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IEQ 05earthquake Lecture Notes
IEQ 05earthquake Lecture Notes
What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is the vibration of the earth produced by the quick release of energy.
Most often, earthquakes are caused by movement along large fractures in the earth’s
crust. Such fractures are called faults.
The energy that is released radiates in all directions from its origin in the form of waves.
These waves are similar to the waves that occur when you drop a stone into water.
Just as the stone sets the water in motion, the energy released in an earthquake pro-
duces seismic waves that move through the earth.
Frequency range of seismic waves is large, from as high as the audible range (greater
than 20 hertz) to as low as the frequencies of the free oscillations of the whole Earth (2
and 7 millihertz).
Attenuation of the waves in rock imposes high-frequency limits, and in small to mod-
erate earthquakes the dominant frequencies extend in surface waves from about 1 to
0.1 hertz.
The amplitude range of seismic waves is also great in most earthquakes. In the great-
est earthquakes the ground amplitude of the predominant P waves may be several
centimeters at periods of two to five seconds. Very close to the seismic sources of
great earthquakes, investigators have measured large wave amplitudes with accelera-
tions of the ground exceeding that of gravity (9.8 meters, or 32.2 feet, per second
squared) at high frequencies and ground displacements of 1 meter at low frequencies.
Earthquake Magnitude and Energy Release Equivalence
In this process, the material is deformed. As rocks don’t slide past each other very easily,
strain is built up, just as if you bend a stick. At a certain level, the rocks can no longer re-
sist the strain and slip past each other into their original shape.
This “springing back” of the rock is called elastic rebound. It is this quick movement that
we feel as an earthquake. The elastic rebound usually happens a few kilometres deep in
the crust. This location is called the focus of the earthquake. The place on the surface
directly over the focus is called the epicentre.
From an examination of the displacement of the ground surface which accompanied the
1906 earthquake, Henry Fielding Reid, Professor of Geology at Johns Hopkins University,
concluded that the earthquake must have involved an "elastic rebound" of previously
stored elastic stress.
If a stretched rubber band is broken or cut, elastic energy stored in the rubber band during
the stretching will suddenly be released. Similarly, the crust of the earth can gradually
store elastic stress that is released suddenly during an earthquake.
This gradual accumulation and release of stress and strain is now referred to as the
"elastic rebound theory" of earthquakes. Most earthquakes are the result of the sudden
elastic rebound of previously stored energy.
The following diagram illustrates the process. Start at the bottom. A straight fence is built
across the San Andreas fault. As the Pacific plate moves northwest, it gradually distorts
the fence. Just before an earthquake, the fence has an "S" shape. When the earthquake
occurs the distortion is released and the two parts of the fence are again straight; but now
there is an offset.
Slow, Quiet and Silent Earthquakes
• When we think of an earthquake source, we think of a crack that propagates through
the crust close to the shear-wave speed, which is generally several kilometers per
second.
• Fault rupture is sudden, accompanied by violent shaking of the ground.
• But, creep events (on the San Andreas fault) during which propagation along a fault
occurs at rates of millimeters per year.
• Earth deformation occurs at rates that differ widely.
• From fast ruptures that suddenly release stored elastic-strain energy
• Ordinary earthquakes to
• Slow earthquakes (speed of hundreds of meters per second).
• Silent earthquakes (speed of tens of meters per sec.)
• Creep events, and finally strain migration episodes with speeds in
centimeters or millimeters per second.
• Slow earthquakes include episodes of rupture propagation that produce an ordinary
seismogram of high-frequency body waves.
• However, slow earthquakes take an unusually long time to rupture in comparison to
ordinary earthquakes of similar moment magnitude.
• Oceanic transform faults have produced several slow earthquakes, such as the 1960
Chilean transform fault earthquake that ruptured for about an hour as a series of
small events.
• Silent earthquakes are not accompanied by high-speed rupture propagation events.
• Thus they do not generate high-frequency waves that are recorded teleseismically.
Conventional seismographs do not record these events.
• Strain metes document creep events on the San Andreas fault system (10mm/sec).
• Silent earthquakes may offer promise as precursors to ordinary earthquakes.
The energy that is released in an earthquake travels in waves through the materials of the
earth.
Two types of waves can be distinguished.
1. Some travel along the earth’s outer layer and are called surface waves.
2. Others travel through the earth’s interior and are called body waves.
Body waves are further divided into
P waves are “push-pull” waves—they push (compress) and pull (expand) rocks in the di-
rection the wave is travelling. Imagine holding someone by their shoulders and shaking
them. This push-pull movement is how P waves move through the earth. Solids, liquids
and gases resist a change in volume when compressed and will elastically spring back
once the force is removed. Therefore, P waves can travel through all these materials.
Highest velocity (6 km/sec in the crust).
S waves, on the other hand, “shake” the particles at right angles to their direction of travel.
This can be illustrated by holding one end of a rope steady and shaking the other end (see
illustration below). In contrast to P waves, which for a moment change the volume of the
material, S waves change the shape of the material they travel through. Because liquids
and gases do not respond elastically to changes in shape, they will not transmit S
waves. An S wave is slower than a P wave and can only move through solid rock. (3.6
km/sec in the crust)
Surface Waves
Travel just below or along the ground’s surface
Slower than body waves; rolling (Rayleigh) and side-to-side (Love) movement
Especially damaging to buildings
Love Waves
Typical velocity: Depends on earth structure (dispersive), but less than velocity
of S waves.
Behavior: Causes shearing motion (horizontal) similar to S waves.
Arrival: They usually arrive after the S wave and before the Rayleigh wave.
Rayleigh Waves
Typical velocity: ~ 0.9 that of the S wave
Behavior: Causes vertical (rolling anticlockwise) together with back-and-forth
horizontal motion. Motion is similar to that of being in a boat in the ocean when
a swell moves past.
Most of the shaking felt from an earthquake is due to the Rayleigh wave, which can be
much larger than the other waves.ch can be much larger than the
Arrival: They usually arrive last on a seismogram.
After an earthquake, the difference in arrival times at a seismograph station can be used to
calculate the distance from the seismograph to the epicenter (D).
If average speeds for all these waves is known, use the S-P (S minus P) time formula: a
method to compute the distance (D) between a recording station and an event.
Distance
Time =
Velocity
D D 1 1 Vp - Vs
(TS – TP) = - =D - = D
Vs Vp Vs Vp Vp Vs
Vp Vs
Now solve for the Distance D D= * (TS – TP)
Vp - Vs
Travel-times for location
Earthquake depths
Earthquakes originate at depths ranging from 5 to nearly 700 kilometers
4
µ + k
Vp = 3
ρ
µ
Vs =
ρ
It can be shown that in homogeneous, isotropic media the velocities of P and S waves
through the media are given by the expressions as above. Where Vp and Vs are the P and
S wave velocities of the medium, ρ is the density of the medium, and µ and k are referred
to as the shear and bulk moduli of the media. Taken together, µ and k are also known as
elastic parameters. The elastic parameters quantitatively describe the following physical
characteristics of the medium.
• Bulk Modulus - Is also known as the incompressibility of the medium. The bulk
modulus describes the ratio of the pressure applied to the cube to the amount of
volume change that the cube undergoes. If k is very large, then the material is very
stiff, meaning that it doesn't compress very much even under large pressures. If k is
small, then a small pressure can compress the material by large amounts. For
example, gases have very small incompressibilities. Solids and liquids have large
incompressibilities.
• Shear Modulus - The shear modulus describes how difficult it is to deform a cube of
the material under an applied shearing force. For example, imagine you have a
cube of material firmly cemented to a table top. Now, push on one of the top edges
of the material parallel to the table top. If the material has a small shear modulus,
you will be able to deform the cube in the direction you are pushing it so that the
cube will take on the shape of a parallelogram. If the material has a large shear
modulus, it will take a large force applied in this direction to deform the cube. Gases
and fluids can not support shear forces. That is, they have shear moduli of zero.
From the equations given above, notice that this implies that fluids and gases do
not allow the propagation of S waves.
Any change in rock or soil property that causes ρ, µ, or k to change will cause seismic wave speed
to change. For example, going from an unsaturated soil to a saturated soil will cause both the densi-
ty and the bulk modulus to change. The bulk modulus changes because air-filled pores become
filled with water. Water is much more difficult to compress than air. In fact, bulk modulus changes
dominate this example. Thus, the P wave velocity changes a lot across water table while S wave
velocities change very little.
Wave Propagation Through Earth Media
Any change in rock or soil property that causes ρ, µ, or k to change will cause seis-
mic wave speed to change.
For example, going from an unsaturated soil to a saturated soil will cause both the
density and the bulk modulus to change.
When seismic waves travel from one layer to another, ray gets bent away from or
toward the normal depending on layer density.
Propagation of seismic waves in media is governed by Snell’s Law
Snell's Law describes the relationship between the angles and the velocities of the waves.
Snell's law equates the ratio of material velocities V1 and V2 to the ratio of the sine's of
incident and refracted angles, as shown in the following equation.
sin θ1 sin θ2
=
VL1 VL 2
Where:
The crust
– Continental
» Less dense
» 20-70 km thick
– Oceanic
» more dense
» 5-10 km thick
• Based on the observation that P waves die out at 105 degrees from the earth-
quake and reappear at about 140 degrees
• P-wave shadow zone is not a perfect shadow – there are weak P-waves arriv-
ing, and Lehmann suggested that these P-waves were bounced from a solid
inner core.
Foreshocks and Aftershocks
Faults are believed to consist of stronger and weaker parts whose ability to rupture
during an earthquake varies. These stronger parts are called barriers or asperities. These
two terms assign different roles to the stronger patches in the earthquake rupture process.
The left side of the above figure shows the condition of a fault just before an earth-
quake while the right side shows its condition after an earthquake. The upper part of the
figure is based on the barrier hypothesis, while the lower part is based on the asperity hy-
pothesis. The shaded portion indicates a stressed portion of the fault while the unshaded
is the slipped or unstressed portion.
According to the barrier hypothesis, the fault is in a state of uniform stress (upper
left) before the earthquake. During the earthquake the rupture propagates leaving unbro-
ken stronger patches (upper right). These patches or barriers are the location of numerous
aftershocks which represent the release of stress through static fatigue.
According to the asperity hypothesis, just prior to the earthquake (main shock) the
fault is not in a state of uniform stress but rather there has been some release of stress
over part of the fault through foreshocks leaving behind strong patches or asperities which
are broken resulting in a smoothly slipped fault (lower right). The existence of both after-
shocks and foreshocks indicate that some strong patches behave as barriers while others
behave as asperities. Barriers and asperities are significant to earthquake ground motion
because they represent locations of concentrated stress release and localized stopping
and starting of the rupturing fault.
Measuring the size of earthquakes
Magnitude of earthquake is a measure of energy and based on the amplitude of the waves
recorded on a seismogram.
Concept: the wave amplitude reflects the earthquake size once the amplitudes are
corrected for the decrease with distance due to geometric spreading and attenuation.
Richter Magnitude
Charles Richter developed the first magnitude scale in 1935. Richter’s magnitude is
the logarithm to the base 10 of the maximum seismic wave amplitude, in thousandths of a
millimeter, recorded on a special type of seismograph (Wood-Anderson seismograph) at a
distance of 100 km from the earthquake epicenter. Wood-Anderson seismograph has a
natural oscillation period of about 0.8 seconds, and waves of longer period are increasing-
ly diminished on the records even if they are present in the ground.
ML = log10A - log10A0
Where, A0 is the amplitude for zero magnitude earthquakes. Thus, an earthquake trace
with amplitude 10 micro meter of seismograph at an epicentral distance of 100 km has
magnitude 1.0
The diagram below demonstrates how to use Richter's original method to measure a
seismogram for a magnitude estimate in Southern California:
Mb = log(A/T) + Q(D,h)
where A is the ground motion (in microns), T is the wave's period (in seconds), and Q(D,h)
is a correction factor that depends on distance to the quake's epicenter D (in degrees) and
focal depth h (in kilometers). Mb uses relatively short seismic waves with a 1-second pe-
riod, so to it every quake source that is larger than a few wavelengths looks the same. Mb
saturates around magnitude above 6.
Surface-wave magnitude is
Ms uses 20-second waves and can handle larger sources, but it too saturates around
magnitude 8. That's OK for most purposes because magnitude-8 or great events happen
only about once a year on average for the whole planet. But within their limits, these two
scales are a reliable gauge of the actual energy that earthquakes release.
Limitations:
Magnitude saturation It’s a general phenomenon for Mb above about 6.2 and Ms above
about 8.3.
A simple solution that has been found by Kanamori: defining a magnitude scale based on
the seismic moment.
Moment Magnitude, Mw, is not based on seismometer readings at all but on the total
energy released in a quake, the seismic moment Mo (in dyne-centimeters):
This scale therefore does not saturate. Moment magnitude can match anything the Earth
can throw at us.
Still, Kanamori inserted an adjustment in his formula such that below magnitude 8 Mw
matches Ms and below magnitude 6 matches Mb, which is close enough to Richter's old
ML. So keep calling it the Richter scale if you like—it's the scale Richter would have made
if he could.
Seismic Moment (Mo) = The seismic moment is a measure of the size of an earthquake
based on the area of fault rupture, the average amount of slip, and the force that was
required to overcome the friction sticking the rocks together that were offset by faulting.
Moment = µ A D
Most strong motion sensors are designed to measure the large amplitude, high frequency
seismic waves typical of large local earthquakes. These seismic waves result in the strong
ground motion we feel during a large earthquake. Strong ground motion is often to blame
for the structural damage that occurs during an earthquake. The data seismologists record
with strong motion sensors is used to improve the design of earthquake resistant buildings
and to understand earthquake-induced geologic hazards like liquefaction and landslides.
The range of motions of interest for strong motion applications includes accelerations from
0.001 to 2 g and frequencies from 0 to 100 Hz.
Before the wide use of strong motion instruments, scientists attempted to estimate the
shaking from strong earthquakes by extrapolating (scaling up) the observed effects of
smaller earthquakes (magnitude 2.5-5.0). This method works well for many applications
and has improved with the use of data from strong motion instruments. However, this ap-
proach is not applicable in every situation. Some geologic materials and structures do not
respond to strong shaking in a simple, predictable manner that can be accurately scaled
upward. In these situations, scientists need actual data generated by strong ground motion
to better understand the processes at work. Strong motion sensors have been installed in
different areas of geologic interest throughout the Pacific Northwest to provide this type of
data.
Using strong motion data, earth scientists hope to gain a better understanding of: