Moving beyond S Minus P Earthquake Locations as “THE” Lab in Seismology Education

Abstract

Abstract Locating earthquakes is an important activity that underpins both seismological research and seismology education broadly. The seismology community tends to view the earthquake location process as a fundamental element of the field, and locating earthquakes is arguably the most common seismology education activity that middle school through introductory college students encounter. As a result, nearly all students’ first, and primary, exposure to the field of seismology consists of paper seismograms, drawing compasses, and 2D maps. This occurs in an era of computers available for every student, high-speed Internet, publicly available digital waveforms, complex algorithms to solve for earthquake locations, and the Next Generation Science Standards driving public education. This article explores the origins of the S minus P location method both as a scientific solution and as an educational activity in Earth Science classrooms, and reflects on technical, pedagogical, and curricular aspects of common implementations, underpinning beliefs, and their implications. From this reflection, three opportunities are identified for the seismology community to expand the seismological horizons of Earth Science students and instructors. These include working with instructors across a range of educational levels to correct the record on how earthquakes are located, to rethink both the content and pedagogy used both to teach about the process of earthquake locations, and to define several key ways the seismology community might lead geoscience educators to move beyond earthquake locations as “THE” seismology lab used with students.