Teachanle Units
In order for the volunteers to understand the basic seismology/physics behind each game, we also developed teaching materials for the citizen to learn through youtube video clip, or for the teachers to teach in the classrooms. The necessary knowledge behind each game is also provided by our designed curriculum prototypes. The materials are composed of six 30-min presentations and mainly for teachers. These six teachable units tied the knowledgeable stories closely with practice earthquake games. These units are namely 1. Orphan tsunami (story); 2. Finding earthquakes (game); 3. The 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami (story); 4. Sizing up earthquakes (game); 5. Forensic seismology (story); and 6. Making fault motions (game).
Unit 1
Orphan Tsunami
(story)
On January 26, 1700, a mysterious tsunami arrived at Japan along the coastline from north to south over 1000 km distance, leading to flooded fields, wrecked houses, fire, shipwreck,evacuation, fright. But no one felt earthquake.
This 1700 tsunami in Japan remained an orphan for ~300 years...
It was geologists who found evidences of "parent" earthquake in North America,an area never experienced magnitdue greater than 7.5 earthquake.
In this story, you will learn:
1. Why subduction zone earthquake is dangerous?
2. Under which condition the devastating tsunami came along, following the earthquake?
3.How do I find the evidences of the past earthquake and tsunami events?
All the teaching materials are from the book "The Orphan Tsunami of 1700" (geologist Brian Atwater and others, 2005; http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1707/).
For High school students
(北一女中 林郁梅、屏東高中張凱雯、
成德高中呂莛鈺、百齡高中張淵淑共同製作)
For Junior high school students
(桃園同德國中 邱宇平 錢宜新 老師 製作)
For Elementary school students
(板橋沙崙國小 蔣倩雯 王亭雅 老師 製作ppt,余俊樑 謝淑慧 董巧盈 老師協助試教活動)
Unit 2
Finding Earthquake
(game)
In a modern world, you can FIND earthquake by reading the seismograms.
Wanna be a seismologist? Try to pick the P and S- wave arrivals, then you are able to "locate" earthquake!
You will learn
1. What are P-, S-, and surface waves?
2.What do I pick P- and S-waves?
3. How do I use the time difference between P and S arrivals to determine earthquake location?
Link to this game (original version)
Unit 3
The 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami
(story)
In 2004, a M9.3 earthquake occurred in northern Sumatra, the biggest one since 1960 M9.5 Chile earthquake. The rupture propagated northward in a speed of ~ 2 km/s, up to a distance of 400 km within 200 seconds. On the surface, the strong shaking lasted 8 minutes. 15 minutes following the earthquake, tsunami hit Aceh and caused ~100,000 deaths, where people did not expect the disastrous tsunami coming. In fact, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did issue a warning in tsunami bulletin 15 mins after the earthquake. However it showed “No destructive tsunami threat exists” due to the underestimation of earthquake magnitude as M8. Therefore, quickly and precisely determine the earthquake magnitude is the key to detect tsunamis in advance and issue warnings to prevent loss of life.
Why so many people died in Aceh?
In this story, you will learn:
1. What is the precursory signals before a massive tsunami? 2. Amplitude of seismic signal correlates with earthquake magnitude 3. What information is needed for effective tsunami warning?
prototype
(Kate Chen)
Unit 4
Sizing Up Earthquake
(game)
Quickly and precisely determine the earthquake magnitude is the key to detect tsunamis in advance and issue warnings to prevent loss of life.
Wanna be a seismologist?
Try to pick the maximum amplitude, then you can you measure how big the earthquake is!
You will learn:
1. How to determine peak ground motion (PGA) by picking the maximum amplitude of the seismogram?
2. How to determine earthquake magnitude using the PGA?
3. How to find earthquake location using the PGA?
Link to this game (original version) -finding earthquake using PGA
Link to this game (original version)
-sizing up earthquake using PGA
prototype
(Kate Chen)
Unit 5
Forensic Seismology
(story)
Seismologist also acts as a forensic scientist, to tell us about the secret nuclear-test explosion?
Seismograph records anything that shakes the Earth - fault motion,volcanic activity,landslide, explosios, and so on. Seismologists are trained to distinguish between these ground shaking events. We call this "forensic seismology".
How do the local, regional earthquakes look like, and what's their difference from the unclear explosion?
In this story, you will learn:
1. The historical ground-shaking events that need seismologists to find the source.
2. Seismic discrimination between earthquake and explosion/inplosion.
prototype
(Kate Chen)
Unit 6
Making fault motion
(game)
One of the seismic signatures that clearly shows the distinction between earthquake and explosion is "focal mechanism". Focal mechanism tells what type of Earth movement produced the earthquake. They refer to the orientation of the fault plane that slipped and are also called fault-plane solutions.
By picking initial motion polarities of P wave first arrival (up or down),you are able to determine the fault type (normal, thrust, or strike slip) by your own!
You will learn:
1. How to determine the polarity of P waves
2. How does the polarity tell us the type of faulting
Link to this game (original version)