Instructions:

To begin with, you should read Chapter 15 in Essentials of Geology, 10th ed. (if you haven't already done so). To supplement your background in seismology you may wish to surf through a seismic wave tutorial from the seismologists at Michigan Tech. (Get it? Surfing on a seismic wave... ha ha!)

Now that you're up to speed on earthquakes go to Virtual Courseware: Earthquake (produced by Cal State University and the National Science Foundation). Your assignment is to complete the modules "Travel Time" and "Epicenter & Magnitude" and the quiz that follows. When prompted for information about your name and university make sure you enter your full name, "Fort Hays State University", and the Class Code: 1516345. It is very important that you enter all of this information correctly or you will not receive full "credit" for completing the assignment. Finally, you should print out and hand in the final page that displays your Virtual Seismologist Certification and the final quiz results. The due date for this homework is Monday, February 22 in class. At that time you will hand in your one page printout of the Virtual Seismologist Certification and the final quiz results.

Homework #5 Screencast (~52M, 21 min.)
NOTE: Use the Class Code: 1516345 for the Spring 2010 Semester, not the old one narrated in the screencast.

VERY IMPORTANT: You need to enable pop-up windows from this site and/or turn off your pop-up blocker for the duration of the exercise.

You will need to be working on a Java-enabled web browser. For more info on browser requirements read the System Requirements. The computer labs on campus should all have a copy of Internet Explorer that is equipped to handle this. (Personally, I encourage those of you working on your own computers to download and use a modern, open-source browser such as Firefox. No need to encourage Bill Gates' monopolistic tendencies.) Further note: Sorry Mac users - my understanding is that this exercise does not work in the Safari browser.

Warning: The exercise took me about an hour to complete the first time I did it. You may get it done quicker, but I'd advise that you leave yourself at least two hours to work through it. You can save it midway through and pick up where you left off later. In addition, I've found that the Java applets that these modules use can be tempermental at times. Hopefully this will not be a problem for you, but be prepared for a little frustration. (You may find that you need to start over again.) Please e-mail me if you are experiencing significant technical difficulties.