Earthquakes
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Presentation Transcript
Earthquakes I-880, Oakland, CA (October 1989)
Earthquake Formation • Earthquakes occur when rock’s under stress shift along a fault.
Elastic rebound theory states that rocks under stress will strain and then “rebound” back after plates slide past each other. (this causes earthquake and possibly tsunami’s)
Earthquake focus and epicenter • Focus: area where fault slip occurred. • Epicenter: point on earth’s surface above focus.
Earthquake Basics • What is an Earthquake? • Causes of Earthquakes • Elastic Rebound Theory • How are earthquakes measured? • Seismometers/Seismographs
Types of Earthquake Waves • P (primary) waves • Compressional (push-pull) • Fastest waves (first to arrive at seismograph) • Move through all materials
Types of Earthquake Waves • S (secondary) waves • Move perpendicular to P wave • Second fastest waves (next to arrive at seismograph) • Move ONLY through solids
Types of Earthquake Waves • Surface waves • Rolling motion • Slowest waves (arrive last at seismograph) • Cause most damage
Locating an Epicenter • View Seismograms • Measure P and S wave arrivals
P S
Locating an Epicenter • View Seismograms • Measure P and S wave arrivals • Measure S-wave “lag” time ( = S - P) • Use Travel-Time graph to correlate distance.
Locating an Epicenter • View Seismograms • Measure P and S wave arrivals • Measure S-wave “lag” time ( = S - P) • Use Travel-Time graph to correlate distance. • Triangulate Distances
Shadow Zone • P-waves reflect between 0-104 • P-waves refract between 104-150 • S-waves only reflect • Proves outer core is LIQUID!
Measuring Strength • Earthquake Magnitude • Charles Richter designed first scale • Based on height of the largest seismic wave • Every 1 increase in magnitude = 10x increase in strength
Dec. 2004 Sumatra Tsunami http://staff.aist.go.jp/kenji.satake/animation.gif
Current Seismic Events • Earthquakes http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/ • Tsunami http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/tsunami.htm
References Used • http://science.howstuffworks.com/earthquake6.htm • http://www.data.scec.org/chrono_index/bigbear.html • http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-29/web_pages/los_gatos.html • http://earthquake.usgs.gov/bytopic/photos.html • http://earthquake.usgs.gov/4teachers/ • http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/