Earthquakes

Earthquakes
Earthquakes are vibrations within the
Earth produced by the rapid release of
energy within the lithosphere
Earthquakes occur with slippage along
faults, breaks in the lithosphere in
which movement occurs
Directly caused by tectonic plates
interacting

Earthquakes and Plate

Boundaries
Earthquakes occur mostly along and
near plate boundaries

Earthquakes
The focus (also
hypocenter) is the point
within the Earth that an
earthquake occurs
The epicenter is the
location on the surface
above the focus

Earthquakes
Foreshocks are small earthquakes that
can occur before major earthquakes
Earthquakes also produce aftershocks,
earthquakes that occur shortly after
large earthquakes

Earthquakes in Action
Video on an earthquake opening and
closing during the 2011 Thoku
Earthquake
Video of convenience store being
shaken during the 2012 Costa Rica
Earthquake

Virginian Earthquakes
1897 Giles County Quake
5.8 on the Moment
Magnitude scale
Strongly felt in Pearisburg:
walls of old brick houses were
cracked and many chimneys
were thrown down or badly
damaged.

Virginian Earthquakes
2011 Louisa County Quake

5.8 on the Moment Magnitude

scale
Occurred at a depth of only 4
miles
Felt from Georgia to Ontario,
Canada
Caused several reactors in the
North Anna Nuclear power plat
to automatically shut down:
only mild cosmetic damage

Seismic Waves
Earthquakes release energy in the form
of seismic waves, and allow scientists to
discover the properties of Earths interior.
Earthquakes produce two main seismic
waves:
S-waves
P-waves

Seismic Waves
P-Waves (compresses and
expands the earth as the wave
passes)
S-Waves (moves particles up
and down as the wave moves)
P waves and S waves can be
used to locate earthquake
epicenters

Earthquake Measurement
Seismic waves can be
sensed and recorded
by instruments called
seismographs
In Greek:
Seismos means
shake
Graph means
write

Seismographs
2010 Chile Earthquake
Heard by seismographs in London
S-Wave

P-Wave

Seismographs and Seismic

Waves
Shaking of S and P waves can be seen on
drawings produced by seismometers called
seismograms
Because P waves are faster than S waves, they
always arrive ahead of S waves

Measuring Earthquakes
Richter Scale
Based on the amplitude of seismic waves
recorded by a seismograph

Moment Magnitude
Derived from how much a fault moves
during an earthquake

Both estimate earthquake magnitude

and energy

Seismographs of 2011 Virginia

Earthquake

Locating Earthquakes
The arrival times of seismic
waves is the time for S and P
waves from earthquakes to
be detected on seismographs
The longer seismic waves
take to travel from an
earthquake to a
seismograph, the further
apart the two are

Locating Earthquakes
Arrival times can approximate how far away
an earthquake was from the seismograph
With distances known from several
seismographs, earthquakes can be located

Locating Earthquakes
The earthquake distance from
Station A is the radius of a
drawn circle
The station B distance is
plotted as the radius in
another circle
Station C is plotted in a circle
Where the circles intersect,
the earthquake likely occurred

Seismic Wave Propagation

P waves move through the mantle and the
core, but changes speed and direction
when the wave moves between the layers
S waves move through the mantle, but not
through the liquid outer core

Seismic Wave Propagation

Scientists have been able to tell the
properties of Earths layers, such as
solid or liquid, through how the waves
interact with each layer

1960 Chilean Earthquake

9.5 on the Moment Magnitude scale:
most powerful on record
Created a tsunami the crossed the
entire Pacific Ocean
Hawaii after the tsunami struck

2015 Nepal Earthquake

7.8 on the Moment Magnitude scale
Occurred along a thrust fault at a depth
of 5.1 miles
Killed nearly 9,000 people, left millions
homeless