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by Glenn Blaylock on September 8th, 2004
First you need to understand that the different types of seasmic wave travel at different speeds. The p-wave travels faster than the s-wave. Therefore, p-wave will arrive at the seismogragh before the s-waves will. The further the seismograph is from the epicenter of an earthquake, the greater the difference in arrival times for these two waves. So, by measuring the difference in these arrival times, we can then calculate the distance to the epicenter. This does not, however, tell us the direction to the epicenter. So, to find the epicenter, we take three such distance calculation using seismograms in three different location on Earth. We then take a drafter's compass and a globe and draw circle around each of the seismic station using their calculated distances as the radius for each. The one point where all three of these circles cross each other is the location of the epicenter.
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Comments
You should toss "triangulate" in there somewhere. It would fit so well. Good answer.
by gondola on February 7th, 2006