Hazard Pattern Data Practice Test

A state emergency office mapped hurricane landfalls along a coastline divided into four zones. The map shows many landfall points clustered in one zone and fewer in others. Based on the map pattern, where are hurricanes most common, showing they are clustered rather than random and that past patterns help assess risk?

A student claims: “Earthquakes are completely random, so any town is just as likely as any other to have many earthquakes.” Use the map of earthquake epicenters to identify the error. Which claim is incorrect because it treats hazards as random even though the data show clustering?