The epicenter of a hypothetical earthquake is the point on the Earth's surface directly above the earthquake's hypocenter (or focus), which is the actual location within the Earth where the earthquake rupture begins

. To locate the epicenter, seismologists use data from at least three seismic stations. Each station records the arrival times of seismic waves (P-waves and S-waves), which allows calculation of the distance from that station to the epicenter. Circles are drawn on a map around each station with radii equal to these distances. The point where all three circles intersect is the epicenter

. For a specific hypothetical earthquake, the epicenter would be identified by this triangulation method based on seismic data. For example, in a classroom exercise, the epicenter was determined to lie in a particular region (such as Cebu or Isabela in the Philippines) by applying this method to data from three stations

. In summary:

• The epicenter is the surface location directly above the earthquake's origin underground (hypocenter)

• It is found by triangulating distances from at least three seismic stations using seismic wave arrival times

• The epicenter is often where the strongest shaking occurs, but not always, especially in very large earthquakes

Without specific seismic data, the epicenter of a hypothetical earthquake cannot be precisely named, but it is always located on the surface above the hypocenter where the earthquake rupture started.