Scientists use seismographs and intersecting circles to determine the location of what?
volcano
tsunami
hurricane
earthquake epicenter
Next, the seismologists try to determine the location of the earthquake epicenter. To do this they need the distances to the epicenter from at least three seismographs. Let’s say that they know that an earthquake’s epicenter is 50 kilometers from Kansas City. They draw a circle with a 50 km radius around that seismic station. They do this twice more around two different seismic stations. The three circles intersect at a single point. This is the earthquake’s epicenter ( Figure below ).