What earthquakes tell us about plate tectonics.

[deleted-131651]

I am thinking about doing a science fair project on this topic. Since I will have to come up with a testable question, be able to test my question and determine what the manipulated and responding variables will be, is this topic conducive to those procedures?

[klhjbh62604]

Hello Corbin:

Welcome to Science Buddies. I hope you will find this site very useful as you progress through your project. Below is a link to help you get started on your project. This will hopefully lead you in the right direction. You are on the right track.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your topic following your review of the above link please reply to this thread.

Thanks,
klhjbh62604

[SciB]

Hi Corbin,
Welcome to SciBuddies Ask an Expert forum. The project you are considering sounds very interesting but setting up a testable hypothesis is going to be a challenge. I did a search for earthquake models and plate tectonics and came up with a couple of sites that might give you some ideas:
http://www.all-science-fair-projects.co ... _tectonics
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/eqscience.php

As you know an earthquake happens when one tectonic plate slips along the fault line relative to another plate creating a shock wave that shakes the ground. I have been trying to come up with a physical model for creating such a slip and I envision using two large concrete paving blocks or better, two blocks of marble to serve as the plates. The tricky part would be positioning them so that a long edge of one would be resting against a long edge of the other in such a manner that if the friction between the two 'plates' was reduced, one would drop--creating an earthquake!

How would you reduce the friction between the two? You could try various liquids like water, a soap solution, a suspension of fine clay or sand. You could perhaps ask the question--if water gets between two plates at a fault line are they more likely to slip. You probably have heard of the new gas mining process of hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' where liquids under pressure are pumped down a well into rock to break it up and release the natural gas held within it. Is it possible that this fracking could cause a slippage along a fault line?

The force of an earthquake is measured by a device called a seismograph and I discovered that there's a free app for an Android phone that can turn it into a seismograph: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... raph&hl=en
You could set up your plates with the seismo-phone resting on one of them then try to induce an earthquake by injecting water or a slurry into the space between the two plates. When slippage occurred, the phone would record it and you could measure the force or speed of movement.

I hope I have given you some ideas to think about. Always make a project your own. Follow your own interests and then create a way to experimentally test your hypothesis. That's the way scientists work.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Best wishes,

SciB

[SciB]

Hi Corbin,
I see that you are doing the Science Buddies project to look at historical connections between plate tectonics and earthquakes. Please excuse the suggestions I made in my previous post as I had missed your title. If you have any questions about the Science Buddies project that you are working on, please let me know.

SciB