First, print out this page, or copy the graph above by hand.
Now, refer to the table in Exercise 2. Assign each earthquake a letter, starting with "A" for the earliest entry (the quake which occurred before 529 A.D.), and going sequentially up to "K" for the earthquake of January 9, 1857. On the graph, draw two lines across only the column designated for a particular earthquake: one for the earliest possible date of the earthquake, and a second to mark the latest possible date. This will form a single, small rectangle in each column. There will of course, be three exceptions: the first earthquake, "A", has no starting date, so simply draw a line along the bottom axis of the graph to mark its earliest possible date. The last two earthquakes, "J" and "K" (in 1812 and 1857), have exact dates, so simply draw one bold line for each of these events. Use the horizontal guide lines to help you mark the correct dates, but do not worry about being perfectly accurate.
When you have finished drawing these lines, then fill in, in each column, the rectangle bracketed by the lines. This will show the span of time during which each earthquake could have occurred.
Once you have completed your graph, you may check it against this example. The completed graph shown there is color-coded to make the point of this exercise more obvious.
