Fort Collins and Earthquakes

EARTHQUAKES IN FORT COLLINS!? www.cnr.colostate.edu/avprojects/98proj/earthq_fc/web_docs/index.html GIS Project for Dunn Elementary School Poudre School District Second Grade, Ms. Deborah Taylor Authors: Nicole Bolay, Julie Henry, David Reese Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523

The purpose of this project is to introduce students to earthquakes. Through a series of maps within ArcView and the accompanying text provided on this page, students will be able to interactively learn about earthquakes. The project is designed to help students understand where and why earthquakes occur and why they do not occur in Fort Collins to any significant degree. It does so by answering the question: Are there earthquakes in Fort Collins?

In order to answer this question students will be asked to explore:

1. What are earthquakes?

2. Where do earthquakes occur?

Objectives

After completing this project, students should be able to answer the following questions:

Where is Fort Collins? Where is Dunn Elementary?
Where is Colorado? What are some important geographical features?
Where is the United States of America within North America?
What are earthquakes?
Where do earthquakes occur and why?
What are the relationships between people and earthquakes?
How is Fort Collins related to where earthquakes occur?

Requirements (for instructor)

To complete this project you will need the following:

ESRI's ArcView software
downloaded version of GIS project (Earthquakes.apr located at )
Both ArcView and this web page need to be open simultaneously so that moving from one to the other is simple.

*HINT* If you have an InFocus machine, it may be easier to display these instructions while the students only have ArcView on their machines.

Directions

1. To start, open up ArcView if you have not already done so.

2. Open the project entitled Earthquakes.apr by clicking on File and Open Project.

3. Before you begin, make sure "Views" is highlighted (see below).

4. Click on the first view in ArcView called 1Fort Collins then "Open".

Answer the following questions before moving on:
            1. On the left side of the View is the legend for the map of Fort Collins. Find where it tells you the color of Elementary schools.
            2. Place your finger on Dunn Elementary School. Is the school east or west of Horsetooth Reservoir? East or west of I-25?
            3. In the legend, find what type of school is shown by the green areas. Can you guess what the large green block is south of Dunn Elementary?
            4. In which state is Fort Collins located?
            5. Close view one (double-click in upper left corner of view)
            6. Proceed to view 2Colorado

5. Click on the next view called 2Colorado then "Open".

Answer the following question before moving on:
            1. Can you find Fort Collins on this map of Colorado?
            2. Locate the highway where many Colorado cities are located.
            3. With your finger, locate the capitol of Colorado.
            4. Can you name the two states that are north of Colorado?
            5. Close view 2Colorado (double-click in upper left corner of view)
            6. Proceed to view 3United States of America

6. Click on the next view called 3United States of America then "Open".

Answer the following questions before moving on:
            1. With your finger, locate Colorado and then Fort Collins.
            2. Is Colorado in the Eastern or Western United States?
            3. Locate California. Is California on the coast or in the middle of the United States?
            4. Close view 3United States of America (double-click in upper left corner of view)
            5. Proceed to view 4North American Earthquakes.

7. Click on the next view called 4North American Earthquakes then "Open".

Before answering any questions about this view, please read the following:

The outside of the earth is made up of many "plates" or sections that connect at boundaries. Scientists refer to these as plate boundaries. Below is a picture of the world with all of the plate boundaries.

source: USGS

The large black lines represent the plate boundaries. Each plate is a moving piece of earth, like puzzle pieces. The United States of America is located on the North American Plate. Locate this plate using your finger. To find out why these boundaries are so important, answer the following questions. (For more information on the history of the study of plate boundaries, called plate tectonics, go to http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html.)

            1. Use view 4North American Earthquakes. The black lines in this view represent plate boundaries. Find each plate in the view and locate them in the picture above.
            2. What two countries border the United States?
            3. Now for the fun part. In the legend menu (left of the view), click on the box next to the word earthquakes. What happened?
            4. Can you tell where most of the earthquakes happen? Try to figure out why.
            5. Is Colorado close to one of these plate boundaries?
            6. Close view 4North American Earthquakes (double-click in upper left corner of view)
            7. Proceed to view 5Western US Earthquakes.

8. Click on the next view called 5Western US Earthquakes then "Open".

You are now zoomed in on the previous view. The large red dots are five major earthquakes. To view pictures of these earthquakes, follow these directions.
a. Locate the buttons above the view screen. One of these buttons is called a "hot link" and looks like

        b. Click once on this button and move the cursor into the view screen. You should see a pointer that looks like a lightning bolt.
        c. With the bottom point of the lightning bolt, click in the center of a red dot. What happens? (If you hear a beep, try again)
        d. View each picture and take notice of the amount damage the earthquake caused.

Answer the following questions:
            1. What feature is located near the earthquakes?
            2. Is Colorado located near any of these earthquakes?
            3. Which earthquake has least damage? (Click on the dots if you don't remember.) This earthquake is located the farthest away from a major city.
            4. Which earthquakes have the most damage? Why?
            5. Close view 5Western US Earthquakes (double-click in upper left corner of view)
            6. Proceed.

9. Now, let us answer the question, What are the chances an earthquake can happen in Fort Collins?

1. Open the views in reverse order (starting with view 4North American Earthquakes). In each view, point to Colorado and Fort Collins and see how close they are to a plate boundary. Why would this be important?
2. Do you think an earthquake will occur in Fort Collins? Why or why not?
3. If you answered yes to question 2, what would happen to Fort Collins if an earthquake occured based on the pictures you saw?

Congratulations! You have completed this project on Earthquakes and Fort Collins!

For instructor only:

To view answers to the project questions, click here.
To view GIS concepts used, metadata, and project implementation, click here.