Earthquakes

Earthquakes
An earthquake is a trembling or shaking of the ground caused by the sudden release of energy stored in the rocks beneath earths surface. The shaking during an earthquake is caused by seismic waves.

Earthquakes
Tectonic forces acting deep in the earth may put a stress on the rock, which may bend or change in shape (strain). If you bend a stick of wood, your hands put a stress (the force per unit area) on the stick; its bending (a change in shape) is the strain.

Earthquakes
Like a bending stick, rock can deform only so far before it breaks. When a rock breaks, waves of energy are released and sent out through the earth. These are seismic waves, the waves of energy produced by an earthquake. It is the seismic waves that cause the ground to tremble and shake during an earthquake.

Earthquakes
The sudden release of energy when rock breaks may cause one huge mass of rock to slide past another mass of rock into a different relative position. The break between the two rock masses is a fault. The classic explanation of why earthquakes take place is called the elastic rebound theory.

Elastic Rebound Theory

It involves the sudden release of progressively stored strain in rocks, causing movement along a fault. Tectonic forces act on the rocks for many decades. Initially, the rock bends but does not break. More and more energy is stored in the rock as the bending becomes more severe.

Elastic Rebound Theory

Eventually, the energy stored in the rock exceeds the strength of the rock. and the rock breaks suddenly, causing an earthquake. Two masses of rock move past one another along a fault. The strain on the rock is released; the energy is expended by moving the rock into new positions and by creating seismic waves.

Causes
Most earthquakes are associated with movement on faults, but in some quakes, the connection with faulting may be difficult to establish. Some quakes occur on buried thrust faults; Unknown faults usually with no surface displacement.

Causes
Earthquakes also occur during explosive volcanic eruptions and as magma forcibly fills underground magma chambers prior to many eruptions; Such quakes are not associated with fault movement at all.

Causes
Another cause has been recently postulated for deep earthquakes (100 to 670 kilometers below the surface), essentially all of which are found on cold, subducting plates sliding down into the mantle. Although the down-going plates are colder than the surrounding rock, the high temperature and pressure at depth suggest that the rock in the plates should behave in a ductile way rather than breaking in the brittle manner of near-surface rocks.

Causes
The suggested cause for such deep quakes is mineral transformations within the downgoing rock, as pressure collapses one mineral into a denser form. Lab experiments have also shown bodies of the new, denser minerals along fractures. Whether the process occurs on a large scale to produce large quakes is still unknown.

Causes
Similar suggestions for the cause of deep quakes include the dehydration of water containing serpentine and the conversion of serpentine into glass. Both of these processes occur suddenly on small fractures in lab experiments.

Terminology
Focus/Hypocenter The point within the earth where seismic waves first originate. This is the center of the earthquake The point of initial breakage and movement on a fault. Rupture begins at the focus and then spreads rapidly along the fault plane.

Terminology
Epicenter The point on the earths surface directly above the focus

Seismic Waves
Seismic waves are generated by the release of energy during an earthquake. They travel through the earth like waves travel through water. The study of seismic waves and earthquakes is called seismology, which is a branch of geophysics.

Seismic waves
The propagation velocity of the waves depends on density and elasticity of the medium. Velocity tends to increase with depth, and ranges from approximately 2 to 8 km/s in the Earth's crust up to 13 km/s in the deep mantle. Two types Body waves Surface waves

Body waves
Body waves are seismic waves that travel through the Earths interior, spreading outward from the focus in all directions. Two types of body waves P- waves (primary) S- waves (secondary)

Body waves
P waves a compressional (or longitudinal) wave in which rock vibrates back and forth parallel to the direction of wave propagation. Because it is a very fast wave, traveling through near-surface rocks at speeds of 4 to 7 kilometers per second, a P wave is the first (or primary) wave to arrive at a recording station following an earthquake.

Body waves

Body waves
S waves A slower, transverse wave that travels through near-surface rocks at 2 to 5 kilometers per second. S wave is propagated by a shearing motion much like that in a stretched, shaken rope. The rock vibrates perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation.

Body waves

Body waves
Both P waves and S waves pass easily through solid rock. P wave can also pass through a fluid (gas or liquid), but an S wave cannot.

Surface waves
The waves that travel along the Earth's surface. They are called surface waves because they diminish as they get further from the surface. In general, surface waves cause more property damage than body waves because surface waves produce more ground movement and travel more slowly, so they take longer to pass.

Surface waves
Two types Love wave Rayleigh wave

Surface Waves
Love waves They are like S waves that have no vertical displacement. The ground moves side to side in a horizontal plane that is perpendicular to the direction the wave is traveling or propagating. Like S waves, Love waves do not travel through liquids and would not be felt on a body of water. Because of the horizontal movement, Love waves tend to knock buildings off their foundations and destroy highway bridge supports.

Surface waves

Surface waves
Rayleigh waves Rayleigh waves behave like rolling ocean waves as they cause rolling motion on earths surface. Unlike ocean waves, Rayleigh waves cause the ground to move in an elliptical path opposite to the direction the wave passes. Rayleigh waves tend to be incredibly destructive to buildings because they produce more ground movement and take longer to pass.

Surface waves