CE133-1

LECTURE 2
ELEMENTS OF SEISMOLOGY
PROPAGATION OF SEISMIC DISTURBANCES
ELEMENTS OF SEISMOLOGY
Theory of
Plate Tectonics
225 million years ago, all
major continents were one
giant Supercontinent called
Pangea.

Due to heat underneath the

continent, Pangea began to
rift and split apart.
The outermost part of the Earth's interior consists of two layers:

1. The Asthenosphere lies below the lithosphere, having

comparatively low viscosity, shear strength and can flow like liquid
on the geographical times scales.

2. The Lithosphere consists of the crust and the rigid uppermost part
of the mantle. It is broken up into tectonic plates which move in
relation to one another.
Plate Boundaries Movement
The lateral movement of the plates is mainly at the speeds of 50-100 mm
annually.

Earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain and oceanic trench formation normally

occur along these boundaries.
Plate Boundaries Movement
Subduction
this refers to the plunging of one plate (e.g., the Pacific) beneath another,
into the mantle, due to convergent motion

typically characterized by volcanism, as a portion of the plate (melting in the

lower mantle) remerges as volcanic lava
Four types of earthquakes that are
associated with subduction zones:
1. Shallow Crustal Events, in the accretionary wedge

2. Intraplate Events, due to plate bending

3. Large Intraplate Events, associated with slippage of one

plate past the other

4. Deep Benioff Zone Events

Subduction occurs along the following:

▪ west coast of South America at the boundary of the Nazca

and South American Plate,

▪ in Central America (boundary of the Cocos and Caribbean

plates),

▪ in Taiwan and Japan (boundary of the Philippines and

Eurasian plates),

▪ and in the North American Pacific Northwest (boundary of

the Juan de Fuca and North American Plates)
 Larger Plates: Smaller Plates:

1. Pacific Plates 1. Cocos Plate

2. North American 2. Nazca Plates

Plates
3. Caribbean Plate
3. Eurasian Plate
4. Gorda Plate
4. Antarctic Plate
5. African Plate
5. African Plate
The Cocos Plate is 2,000 km (1,400 miles) wide

The Pacific Plate is the largest plate at nearly 14,00 km (nearly 9,000 miles)
 Types of Earthquake Fault
1. Strike-slip Fault
A fault on which the two blocks slide past one another.

The San Andreas Fault is an example of right lateral fault.

2. Normal fault

A dip-slip fault in which the block above the fault has moved
downward relative to the block below.

This type of faulting occurs in response to extension and is often

observed in the Western United States Basin and Range Province
and along oceanic ridge system.
3. Thrust Fault
A dip-slip fault in which the upper block, above the fault plane, moves up
and over the lower block.

This type of faulting is common in areas of compression, such as regions

where one plate is being subducted under another as Japan.

Often called as Reverse Fault.

Types of Earthquake Fault
Types of Earthquake Fault
Generally, earthquakes will be concentrated in the vicinity of
faults.

Faults that are moving more rapidly than others will tend to
have a higher rates of seismicity,

Larger faults are more likely to produce a large events than

others.

However, earthquakes continue to occur on "unknown" or

"inactive" faults.
An important development has been the growing
recognition of blind thrust faults, which emerged as a
result of the several earthquakes in the 1980's, none
of which were accompanied by surface faulting (Stein
and Yeats 1989).
Blind Thrust Faults are particularly worrisome because they are hidden, are
associated with folded topography in general, including areas of lower and
infrequent seismicity, and therefore, result in a situation where the potential
for an earthquake exists in any area, even if there are few or no earthquakes in
the historic record.
PROPAGATION OF SEISMIC
DISTURBANCES
For most earthquakes, shaking is the dominant and most
widespread agent of damage.

Shaking near the actual earthquake rupture lasts only

during the time when the fault ruptures, a process that
takes second or at most a few minutes.

The seismic waves generated by the rupture propagate long

after the movement on the fault has stopped, however,
spanning the globe in about 20 minutes.
Typically, earthquake ground motions are powerful motions to
cause damage only in the near field (i.e., within a few tens of
kilometers from the causative fault) - in a few instances, long period
motions have caused significant damage at great distances, to
selected lightly damped structures.
The point within the Earth along the rupturing geological fault where
in earthquake originates is called the focus or hypocenter.

The point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus is called the
epicenter. The impact of the earthquake is usually strongest near the
epicenter.
Near-field means within one source dimension of the
epicenter.

• Source dimension refers to the width or length of

faulting.

Far-field means beyond near-field.

Meizoseismal means the area of strong shaking and

damage.
 Energy is radiated over a broad spectrum of frequencies
through the earth, in body waves and surface waves.

Body waves are two types:

1. P waves means transmitting energy via push-pull motion

2. S waves means transmitting energy via shear action at right

angles to the direction of motion

Surface waves are also of two types:

1. Love waves means horizontally oscillating (analogous to body s

waves)

2. Rayleigh waves means vertically oscillating.

P wave's motion is the same as that of sound wave in that, as it
spreads out, it alternatively pushes (compresses) and pulls (dilates)
the rock.

These P waves are able to travel through both solid rocks, such as
volcanic magma or the water of the oceans.
As an S waves propagates, it shears the rock sideways at right angles
to the direction of travel. If a liquid is sheared sideways or twisted, it
will not spring back, hence S waves cannot propagate in the liquid
parts of the earth, such as oceans and lakes
Love waves moves the ground from side to side in a horizontal plane
but at right angles to the direction of propagation. The horizontal
shaking of Love waves is damaging to structures.
Rayleigh waves moves similar to rolling ocean waves.
Surface waves travel more slowly than body waves

Love waves generally travel faster than Rayleigh waves.

Love waves (do not propagate through water) can affect

surface water only insofar as the sides of lakes and ocean
bays pushing water sideways,

whereas Rayleigh waves, because of the vertical component

of their motion can affect the bodies of water such as lakes.