ABSTRACT

This Science project By Ryan

The purpose of this experiment was to find a relationship between sunspot activity and earthquake activity.

There are two hypotheses in this experiment. The first hypothesis is: if there is a relationship between sunspot activity and earthquake activity, then annual sunspot activity should be directly related to annual major earthquake activity. The second hypothesis is: if there is a relationship between sunspot activity and earthquake activity, then monthly sunspot activity should be directly related to monthly earthquake activity in California.

Data for average monthly and yearly sunspot activity was collected from the website of the National Geophysical Data Center located in Boulder, Colorado. Data for annual worldwide major earthquake activity and monthly earthquake activity for California was obtained from the website of the National Earthquake Information Center located in Denver, Colorado.

For the first hypothesis, there was no relationship between sunspot activity and earthquake activity. Annual sunspot activity was not directly related to annual major earthquake activity. For the second hypothesis, there also was no relationship between sunspot activity and earthquake activity. Monthly sunspot activity was not directly related to monthly earthquake activity in California. Based upon these results my conclusion is that this experiment was unable to find a relationship between sunspot activity and earthquake activity.

This project was awarded a Meritorious

Awards for science