EARTHQUAKES AND FAULTS

• Earth’s crust is like the shell of a hard-boiled egg. It is extremely thin, cold
and brittle compared to what lies below it.
• The crust is made of relatively light elements, especially silica, aluminum
and oxygen. It’s also highly variable in its thickness.
• Earth’s crust is divided into two types: oceanic crust and continental crust.
• The crust is composed of two basic rock types granite and basalt. The
continental crust is composed mostly of granite. The oceanic crust consists
of a volcanic lava rock called basalt.
• The crust of the Earth is broken into many pieces called plates. The plates
"float" on the soft, plastic mantle which is located below the crust. These
plates usually move along smoothly but sometimes they stick and build up
pressure. The pressure builds and the rock bends until it snaps. When this
occurs an Earthquake is the result!
• Basaltic rocks of the ocean plates are much denser
and heavier than the granitic rock of the continental
plates. Because of this the continents ride on the
denser oceanic plates.
• The crust and the upper layer of the mantle together
make up a zone of rigid, brittle rock called the
Lithosphere.
• The layer below the rigid lithosphere is a zone of
asphalt-like consistency called the Asthenosphere.
The asthenosphere is the part of the mantle that
flows and moves the plates of the Earth.
 It is the largest layer of the Earth, 1800 miles thick. The
mantle is composed of very hot, dense rock. This layer of
rock even flows like asphalt under a heavy weight. This
flow is due to great temperature differences from the
bottom to the top of the mantle. The movement of the
mantle is the reason that the plates of the Earth move! The
temperature of the mantle varies from 1600 degrees
Fahrenheit at the top to about 4000 degrees Fahrenheit
near the bottom!
 CONVECTION CURRENTS

• The mantle is made of much denser, thicker material, because of

this the plates "float" on it like oil floats on water.

• Many geologists believe that the mantle "flows" because of

convection currents. Convection currents are caused by the very

hot material at the deepest part of the mantle rising, then cooling,

sinking again and then heating, rising and repeating the cycle over

and over. The next time you heat anything like soup or pudding in

a pan you can watch the convection currents move in the liquid.

When the convection currents flow in the mantle they also move

the crust. The crust gets a free ride with these currents.
 OUTER CORE

• The core of the Earth is like a ball of very

hot metals. (4000 degrees F. to 9000
degrees F.)
• The outer core is so hot that the metals in
it are all in the liquid state.
• The outer core is composed of the melted
metals nickel and iron.
INNER CORE

• The inner core of the Earth has temperatures and

pressures so great that the metals are squeezed
together and are not able to move about like a
liquid, but are forced to vibrate in place as a solid.
The inner core begins about 4000 miles beneath the
crust and is about 800 miles thick. The temperatures
may reach 9000 degrees F. and the pressures are
45,000,000 pounds per square inch. This is
3,000,000 times the air pressure on you at sea level.
 HOW DOES AN EARTHQUAKE OCCUR?

• Watch the videos below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AArne-wh_Uc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqqqSnaTfQo
 DEFINING OF TERMS

• Faults are classified into active and inactive.

- Active faults are areas along which all shallow earthquakes occur. These zones
are believed to have exhibited evidence of strong and frequent earthquakes in
the past thousands of years, and they are likely to exhibit movements sometime
in the future. Active faults tend to be most common at the boundaries of tectonic
plates where different plates bump into or move away from each other.
- Inactive faults are areas which have not displayed any seismic activity for more
than thousands of years.
• TYPES OF FAULTS:
• Normal Fault –it is a fracture along which the footwall moves up and the hanging wall on the other side
moves down. Normal faulting is due to tension forces or the pulling apart of the rocks, which moves the
crust vertically apart.

• Reverse Fault – it is a break in Earth’s crust which is commonly formed in the regions where the strong
compressional forces push the rocks together, moving the crust vertically apart. This time, the hanging wall
moves up while the footwall moves down.
• Strike-slip Fault – caused by shearing;

- Transform fault – is a special class of the strike-slip faults formed between two different
plates due to horizontal forces moving the layers of rocks parallel to the fault plane. In this fault, the blocks of
rock on one side of the fault slide past the other. Seismologists believe that more violent earthquakes usually
occur in these faults. The movements in this fault do not make cliffs or fault scraps because the blocks of rock
are not moving up or down relative to each other. The San Andreas fault is the most famous transform fault,
which is located on the continental margin.

• *Watch this video for more explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ZRtS3QGHw

 WHAT ARE TECTONIC PLATES?

• Watch the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ-sVQElqhE
 • 3 types of tectonic plate movements:
1. Convergent – the plate moves towards each other and give rise to geographical
structure like volcanos and mountains.
2. Divergent – the plates move apart; the magma from the interior of the earth flows
toward the surface and moves the tectonic plate away from each other.
3. Transform – in this movement two plates move side ways with respect to each other.
When the two plates rub against each other a huge amount of energy is build-up and
this energy is released as earthquakes.
*Watch the video for more explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ-sVQElqhE
• Focus or hypocenter - The exact point inside the crust where a tremendous
amount of energy actually starts to be released. It is where the vibrating
waves originate which travel outward in all directions.

• Epicenter - is the point on the earth’s surface that is vertically above the
focus and where energy waves are felt most strongly. It is where the first
sudden movement of the ground is felt and where the most severe damages
by an earthquake is sustained.
• Watch the video for more explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQgkL76cNZc
 THE CHARACTERISTICS AND STRENGTH OF AN EARTHQUAKE CAN BE
MEASURED USING THE TWO METHODS-MAGNITUDE AND INTENSITY.

Magnitude
• To determine how destructive an earthquake was, its magnitude or the
total amount of energy release is measured by means of Richter
Magnitude Scale based on seismological records, and it is expressed in
numerical value-whole number and decimal fractions. This scale was
developed in 1935 by an American seismologist, Charles Richter and his
friend Beno Gutenberg. Due to the fast development of technology, the
original Richter Scale was replaced by more advanced scales such as
body-wave magnitude and moment magnitude scaled which have no
restriction to the distance and type of seismograph used.
Intensity
• The energy released to the epicenter shakes the ground and the effects are felt over a
much larger are. The intensity of an earthquake can be determined by how much
damage has occurred and the amount of shaking experienced by the people in a
particular area. It is measured with the Modified Mercalli Scale which was revised by
an Italian volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli from the original widely used simple ten-
degree Rossi-Forel scale to twelve-degrees. The ratings are expressed in Roman
Numerals ranging from I (no damage to XII (greatest destruction).
 H O W U N D E R WAT E R E A RT H Q U A K E S G E N E R AT E T S U N A M I S

• Earthquakes also happen in bodies of water. When the seafloor or the floor of the ocean
moves due to shifting and displacement of oceanic plates, it may cause a submarine
earthquake or commonly known as underwater earthquakes and may result to a series
of waves or tsunamis. Tsunami is commonly called seismic waves which mislead the
people who thought that only earthquakes are the sole cause of tsunami. Tsunamis are
also caused by undersea volcanic eruption, underwater landslide, glaciers collapse, land
slumping into the ocean, or even meteorite impacts. It is also incorrect to call it tidal
waves because tsunamis are not caused by the tides and are unrelated to the tides.
• A tsunami happens when underwater earthquakes result in sudden vertical deformation of
the seafloor; thus, the section of Earth’s crust under or near the ocean rises or falls. It
creates a sudden rise or fall of the crust under or near the ocean that produces vertical
displacement of the seafloor, which in turn displaces water above. When a plate shoots
upwards, it pushes the water up with it and forms a wave when the energy from Earth’s
crust is transferred to the water. Vertical displacements of the seafloor are triggered by
thrust faulting, reverse faulting, and normal faulting where compression pushes the rocks
on one side of the fault up and over rock on the other side. These faulting occur along
subduction zones where two tectonic plated bump into and move toward each other, with
one sliding underneath the other.
• Therefore, magnitude 7 or 8 earthquakes cannot produce tsunami unless they involve
sudden vertical movement over a long area of a fault. It the movement, of the curst causing
large undersea earthquake is horizontal, the overlying water is not displaced, and therefore
there is less risk of tsunami because water is virtually immune to the horizontal shearing
motion of the ocean floor; hence, little water is displaced.
• Most damaging tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean where the Ring of fire is known to be
in its boundary, and in the Indian Ocean where there are two major subduction zones.
Earthquakes are most frequent in these regions.
*Watch the video for more explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx9vPv-T51I
 SEISMIC WAVES

• During an earthquake, the energy released travels, penetrates, and

passes through the earth’s interior in all directions. This energy
comes in a form of seismic waves. The field of knowledge that
studies earthquakes and seismic waves is called seismology, and the
professionals who study and monitor earthquake and seismic waves
are called seismologists.
• Seismic waves are usually generated by tectonic plate movement or
earthquakes when rocks within break producing a tremendous amount of
energy, but they may also result to explosion, landslide, and volcanic
activity. Seismic waves are recorded in a seismograph, and the motion of
the ground can tell what type of seismic waves have transpired. There
are several types of seismic waves and the two main types are body
waves and surface waves-each characterized by its speed and direction
depending on what kind of materials they are traveling through.
 THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SEISMIC
WAVES

1. Body waves - originates from the focus and can travel through Earth’s
interior before the surface waves emitted by the earthquake. These waves have
higher frequency than surface waves which can only move along very near
earth’s surface.
 BODY WAVES HAVE TWO TYPES:

• a. Primary waves (P-waves) are the fastest seismic waves because they are the first waves
detected by the seismograph, and they can travel at greatest velocity penetrating the gases,
fluid (like water and liquid layers of the earth), and solid rocks. They can pass through the
solid rocks at over 225 miles per hour and through liquid at about one third of that speed.
They can travel as fast as 1.6 to 8km/sec or 1 to 5 miles per second in Earth’s crust. These
waves are also known as compressional waves or longitudinal waves. IT moves alternately
by pushing (compress) and pulling back (dilate) the rocks in the direction of their travel
(like sound waves push and pull the air). The ground shakes back and forth along the
direction the P-waves are propagating. It can also travel through Earth’s core.
• b. Secondary waves (S-wave) are transverse waves also known as shear waves that follow the P-
waves and the second to arrive at seismic recording station and travel half the speed of P-waves
but can be more dangerous due to larger amplitude causing the ground to rapidly split and move
in different direction. These waves can only penetrate the solid materials and so they stop at the
liquid layer of Earth because they depend upon a resistance to shear materials or the property
called rigidity which is absent in a fluid (gas, water, molten rocks, or Earth’s core). This property
of S-waves led to seismologists to the conclusion that the outer core is liquid. When the shear
waves hit the outer core, the waves disappear, and once they hit the inner core they reappear.
Instead of longitudinal, it moves perpendicular to the path of wave movement, pushing the rocks
and displacing them outward. It shears the rocks sideways at right angles or changing the rocks
and displacing them outward. It shears the rocks sideways at right angles or changing the rocks’
shape in the direction of travel, producing vertical and horizontal motion of the ground surface.
2. Surface waves – are easily distinguished on a seismograph for being the last
waves that arrive due to their lower frequency. They have lesser velocity than
body waves and cause more destruction because of the long duration and larger
amplitude of the waves. These waves are to blame for most of earthquakes
effect to the people and their properties. These kinds of waves are what the
people feel during earthquakes. These waves are usually or near the Earth’s
surface; thus, the strength of these waves are reduced in deeper earthquake.
 SURFACE WAVES HAVE TWO BASIC TYPES:

• a. Love waves (L waves) were named after a British mathematician, Augustus

Edward Hough Love, who made the mathematical model of this wave in
1911. These waves are similar to S-waves in terms of their shearing motion.
They move the ground horizontally, causing it to twist from side to side but at
right angles of their propagation and have the greatest amplitude (and
decreases with depth) which damages the foundations of structures. A Love
wave travels with slower velocity, and it was the third conspicuous wave
detected by the seismograph.
• b. Rayleigh waves (R waves) travel slower than the L waves; thus, they have
lower velocity. The existence of these waves was first predicted and was
mathematically described in 1885 by John William Strut, 3rd Baron
Rayleigh also known as Lord Rayleigh. These waves exist at nay free
surface in a continuous body; they may be generated by large earthquakes
moving the ground up and down and side-to-side in the same direction that
the waves are moving in rolling motion. These waves are dispersive,
propagating circularly along surfaces from a source point (from Earth’s
surface) and the amplitude generally decreases with depth in the earth.
• However, when these waves emanate from the epicenter, the
waves travel along Earth’s surface at about ten times the speed of
sound waves. They differ from love waves in terms of the
reversing or retrograde particle motion confined to the vertical
plane of motion while L-waves have purely transverse motion in
the horizontal plane. Therefore, these waves are generally
observed on both radial and vertical mechanisms on seismograph.
 WHAT ARE AFTERSHOCKS

• After a strong earthquake, the victims are advised to be more cautious due to
the series of ground shaking that follows the first earthquake. These smaller
“follow up” earthquakes are called aftershocks. Aftershocks are smaller
earthquakes that occur after the previous “main shock” or the initial
earthquake. They usually happen along the same fault and are caused by the
realignment of the two plates, wherein their touching edges may not be able
to pass each other smoothly.
• Although the major strain between the two plates has been released by the
main shock, their edges need to adjust to new positions. The aftershocks
might also be the result of constant movement along the same fault. The
aftershocks usually range at least one-half or a whole unit of magnitude of
the mainshock. Sometimes, due to the great stress on the fault and ruptures
between the plates, aftershocks on nearby faults are triggered as well.
• In some instances, the aftershocks have greater magnitude than the
mainshock. In that case, the original mainshock is considered as the
foreshock, and the aftershock is renamed as the mainshock.