The New Madrid Fault Zone. The fault is named after a little Missouri town that an 1811 earthquake on the fault destroyed. Ron has contracted your team to create a computer program to calculate the distance the epicenters of earthquakes are from New Madrid.
Earthquakes generate two types of motions or waves in the earth.
Scientists have determined the speeds of these waves. By using a seismograph the distance from the epicenter of an earthquake can be determined by comparing the arrival times of the two types of waves. This information tells you that the earthquake occurred somewhere on a circle centered at the location of the seismograph and with a radius of the calculated distance. When information from one seismograph is combined with information from others the epicenter of the circle can be calculated by determining the point where all of the circles intersect. To determine the point of intersection a minimum of three circles is required.