Thursday, March 29, 2012

Chapter 5 and 6 Essays

I forgot to post my essay for chapter 5, so I thought I would combine the two into one post and save some time.


Chapter 5
                Using the information gathered with the three maps (IDW, Kriging, and Spline), I have determined that the highest values of fecal coliform levels reside in the northern part of the study area.  The IDW and spline maps show that the levels have the highest concentration in the very northernmost tip, whilst the kriging map shows that they are most prominent in the northwest portion of the map.  By examining all three and comparing them, I was able to average out the three sets of data and come to my conclusion that the fecal coliform levels are mostly present in the northern area of the map, mainly in the northernmost area, with a smaller concentration in the middle of the map.

Chapter 6
                In this assignment, we had to take earthquake data from the USGS and create points on our map, by taking the data from an Excel file we were to create.  Using this data, I was able to find out that the west coast of the United States had approximately 4960 earthquakes, and the east coast had approximately 529, from the period of January 1st 2010 to February 1st 2012.  I was able to create many charts and maps, detailing both depth and magnitude (these will be posted to my blog and to the EMU website.  However, using the information, I was able to find that the center of the earthquakes (the point in the middle of each set of data) was in the northeast portion of Nevada.
                Using a normal QQ Plot, I was able to find that the magnitude of these earthquakes was fairly consistent and “normal” in a mathematical sense.  Most points were able to be plotted normally along a straight line, with very little variance at the ends (there were a few points that were at the extremes of each end).  The most powerful was recorded at a magnitude of 18, and appeared to be near Virginia.  This occurred on 4/24/2011.  In the end, I was very surprised by how many earthquakes were on the east coast, and that the most powerful one was as well.

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