Plate Tectonics

[Nichole34]

My daughter is doing her science fair project on what volcanoes tell us about plate tectonics. She is collecting data to map volcanic activity and relate it to the positions of the Earth's tectonic plates. Trying to figure out how many volcanic events should she collect data from? I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this!

[PharmaMan]

Hi Nichole,

I would aim to collect data from at least three volcanic events each from locations close to and farther away from the tectonic plates, so at least six in total. This way, when you go to plot your data, you can establish statistical significance for your data if there is a real difference in activity. As always, with increasing sample size, the error of the measurements will decrease and the more likely you will be able to establish a statistically significant difference. The question from here would be how do you plan to chart the data for this project (what will you use on your axes)? Let us know if you have further questions.

Best,
Pharma

[Nichole34]

Thank you for your assistance. The project she is doing is the Ring of Fire 1 experiment on this site. She has collected data on all volcanic activity in the world for the 2017 and 2018 to date. She is plotting the activity on a map to show that the activity is related to tectonic plates in that the majority of the activity happens at or near boundaries of the plates. She has to include the independent and dependent variable in her project. Any thoughts on this? I appreciate any feedback!! I am also unsure of how she will go about creating a graph on the data she collected. She has a great data chart she made with the event, latitude and longitude, elevation, volcanic formation and activity. Any ideas?

[PharmaMan]

In order to go ahead and make a chart for this using independent/dependent variables, she can plot out the activity and how far these events are from the borders of the tectonic plates. You could plot activity vs. distance from the tectonic plate boundaries (the former of which is dependent upon distance from the boundaries) and that should work. When doing this, you could use the shortest distance from each point of volcanic activity to the boundary so that your measurements are consistent.

Let us know if you have any further questions or need any more clarification.

Best,
Pharma