Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cesp 104 Reporting Group 1.
Cesp 104 Reporting Group 1.
EARTHQUAKES:
Earthquake, any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic
waves through Earth’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of
energy stored in Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock
straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most
often along geologic faults, narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one
another. The major fault lines of the world are located at the fringes of the huge
tectonic plates that make up Earth’s crust.
When the Earth trembles, earthquakes spread energy in the form of seismic waves. A
seismograph is the primary earthquake measuring instrument. The seismograph produces
a digital graphic recording of the ground motion caused by the seismic waves. The digital
recording is called a seismogram. A network of worldwide seismographs detects and
measures the strength and duration of the earthquake’s waves. The seismograph produces
a digital graphic plotting of the ground motion of the event.
MEASUREMENT OF EARTHQUAKE:
Seismogram is the recording of the ground shaking at the specific location of the
instrument. On a seismogram, the HORIZONTAL axis = time (measured in seconds) and
the VERTICAL axis= ground displacement (usually measured in millimeters). When
there is NO EARTHQUAKE reading, there is just a straight line except for small wiggles
caused by local disturbance or "noise" and the time markers. Seismograms are digital
now - there are no more paper recordings.
Earthquake magnitude
For Example:
Comparing magnitude and Intensity by using a light bulb as an analogy. The light bulb
represents the location within the earth called the hypocenter where the earthquake
begins. The magnitude or size of an earthquake is like the wattage of a light bulb, just as
the wattage represents the amount of power of the light bulb. The magnitude is related to
the total amount of energy released by the earthquake source. The intensity or shaking
level is like the amount of light from a light bulb at any spot in the room, a small light
bulb in one area of a room will make that area bright with high intensity light but it will
leave the distant room dim with low intensity light. So a given earthquake has only one
magnitude but will produce different intensities of ground shaking. The severity of an
earthquake can be determined using Mercalli Intensity Scale.
HOW IS EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE MEASURED?
An earthquake has one magnitude unit. The magnitude does not depend on the location
where measurement is made. Since 1970, the Moment Magnitude Scale has been used
because it supports earthquake detection all over the Earth.
Earthquakes are also classified in categories ranging from minor to great, depending on
their magnitude.
Figure 2:
The Richter scale was originally devised to measure the magnitude of earthquakes
of moderate size (that is, magnitude 3 to magnitude 7) by assigning a number that would
allow the size of one earthquake to be compared with another. The scale was developed
for temblors occurring in southern California that were recorded using the Wood-
Anderson seismograph and whose epicentres were less than 600 km (373 miles) from the
location of the seismograph. Present-day seismographs, however, may be calibrated to
compute Richter magnitudes, and modern methods for measuring earthquake magnitude
have been developed to produce results that remain consistent with those measured using
the Richter scale.
HOW IS EARTHQUAKE INTENSITY MEASURED?
The Mercalli scale was designed to do just that The original scale was invented
by Giuseppe Mercalli in 1902 and was modified by Harry Wood and Frank Neumann in
1931 to become what is now known as the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. To help
distinguish it from magnitude scales, the MMI scale uses roman numerals. Although
the Mercalli scale does not use scientific equipment to measure seismic waves, it has
been very useful for understanding the damage caused by large earthquakes. It has also
been used extensively to investigate earthquakes that occurred before there were
seismometers.
Some factors that affect the amount of damage that occurs are:
Group 1 :