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(A Very Short Overview) : Seismology
(A Very Short Overview) : Seismology
‘PHYSICAL’ SEISMOLOGY
Study of the properties of the Earth’s interior
Study of physical characteristics of seismic sources
EXPLORATIONAL SEISMOLOGY (Applied seismic methods)...
Seismology
• Multidisciplinary science, links physics with other geosciences
(geology, geography)
• International science
• Large span of amplitudes
( ~ 10-9 – 101 m)
• Very large span of wave
periods ( ~ 10-3 – 104 s)
• Very young science
(second half of the
19th century)
Myths and legends
Earthquakes occur:
• When one of the eight elephants that carry the Earth gets
tired (Hindu)
Crust
Mantle
Core
The Shallowest Layer
of the Earth: the Crust
The crust is the most The boundary between the
heterogeneous layer in the crust and the mantle is mostly
Earth chemical. The crust and
The crust is on average 33 km mantle have different
thick for continents and 10 km compositions.
thick beneath oceans; however
it varies from just a few km to This boundary is
over 70 km globally. referred to as the
Mohorovičić
discontinuity
or “Moho”.
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/research/structure/CrustalStructure/index.html
Middle Earth: The Mantle
Earth’s mantle exists from the
bottom of the crust to a depth of
2891 km (radius of 3480 km) –
Gutenberg discontinuity
It is further subdivided into:
The uppermost mantle
(crust to 400 km depth)
The transition zone Beno Gutenberg
(400 – 700 km depth)
The mid-mantle
(700 to ~2650 km depth)
The lowermost mantle
(~2650 – 2891 km depth)
The uppermost mantle is
composed dominantly of olivine;
lesser components include
pyroxene, enstatite, and garnet
Earth’s Core
Owing to the great pressure The viscosity of the outer core
inside the Earth the Earth’s is similar to that of water, it
core is actually freezing as the flows kilometers per year and
Earth gradually cools. creates the Earth’s magnetic
field.
The boundary between the
liquid outer core and the solid The outer core is the most
inner core occurs at a radius of homogeneous part of the Earth
about 1220 km – Lehman
discontinuity, after Inge The outer core is mostly an
Lehman from Denmark. alloy of iron and nickel in liquid
form.
The boundary between the
mantle and outer core is sharp. As the core freezes latent heat
is released; this heat causes
The change in density across the outer core to convect and
the core-mantle boundary is so generates a magnetic field.
greater than that at the Earth’s
surface!
Mechanical
Layers:
1. Lithosphere
2. Asthenosphere
3. Mesosphere
Litosphere
The lithosphere is the
uppermost 50-100 km
of the Earth.
Convection in the
astenosphere
enables tectonic
processes –
PLATE
TECTONICS
Plate tectonics
PLATE TECTONICS theory is very young
(1960-ies)
It provides answers to the most fundamental
questions in seismology:
Why earthquakes occur?
Why are earthquake epicenters not
uniformly distributed around the globe?
At what depths are their foci?
One year of seismicity
MAJOR TECTONIC PLATES EARTHQUAKE EPICENTRES
Transversal waves:
• The particles oscillate in the direction perpendicular to
the spreading direction.
• Shear waves – they do not propagate through solids
(e.g. through the outer core).
• S-waves
Elastic waves – Body waves
P-waves:
S-waves:
Elastic waves – Surface
waves
P S surface waves
Up-Down
N-S
E-W
Seismographs
Seismographs are devices that
record ground motion during
earthquakes.
The first seismographs were
constructed at the very end of
the 19th century in Italy and
Germany.
Seismographs
earthquake epicentre is
three.
Observational Seismology
Locating Earthquakes
To locate an earthquake
we need precise readings
of the times when P- and
S-waves arrive at a
number of seismic
stations.
Accurate absolute timing
(with a precission of 0.01
s) is essential in
seismology!
Observational Seismology
Locating Earthquakes
Another example of
picking arrival times
Observational Seismology
Locating Earthquakes
DO
NOT CONFUSE INTENSITY AND
MAGNITUDE!
Just
approximately, epicentral
intensity is: Io = M + 2
One
earthquake has just one
magnitude, but many intensities!
Engineering Seismology
Complete and
homogeneous earthquake
catalogues are of
paramount importance in
seismic hazard studies.
Probability of exceeding
intensity VII °MSK in any
50 years (Zagreb area)
This is one of the basic equations of Here we assumed the anisotropic body,
theoretical seismology which links so that of all elastic constants cijkl only
forces (body-forces and forces two remain and are denoted as λ and μ.
originating from stresses within the They are called Lamé’s constants.
body) with measurable displacements.
This is rather complicated 3-D partial
differential equation describing
displacements within the elastic body.
Some basic theoretical
background
The Navier equation is usually solved In these expressions and are
using the Helmholtz’s theorem, which velocities of longitudinal and
expresses any vector field (in our transversal waves. We see that they
case displacement, u) as: only depend on the properties of
material through which they propagate.
u
where and are called scalar and
vector potentials. They may be shown The few equations presented are the
to be directly linked with longitudinal most basic ones. Combined with the
and transversal waves, respectively, general principles (like conservation
obeying wave equations: of energy), laws of physics (e.g.
Snell’s law) and with boundary
1 2 conditions that nature imposes (e.g.
2 ,
2
vanishing of stresses on free surface)
they are fundamental building stones
1
2 2 , for all problems in theoretical
seismology.
Highly recomended
reading
Aki, K. & Richards, P. G. (2002): Quantitative Seismology – 2nd Edition,
University Science Books, Sausalito, CA.
Lay, T. and Wallace, T. C. (1995): Modern Global Seismology, Academic
press, San Diego.
Udias, A. (1999): Principles of Seismology, Cambridge Univesity Press,
Cambridge.
Shearer, P. M. (1999): Introduction to Seismology, Cambridge Univesity
Press, Cambridge.
Ben Menahem, A. and Singh, S. J. (1980): Seismic Waves and Sources,
Springer-Verlag, New York.
Cox, A. and Hart, R.B. (1986): Plate Tectonics - How it Works, Palo Alto,
California, Blackwell Scientific Publications, 392 p.
Used sources
billharlan.com/pub/ tomo/tomoin.gif
www.earth.ox.ac.uk/research/ seismology.htm
rayfract.com
www.exploratorium.edu/ls/ pathfinders/earthquakes/
www.okgeosurvey1.gov/level2/ok.grams/tide.1994MAY24.JUN01/tide.1994MAY24.JUN01.html
www.fcs-net.com/biddled/myths_legend.htm
www.eas.slu.edu/People/KKoper/EASA-193/ 2002/Lecture_01/lecture_01.ppt
www.uic.edu/classes/geol/eaes102/Lecture%2021-22.ppt
earthquake.usgs.gov/image_glossary/ crust.html
www.geneseo.edu/~brennan/ gsci345/crustalT.jpg
www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/ biomems/bgutenberg.html
paos.colorado.edu/~toohey/fig_70.jpg
www.geo.uni-bremen.de/FB5/Ozeankruste/ subduction.jpg
www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/earthquakescience/fault_types.html
www.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/Institute/Geophysik/obs_seis.htm
www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/
www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~gel161/sp98_burgmann/earthquake1.html
seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/seismic-waves.html
geology.asu.edu/research/ deep_earth/de3a.jpg
www.seismo.com/msop/msop79/rec/fig_1.1.2a.gif
earthquake.usgs.gov/
www.iris.washington.edu/pub/userdata/default_maps/yearly.gif
www.ictp.trieste.it/sand/ Thessaloniki/Fig-8b.jpg