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Transcript
Earthquakes • What are they? – An earthquake is a trembling or shaking of the ground. • What causes them? – Earthquakes are caused by the sudden release of stored [elastic] strain energy by brittle fracture. Terminology of Earthquakes • Focus or Hypocenter - the point within the Earth where the rocks rupture. • Epicenter - the point on the Earth’s surface directly above the focus. • Focal Depth - distance of focus from Earth’s surface. Elastic Rebound Theory • Tectonic forces slowly build up with time, initially the rocks deform elastically. • Eventually the build up of stored energy exceeds the strength of the rock and it fractures. • The stored elastic strain energy is rapidly released and propagates outward as vibration waves called seismic waves. Seismic Waves • Body waves – Seismic waves that travel through the interior of the Earth. As the waves propagate, the rocks are elastically deformed by change in either volume or shape. Types of Body Waves – Compression (P) waves - deform rocks through change in volume. • P-waves have greatest velocity (4-7 km/s in crust and ~8 km/s in mantle). As such, they are the first waves to arrive at a distant point. – Shear (S) waves - deform rocks through change in shape. • S-waves travel ~2 km/s slower than P-waves, and their velocity depends on the density and resistance to shearing of the material. Fluids do not have shear strength and thus cannot transmit S-waves. Seismic Waves • Surface waves – Seismic waves that travel along the surface of the Earth. Slowest moving waves collectively referred to as L or Long waves. • Love waves - transverse side-to-side wave motion in a horizontal plane parallel to Earth’s surface. • Rayleigh waves - backward rotating, circular motion similar to water molecule in ocean waves. Measuring Seismic Waves • Seismographs - detect and record vibrations/motion of the Earth caused by an earthquake. – Inertial seismographs – Strain seismographs Locating an Earthquake • Travel time curves – Use the time lag between P and S seismic waves to determine distance from the epicenter to the seismograph (but not direction). • Three-point construction – Intersection point of time lag distance circles from three different seismographs yields location of epicenter. Earthquake Energy • Intensity – Mercalli Intensity Scale • Qualitative measure of intensity based upon amount of vibration people feel and extent of damage. Earthquake Energy • Magnitude – Richter Magnitude Scale • Quantitative scheme based upon maximum amplitude of strongest body wave. • The Richter scale is logarithmic; each increase in magnitude corresponds to a 10-fold increase in the amplitude of the wave. • More importantly, each increment of magnitude corresponds to a 30-fold increase in energy released. Earthquake Energy • Seismic Moment Scale – Based upon the shear strength of the rock, rupture area of the fault and the average displacement (slip) on the fault. – The seismic moment scale provides a better measure of energy released by large (>6 on Richter scale) earthquakes. Earthquake Magnitudes, Characteristic Effects and Frequencies Richter Mercalli Magnitude Intensity <3.4 I 3.5-4.2 4.3-4.8 4.9-5.4 5.5-6.1 6.2-6.9 II-III Characteristic Effects Number Annually Usually not felt by people. 800,000 Felt indoors by some people. 30,000 IV Felt by many people, windows rattle. 4,800 V Felt by all; dishes break, doors swing. 1,400 VI-VII Slight building damage, plaster cracks. 500 VII-IX Much building damage, chimneys fall, houses move on foundations. Serious damage, bridges twisted, walls fractured, many masonry buildings collapse. Great damage, most buildings collapse. 100 7.0-7.3 X 7.4-7.9 >8.0 XI XII Total damage, waves seen on ground surface, objects thrown into the air. 15 4 one every 5-10 yrs So how much elastic energy can rocks accumulate before failure? • ~100 joules of energy can be accumulated in 1 m3 of elastically deformed rock. • 100 joules is equivalent to ~25 calories of heat energy (about two peanut M&Ms). • But, when billions to trillions of m3 of rock are strained the results are impressive... • The 1989 Loma Prieta quake released ~1015 joules and the 1906 San Francisco quake released ~1017 joules (about the same amount of energy as a hydrogen bomb blast). Distribution of Earthquakes • ~80% originate in the circum-Pacific seismic belt that corresponds to the volcanic belt known as the Ring of Fire. • ~15% originate in the MediterraneanHimalayan belt that extends from Gibraltar to Southeast Asia. • Lesser seismic belts follow mid-ocean ridge systems. Tectonic Settings of Earthquakes • Divergent Boundaries – Tensional stress – Low magnitude and shallow foci (often <20 km). – Rocks are weaker in tension and temperature is higher near the surface (brittle-ductile transition nearer surface). Tectonic Settings of Earthquakes • Transform Boundaries – Shear stress – High magnitude and shallow foci (<100 km). – Shear stress can build at “locked” segments (Stick-slip behavior). – Temperature follows normal geothermal gradient. – Water may act to lower strength. Tectonic Settings of Earthquakes • Convergent Boundaries – Subduction zones • Bending within down-going slab can result in tensional stress and small magnitude earthquakes at very shallow depth. • Sliding of down-going slab in the rigid lithosphere yields large magnitude earthquakes at depths to ~100 km. • Sinking through ductile asthenosphere, earthquakes are within the down-going slab down to 670 km. Tectonic Settings of Earthquakes • Convergent Boundaries • Bennioff zone - zone of earthquake foci dipping into the mantle away from a trench due to subduction. – Collision zones • • • • Where two continental lithosphere plates converge. Very strong compressive forces. Rocks are much stronger in compression High magnitude earthquakes at depths to 300 km.. Tectonic Settings of Earthquakes • Intraplate (Bowling Green) – Most often associated with failed rift zones and reactivation of ancient faults. – Shallow foci but can have high magnitude due to high strength of continental basement rocks. Review - Earthquakes – – – – – – – Elastic rebound theory Types/characteristics of seismic waves Locating earthquakes Intensity and magnitude of earthquakes Energy released by earthquakes. Geographic distribution of earthquakes Tectonic settings and depth/magnitude of associated earthquakes.