University 

of Prince Mugrin
College of Engineering
Geo 144 Geology
Lecture No. 15

Earthquakes
Instructor: Hassan A. Abas, Ph.D., P.E.
Email: H.Abbas@upm.edu.sa
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What is an Earthquake?
 An earthquake is ground shaking caused by the sudden and rapid
movement of one block of rock sliding past another.
 Movements that produce earthquakes are usually associated with large fractures in
Earth’s crust called faults.
 Earthquakes, in general, represent a release of built-up stress in the
lithosphere.
 Energy is in the form of waves (Seismic waves).

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Earthquake Focus and Epicenter
 The origin of an earthquake occurs at depths
between 5 and 700 kilometers, at the focus.
 Energy released radiates in all directions
from its source, the focus.
 The point at the surface directly above the
focus is called the epicenter.

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Causes of Earthquakes
Scientific study suggests that seismicity instead occurs for several reasons, including:
1. The sudden formation of a new fault (a fracture or rupture on which sliding occurs)
2. sudden slip on an already existing fault
2. movement of magma in, or explosion of, a volcano
3. a meteorite impact
4. an underground nuclear-bomb test

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Elastic rebound theory
 It says that rocks, like all other solids, are
elastic (within limits).
 This means that rocks will stretch or bend when
subjected to stress, and they snap back when
the stress is removed.

But the strained rocks on either side of the fault

don’t just snap back and stop. Like a guitar string
after it is plucked, they continue vibrating.

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Faults and Earthquakes
Earthquakes occur along both new and preexisting faults in
places where differential stresses cause the crust to break.
Normal—associated with divergent plate boundaries
• Not associated with large earthquakes
Reverse and thrust—associated with convergent plate
boundaries
• Produce most of Earth’s powerful earthquakes,
generate tsunamis.
Strike-slip—associated with transform plate boundaries
• Ruptures result in major earthquakes

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Faults and Earthquakes

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Faults and Earthquakes

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 Seismic Waves
 When an earthquake occurs, it releases the stored-up energy in seismic waves that
travel away from the focus.

There are several types of seismic waves:

Seismic Waves

Surface Waves Body Waves

Surface waves travels along Earth’s Body waves pass through the
surface. interior of the Earth.

R- Waves L- Waves P - Waves S - Waves

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1. Body Waves
i. Primary Waves (P-waves)
 P waves are compressional waves.
 As P waves travel through matter, the matter is alternately compressed and expanded.
 P waves travel through the earth, then, much as sound waves travel through air.

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1. Body Waves
i. 1. Primary Waves (P-waves)

 Push-pull (compress and expand) motion, changing the volume

of the intervening material.
 Travel through solids, liquids, and gases.

Generally, in any solid material, P waves

travel about 1.7 times faster than S waves

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1. Body Waves
ii. Secondary Waves( S-waves)
 S waves travel through solid rock at a little more than half the velocity
of P waves.
 They are shear waves that displace material at right angles to their
path of travel.
 Shear waves cannot travel through liquids or gases.

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2. Surface Waves
 Surface waves travel in the rock layers just below Earth’s surface.
 Seismic surface waves are somewhat similar to surface waves on water.
 They cause rocks and soil to be displaced in such a way that the ground surface ripples
or undulates.

- have the lowest velocity

- last to arrive at a recording station
- cause the greatest property damage

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2. Surface Waves
1. R-waves (R stands for Rayleigh, the name of a physicist) are surface waves that cause
the ground to ripple up and down.

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2. Surface Waves
2. L-waves (L stands for Love, the name of a seismologist) are surface waves that cause
the ground to ripple back and forth, producing a snake-like movement.

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Determining the Size of an Earthquake

• Two fundamentally different measurements are used to describe the size of an earthquake.

Intensity: a measure of the amount of ground shaking at a particular location based on

observed property damage

Magnitude: quantitative measurement of ground motion based on data from seismic

records used to estimate of the amount of energy released at an earthquake’s source

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Determining the Size of an Earthquake
A Richter magnitude number is assigned to an
earthquake on the basis of the amount of ground
displacement or shaking that it produces near the
epicenter.

The Richter scale is logarithmic, which means that an

earthquake of magnitude 4 causes ten times as much ground
movement as one of magnitude 3, one hundred times as much as
one of magnitude 2, and so on

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