which runs (in California) from the Salton Sea area, east of San Diego, to where it goes off-shore near Mendicino in Northern California.The second area that is a big producer of numerous small magnitude earthquakes is the Mammath Lakes region. This is due to the presence of a body of magma beneath the surface there. The final area that is barely in California is the Basin and Range region. This is where extension of the continental crust is occurring. Eventually, in many millions of years, the crust may be thinned enough that the North American Continent will rip apart much like South America and Africa. Write down the location, magnitude and depth of earthquakes in California.