Story Outline

Earthquake Science From a news story by CNN San Francisco Reporter Rusty Dornin January 2003

I. The Seattle Kingdome is destroyed on March 26, 2000.

A. Scientists place seismic recorders in the ground around Seattle to study what happens when the King Dome falls.
B. Explosives are used to bring down the huge structure.
C. The blast is almost as strong as an earthquake.
D. Scientists study the shock waves from the blast to predict what a real earthquake would do.

II. The Nisqually earthquake hits.

A. It is a deep earthquake.
B. It measures 6.8 on the Richter scale.
C. Scientists predict there will be very few aftershocks, and there are only 4.
D. A shallow earthquake in California in 1989 had more than 120 aftershocks.

III. Scientists want to study the Juan de Fuca plate.

A. Huge plates lie deep within the Earth.
B. The Juan de Fuca plate is 37 miles below the Earth’s surface.
C. Plates usually move very slowly, but sometimes shift and cause earthquakes.
D. Scientists plan to place explosives in the ground around Seattle and study the shock waves that bounce back from the Juan de Fuca plate.
E. This will help them predict what kind of damage future earthquakes might cause.

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