Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

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?

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

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

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