Instructor’s Manual Chapter 7

Earth, 2e Earthquakes and the Earth’s Structure

Solution Manual for EARTH 2 2nd Edition by Hendrix

and Thompson ISBN 1285442261 9781285442266
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Solution manual: https://testbankpack.com/p/solution-manual-for-earth-2-2nd-
edition-by-hendrix-and-thompson-isbn-1285442261-9781285442266/
CHAPTER 7
Earthquakes and the Earth’s Structure

Resource Integration Guide

 Chapter Outline
 Chapter Summary
 Lecture Suggestions
 Key Terms
 Web Links

Chapter Outline
7.1 Anatomy of an Earthquake
7.2 Earthquake Waves
7.2a Body Waves
7.2b Surface Waves
7.2c Measurement of Seismic Waves
7.2d Measurement of Earthquake Strength
7.2e Locating the Source of an Earthquake
7.3 Earthquakes and Tectonic Plate Boundaries
7.3a Earthquakes at a Transform Plate Boundary: The San Andreas Fault Zone
7.3b Earthquakes at Convergent Plate Boundaries
7.3c Earthquakes at Divergent Plate Boundaries
7.3d Earthquakes in Plate Interiors
7.4 Earthquake Damage and Hazard Mitigation
7.4a How Rock and Soil Influence Earthquake Damage
7.4b Construction Design and Earthquake Damage
7.4c Tsunamis
7.5 Earthquake Prediction
7.5a Long-Term Prediction
7.5b Short-Term Prediction
7.6 Studying the Earth’s Interior
7.6a Discovery of the Crust-Mantle Boundary
7.6b The Structure of the Mantle
7.6c Discovery of the Core
7.6d Density Measurements
7.7 Earth’s Magnetism
Instructor’s Manual Chapter 7
Earth, 2e Earthquakes and the Earth’s Structure

Chapter Summary
When stress is applied to rocks, they usually respond by deforming elastically, returning to
their previous shape when the force is removed. However, after reaching its elastic limit, a rock
will either fracture or continue to deform and keep its new shape. This process is called plastic
deformation. At plate boundaries, friction holds the moving tectonic plates locked and stationary.
Energy slowly accumulates in rocks. When the strain reaches a critical value, the stored energy is
often released abruptly during an earthquake, a sudden motion or trembling of Earth.
A fault created by an earthquake remains as a weakness and is likely to be reactivated during
another earthquake.

Earthquakes produce seismic waves, which travel through rock and transmit the energy
released by the earthquake. Seismology is the study of earthquakes and the nature of Earth’s
interior based on evidence from seismic waves. An earthquake starts at the initial point of rupture,
called the focus. The location on Earth’s surface directly above the focus is the epicenter. Seismic
waves include two types of body waves, which travel through the interior of Earth, and two types
of surface waves, which radiate from the epicenter and travel on Earth’s surface. P waves are
body waves that travel faster than other seismic waves (at speeds between 4 and 7 kilometers per
second) through compression and expansion of rock in the direction of wave propagation. S
waves are body waves that travel slower than P waves (at 3 to 4 kilometers per second) with a
shearing motion perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation. While P waves travel
through all media, S waves move only through solids. Surface waves travel more slowly than
either type of body wave, but cause more damage. Seismic waves are recorded on a seismograph;
a record of earth vibration is called a seismogram. The Mercalli scale was an early scale to
measure the strength of an earthquake by recording the extent of damage. The Richter scale
expresses earthquake magnitudes calculated from the highest body wave amplitude on a
standardized seismograph. Modern geologists use the moment magnitude scale to record the
energy released during an earthquake, based on the amount of movement and the fault surface
area. The distance from a seismic station to an earthquake is calculated by constructing a time-
travel curve, which calibrates the difference in arrival times between S and P waves. The
epicenter can be located by measuring the distance from three or more seismic stations.

Earthquakes are common at all three types of plate boundaries. The San Andreas Fault zone
is an example of a strike-slip fault (a vertical fault on which the rocks on opposite sides move
horizontally) along a transform plate boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American
plate. Along some portions of the fault zone, rocks slip past one another in a continuous, slow
movement called fault creep. In other regions, plates pass one another in a series of small hops, or
friction prevents slippage until elastic deformation builds and is eventually released in a large
earthquake. Benioff zone earthquakes occur at subduction zones along the upper portion of the
sinking plate when it slips suddenly. When two converging plates both carry continents, the crust
buckles up, generating frequent earthquakes. At divergent plate boundaries, shallow earthquakes
occur as blocks of lithosphere along the fault drop downward. Earthquakes can also occur in plate
interiors along old faults.

Earthquake damage is influenced by rock and soil type, construction design, and the
likelihood of fires or landslides. Common effects of earthquakes are landslides caused by
liquefaction, when soil loses its shear strength and becomes fluid. When an earthquake occurs
beneath the sea, it can produce a very destructive wave called tsunami.

Long-term earthquake prediction relies on the observation that most earthquakes occur on
preexisting faults at tectonic plate boundaries. Short-term prediction is based on occurrences of
Instructor’s Manual Chapter 7
Earth, 2e Earthquakes and the Earth’s Structure

foreshocks (small earthquakes preceding a large quake), release of radon gas, and changes in the
land surface, the water table, and electrical conductivity.

Earth’s internal structure and properties are known from studies of earthquake wave
velocities and refraction and reflection of seismic waves as they pass through Earth. The crust–
mantle boundary was identified through the analysis of earthquake wave arrival times from many
different seismographs and named Mohorovocic discontinuity, or Moho, after its discoverer.
It lies at a depth ranging from 4 to 70 kilometers. Oceanic crust is thinner than continental crust,
and continental crust is thicker under mountain ranges than it is under plains. The mantle is
almost 2,900 kilometers thick and composes about 80 percent of Earth’s volume. The upper
portion of the mantle is part of the hard and rigid lithosphere. Beneath the lithosphere, the plastic
and partially melted asthenosphere slows down seismic waves. At the 660-kilometer
discontinuity, the mineral composition of the mantle changes, leading to a marked velocity
increase in seismic waves. Wave and density studies show that the outer core is liquid iron and
nickel and the inner core is solid iron and nickel.

Earth possesses a magnetic field. Since Earth’s interior is too hot for a permanent magnet to
exist, Earth’s magnetic field is probably electromagnetic in origin, generated by flowing metal in
the outer core.

Lecture Suggestions
 Demonstrate the different possible responses to stress with a rubber band (deforms first
elastically, then breaks after limit is reached) and play dough (deforms plastically).
 Using the graph in Figure 7.12 from the book, determine how far away from an
earthquake you would be if the first P wave arrived 10 minutes before the first S wave.
 Bring in a Slinky® and a rope, and have students try to produce P and S waves.
 Simulate an earthquake at the http://www.sciencecourseware.org/GLOL/ website, and
calculate the location of the epicenter.
 Look at the Mercalli scale (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/mercalli.php) with
your students, and discuss possible reasons why this scale was later replaced.

Key Terms
plastic deformation seismogram Sumatra-Andaman
earthquake Mercalli scale earthquake
seismic wave Richter scale Tohoku earthquake
seismology moment magnitude foreshocks
focus time-travel curve liquefaction
epicenter San Andreas Fault zone tsunami
body waves strike-slip fault Mohorovicic discontinuity
surface waves fault creep 660-kilometer
P waves Benioff zone discontinuity
S waves liquefaction
seismograph tsunami

Web Links
Instructor’s Manual Chapter 7
Earth, 2e Earthquakes and the Earth’s Structure

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/
Earthquake information by state from the United States Geological Survey.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/
General information about earthquakes from the United States Geological Survey.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/mercalli.php
The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale explained at the United States Geological Survey website.

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/earthint.htm
Information on Earth’s layers.

http://www.seismo.unr.edu/htdocs/abouteq.html
The seismological laboratory at the University of Nevada, including links to general information
about earthquakes and to a series of images.