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Indian Ocean Tsunami
Indian Ocean Tsunami
AND TSUNAMI
BASIC CONCEPTS: RIGID PLATES
Earth's outer shell made up of ~15 major rigid plates ~ 100 km thick
Plates are rigid in the sense that little (ideally no) deformation occurs
within them,
Northward motion of
India deforms all of
the region
Earthquakes occur
at plate interface
along the Sumatra
arc (Sunda trench)
These are
spectacular &
destructive results of
many years of
accumulated motion
INTERSEISMIC:
EARTHQUAKE
(COSEISMIC):
ERI
C. Ji
Seismogram analysis shows Aftershocks show slip
most slip in southern 400 km extended almost 1200 km
Earthquakes rupture a patch
along fault's surface.
Generally speaking, the
larger the rupture patch, the
larger the earthquake
magnitude.
Initial estimates from the
aftershock distribution show
the magnitude 9.3 Sumatra-
Andaman Islands Earthquake
ruptured a patch of fault
roughly the size of California
For comparison, a magnitude
5 earthquake would rupture
a patch roughly the size of
New York City's Central Park.
NORMAL MODES
(ULTRA-LONG
PERIOD WAVES)
SHOW SEISMIC
MOMENT 3 TIMES
THAT INFERRED
FROM SURFACE
WAVES
IMPLIES SLIP ON
AREA 3 TIMES
LARGER
Entire 1200-km
long aftershock
zone likely slipped
0S2 YIELDS SEISMIC
MOMENT Mo =
1 x 1030 dyn-cm
0.2 g
0.2 g
Damage
onset for
modern
buildings
Coburn &
“Earthquakes don't kill people; buildings kill people." Spence 1992
TSUNAMI - water wave generated by earthquake
NY Times
TSUNAMI GENERATED ALONG FAULT, WHERE SEA
FLOOR DISPLACED, AND SPREADS OUTWARD
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
http://staff.aist.go.jp/kenji.satake/animation.gif
TSUNAMI SPEED IN
DEEP WATER of
depth d
c = (gd)1/2
g = 9.8 m/s2 d = 4000 m
c = 200 m/s = 720 km/hr QuickTime™ and a
GIF decompressor
= 450 m/hr are needed to see this picture.
Tsunami generated
along fault, where sea
floor displaced, and
spreads outward
http://staff.aist.go.jp/kenji.satake/animation.gif
WAVE PATH GIVEN BY SNELL’S LAW
Going from material with speed v1 to speed v2
Angle of incidence I changes by
sin i1 / v1 = sin i2 / v2
SLOW
FAST
In one hypothesis, all earthquakes start off as tiny earthquakes, which happen
frequently, but only a few cascade via random failure process into large
earthquakes
If so, there is nothing special about those tiny earthquakes that happen to
grow into large ones, the interval between large earthquakes is highly variable
and no observable precursors should occur before them. Thus earthquake
prediction is either impossible or nearly so.
USGS
1989
Loma Prieta
earthquake
BUT PLATE TECTONICS
IS ALSO CRUCIAL FOR
HUMAN LIFE