Chapter 6

The Faults from Within Earth

Big Idea: Faults and Earthquakes

Theme Focus: Earthquakes are not a

matter of if, but a matter of when.
Lesson 6.1

Cracks on Earth’s Surface

Fault
• a fracture or break in Earth’s crust where earthquakes
are most likely to occur repeatedly
• forms when the rocks of the crust are compressed or
stretched by plate movement
Fault zones
• many faults spread over a wide area

Fracture to Fault
• fractures may be faults that are just beginning to form
• A fracture can only be considered a fault if evidence of
movement can be seen.
Lesson 6.2

Different Faults Move in Different Ways

Stress
-force applied to rocks

Tensional Compressional Shear

-rocks are -rocks are -rocks are
stretched away pushed toward pushed toward
from each each other each other but
other not in the
same axis
 Clay
• when stretched,
becomes longer and
thinner
• when compressed, folds
up into shorter length
and becomes thicker vs.
Rocks
• when stretched,
becomes longer and
thinner
• when compressed,
becomes shorter and
thicker
 Slip Movement

dip-slip fault strike-slip fault oblique-slip fault

Strike and Dip
Dip-Slip Fault
• fault formed when rocks break due to stretching or
compressing, and form a plane at an angle to the
horizon

dip
• fault moves or “slips” along the dip
 • the hanging wall moved
downward with respect to
Normal the footwall along the dip
Faults direction
• formed when rocks are
stretched
Types of
Dip-Slip Fault
• the hanging wall moves
up with respect to the
Reverse footwall
Faults
• formed when rocks are
compressed
Thrust Faults
• special type of reverse faults
• the angle of the dip is less than 45°
• fault plane has a smaller dip angle compared to
reverse faults
Strike-Slip Fault
• formed when rocks are made to shear and slip in the
direction of the strike
• movement is always horizontal
Strike
• the line of intersection between the horizon and a
planar surface
 Strike-slip Faults

Left-lateral Strike-slip Right-lateral Strike-slip

Fault Fault
• the opposite block • the opposite block
appears to have moved appears to have moved
to your left to your right.
Oblique-Slip Faults
• formed when shearing and compression or tension
combine
• movement is along both the dip and strike directions
 Lesson 6.3

Active and Inactive Faults

Faults

Active Faults Inactive Faults

• recently generated
earthquakes within the last
10 000 years, which may
still continue to generate
earthquakes
• do not show signs of ever
having generated an
earthquake in the last 10 000
years
• may possibly still generate an
earthquake in the future
Creep
• slow type of fault movement
• happens without any associated earthquake activity
• may be noticeable because of ground subsidence and
deformed structures that overlie the creeping fault
Lesson 6.4

Faults in the Philippine Setting

PHIVOLCS
• Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology
• spearheads the study of active faults in the country
Fault Systems in the Philippines
1. Philippine Fault Zone

• cuts through the entire Philippine archipelago

• about 1 200 km long, composed of many faults

• left-lateral strike-slip type

• moves at about two to three centimeters per

year
2. Valley Fault System
• begins near Angat dam in Bulacan, continue through
parts of eastern Metro Manila, and extends
southwards

• generated four significant earthquake events

3. Lubang Fault

• found offshore between Batangas and Mindoro Island

4. Central Mindoro Fault
• between western and eastern Mindoro

• mostly a right-lateral strike-slip fault

• easily seen in topographic maps, aerial

photographs, and satellite images

• responsible for the 1994 magnitude 7.1

causing Aglubang River Fault
Lesson 6.5

Faults Generate Earthquakes

Elastic Potential Energy
• present in materials under stress such as compressing and
stretching

• a material may return to its original form or may break under

stress

• the stored elastic potential energy is released as kinetic energy

after removing the stress on the object
 Elastic Potential Energy and Earthquake

When the
rocks break
Plate
along a fault,
movements Elastic energy Seismic Earthquake is
the stored
cause the is stored in energy passes the arrival of
elastic energy
rocks of the the rocks through rocks seismic waves
is released as
plates to be when plates as seismic from deep
a kinetic
stretched or move wave within Earth
energy called
compressed
seismic
energy.
 Lesson 6.6

Anatomy of an Earthquake

Focus/Hypocenter
• point where the breaking of the rocks first starts and
seismic energy is released

Fault Plane
• breaking surface underground, where movement takes
place
Fault Line
• edge of the fault plane that
shows how much
movement has taken place

Fault Scarp
• fault plane is exposed
above ground
Epicenter
• the point on Earth’s surface directly
above the focus

• usually described by its distance to the

closest populated area
• Earthquakes are classified according to the depth of
their focus
Underwater Earthquakes
• Earthquakes that occur underwater can generate
tsunamis.

• Tsunami results from rising of ocean floor causing

large volume of water to be pushed to the surface.

• Waves generated in the deep ocean are small but

become bigger as they approach the coast.
Lesson 6.7

Recording Earthquakes

Seismograph
• machine used in recording earthquakes

• first “true” seismograph was invented by Filippo

Cecchi
 Simple Seismograph
• records only one type of
motion

Horizontal Seismograph Vertical Seismograph

• records any horizontal
ground motion
• has a mass suspended by
a wire that swings away
from the frame
• records vertical ground
motion
• has a mass suspended by a
spring that bounces up
and down
Seismometer
• modern seismograph

• records earthquakes electronically

• sensors are separate from the instruments that record

the motion
• Data are wirelessly transmitted from the sensor to a
computer

• Global Seismographic Network

⁻ extensive digital seismic network

Seismogram
• data recorded by seismometers

• shows the ground motion at a specific measuring

station recorded against time

• Amplitude – refers to the height of a wave in a

seismogram
Lesson 6.8

Intensity and Magnitude

Intensity Magnitude
tells how much a describes the total
certain area was amount of energy
shaken by an that was released
earthquake by the earthquake
at the focus.

may have more

than one value
depending on the has only one value
distance from the
epicenter
Intensity
• used by scientists to roughly estimate the size and
strength of an earthquake

• classification used now is a modified version of the

Rossi-Forel scale
• PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS)
⁻ has 10 levels
⁻ based on its effects on people, structures, and
objects
 Magnitude
— quantitative way of comparing the strength of
earthquakes

— determined from the information on a seismogram

• Richter Magnitude Scale

⁻ describes the total amount of energy that is
released by an earthquake at its source
 Richter Magnitude Scale Moment Magnitude Scale

• developed to work for • considers the area of the

only one particular place fault and the amount of
and machine movement of the rocks
• cannot properly describe bordering the fault
very large earthquakes • effectively measures
• better for smaller medium- to large-scale
earthquakes earthquakes
 Magnitude vs.
• calculated soon after an
earthquake occurred
• cannot be used to
express how much
damage an earthquake
has caused
Intensity
• determined after
scientists interview
many eyewitnesses and
record descriptions of
the earthquake
Lesson 6.9

Information from Earthquake

Earth’s Interior

Crust
• solid rock layer that
makes up the outermost
shell of Earth
Mantle
• lies beneath the crust and is the thickest layer
• upper mantle: made of denser, solid but plastic
(malleable) rock
• lower mantle: composed of even denser, solid, and
rigid rock
Outer core
• the only liquid layer that flows chaotically

Inner core
• densest layer composed of solid iron with some
amount of nickel
How do we Seismologists use earthquakes to “see” inside Earth.
get
information Seismic energy radiates from the focus as seismic waves
from Earth’s
interior? Body waves are seismic waves that pass through Earth’s
interior

Speed and direction of body waves change depending on

the layer it is passing through

Seismographs detect body waves when they reach Earth’s

surface

Seismologists interpret the data from seismographs to

determine Earth’s interior
Kinds of Body Waves

• P-waves or primary waves

⁻ fastest type of body wave
⁻ longitudinal waves that compress and expand
⁻ can pass through the solid and liquid layers of
Earth’s interior
• S-waves or secondary waves
⁻ travel slower than P-waves
⁻ transverse waves that rise and fall
⁻ can only pass through the solid layers of Earth’s
interior
Discontinuities in Earth’s Interior
Discontinuity – physical boundary between Earth’s layers
• Mohorovicic discontinuity
⁻ discontinuity between the crust and the mantle

• Gutenberg discontinuity,
⁻ boundary between the solid lower mantle and the
liquid outer core
Lesson 6.10

Earthquake Preparedness