Earthquake

Earthquake: An earthquake is an unpredictable event in which masses of rock shift below Earth's
surface, releasing enormous amounts of energy and sending out shock waves that sometimes cause the
ground to shake dramatically. Not all earthquakes are enormous, but they can become one of Earth's most
destructive forces.

Measuring earthquakes:

An earthquake's power can be measured in two ways: by intensity and magnitude.

Magnitude

Magnitude is a quantitative measure of the actual size of the earthquake. American seismologist Charles

F. Richter (1900–1985) noticed that (a) at the same distance, seismograms (records of earthquake ground

vibration) of larger earthquakes have bigger wave amplitude than those of smaller earthquakes; and (b) for

a given earthquake, seismograms at farther distances have smaller wave amplitude than those at close
distances. These prompted him to propose (in 1935) the now commonly used magnitude scale, the Richter

Scale. It is obtained from the seismograms and accounts for the dependence of waveform amplitude on

epicentral distance. This scale is also called Local Magnitude scale. There are other magnitude scales, like

the Body Wave Magnitude, Surface Wave Magnitude and Wave Energy Magnitude.. An increase in

magnitude (M) by 1.0 implies 10 times higher waveform amplitude and about 31 times higher energy

released. For instance, energy released in a M7.7 earthquake is about 31 times that released in a M6.7

earthquake, and is about 1000 (≈31×31) times that released in a M5.7 earthquake. Most of the energy

released goes into heat and fracturing the rocks, and only a small fraction of it (fortunately) goes into the

seismic waves that travel to large distances causing shaking of the ground en-route and hence damage to

structures.

An earthquake that measures 8 or above on the Richter scale causes total damage. According to the

magnitude, the Earthquakes are normally categorized as:

Intensity

Intensity is a qualitative measure of the actual shaking at a location during an earthquake, and is assigned

as Roman Capital Numerals. There are many intensity scales. Two commonly used one are the Modified

Mercalli Intensity (MMI) Scale, developed by Italian seismologist Guiseppe Mercalli (1850–1914) in

1902. Besides, there are other scales like, EMS, MSK, JMA Scale etc. All the scales are almost similar and

range from I (least perceptive) to XII (most severe). The intensity scales are based on three features of

shaking – perception by people and animals, performance of buildings, and changes to natural

surroundings. The distribution of intensity at different places during an earthquake is shown graphically

using isoseismals, lines joining places with equal seismic intensity.

 Figure: The isoseismal map of great Indian earthquake of 1897.

The peak ground acceleration (PGA), i.e., maximum acceleration experienced by the ground during

shaking, is one way of quantifying the severity of the ground shaking. Approximate empirical correlations

are available between the MM intensities and the PGA that may be experienced.

Based on data from past earthquakes, scientists Gutenberg and Richter in 1956 provided an approximate

correlation between the Local Magnitude ML of an earthquake with the intensity I0 sustained in the

epicentral area as:

(For using this equation, the Roman numbers of intensity are replaced with the corresponding Arabic

numerals, e.g., intensity IX with 9.0).

Basic Difference: Magnitude versus Intensity
Magnitude of an earthquake is a measure of its size. For instance, one can measure the size of an
earthquake by the amount of strain energy released by the fault rupture. This means that the magnitude of
the earthquake is a single value for a given earthquake. On the other hand, intensity is an indicator of the
severity of shaking generated at a given location. Clearly, the severity of shaking is much higher near the
epicenter than farther away. Thus, during the same earthquake of a certain magnitude, different locations
experience different levels of intensity.

The motion of earthquakes: Seismic waves:

The vibrations transmitting the shock of an earthquake are called seismic waves. These waves travel
outward in all directions, like ripples from a stone dropped in a pond. The area where energy is first
released to cause an earthquake is called the focus. The focus lies underground at a shallow, intermediate,
or deep depth—down to about 430 miles (700 kilometers). On the basis of the depth of focus, an
earthquake may be termed as shallow focus (0-70 km), intermediate focus (70-300 km), and deep focus (>
300 km). The epicenter is the point on Earth's surface, usually almost directly above the focus, where the
seismic waves of an earthquake first appear on the surface.

We have many different kinds of such waves and all of them move in varied ways. The two original kinds
of waves are surface waves and body waves. Surface waves ripples on water and only move along the
surface of the earth, whereas body waves move through the earth's inner layers. In both body and surface
waves, earthquakes radiate seismic energy.
Body waves: We have two kinds of body waves P waves and S waves. The other name of P waves is
primary waves that are first kind of body wave. This type of body wave can move through solid rock and
molten material like water or the liquid layers of the earth. It looks like sound waves, pulling and pushing
the rock it moves through. As the sound waves are pulling and pushing on the windows, it is similar to P
waves. Usually animals feel the P waves of an earthquake. Usually human can only feel the shaking and
snoring of these waves. This is the fastest waves, they move at about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) per second.

The other name of S wave is secondary wave. It is the second wave we feel in an earthquake. This kind of
waves is slower than P wave. Secondary wave can only move among solid rock. S wave can move rock
down and up or side-to-side. S waves move the rock in their path up and down and side to side. They
move at about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) per second.
Surface waves: Seismic waves traveling along Earth's surface are called surface waves or L waves (long).
Surface wave moves the ground from side-to side. Although surface waves move slower than body waves
—less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) per second—they cause greater damage. These waves set off
avalanches, landslides, and other earthquake damage.
The two main types, Love waves and Rayleigh waves are named after two prominent seismologists
(scientists who study earthquakes).

Love Waves: Love waves moves like secondary waves but they move in side to side instead of up and
down. Love waves set off avalanches, landslides, and other earthquake damage.

Raleigh Waves: The other type of surface wave is the Raleigh Wave, it named by John William Strut, Lord
Raleigh. This type of wave mathematically calculated the entity. Raleigh wave rolls along the ground like
a watery wave across an ocean. It rolls, it moves the ground, moves side-to-side and up and down in the
same itinerary. The greatest the vibration felted from an earthquake is related to Raleigh wave in which is
larger than the other waves.
Causes of earthquakes:

There are many causes for earthquakes. Movement on the Earth's crust, volcanic eruptions and man made
explosions are some.

Earth's crust is composed of many huge, rocky plates known as tectonic plates. These plates constantly
move slowly across the surface of Earth, bumping into each other, overrunning each other, and pulling
away from each other. Usually, the movement is gradual. At other times, the plates are locked together,
unable to release the accumulating energy. When the accumulated energy grows strong enough, the plates
break free causing ground-shaking vibrations associated with an earthquake. So, an earthquake is a sudden
movement of the Earth, caused by movement between tectonic plates.

Plate tectonics theory:

Convection current: Circular movement of a fluid in response to alternating heating and cooling.
Convergence: The movement of two plates toward one another.
Divergence: Separation of two plates as they move in opposing directions.
Ocean trench: Deep depression in the seafloor, created by an oceanic plate being forced downward into
the subsurface by another, overriding plate.
Plate margin: The boundaries where plates meet.
Seafloor spreading: Process in which new seafloor forms as molten rock from Earth's interior rises
toward the surface, pushing the existing seafloor out of its way.
Subduction: Tectonic process that involves one plate being forced down into the mantle at an oceanic
trench, where it eventually undergoes partial melting.
Transform motion: Horizontal plate movement in which one plate slides past another.
Plate tectonics is a comparatively new idea. The theory of plate tectonics gained widespread acceptance
only in the 1960s. About 50 years earlier, German geophysicist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) developed a
related theory known as continental drift. Wegener contended that the positions of Earth's continents are
not fixed. He believed instead that they are mobile and over time drift about on Earth's surface—hence the
name continental drift.

Wegener's most obvious evidence for his theory was the fact that several of the world's continents fit
together like pieces in a jig-saw puzzle. Based on this, he proposed that the continents of the world were
previously joined together in one large continental mass, a supercontinent he called Pangaea (pronounced
pan-JEE-ah). Wegener believed that this supercontinent had subsequently broken up into the six present-
day continents. However, Wegener could not provide a convincing explanation as to what moved the
continents around the surface of the planet. That answer came with the theory of plate tectonics.
The Pangaea supercontinent (top) and after it is broken up into Laurasia and Gondwanaland (bottom).

Plate tectonics is the geologic theory that Earth's crust is made up of rigid plates that "float" on the surface
of the planet. Tectonics comes from the Greek word meaning "builder." The movement of the plates
toward or away from each other either directly or indirectly creates the major geologic features at Earth's
surface.

Plate tectonics revolutionized the way geologists view Earth. Like the theory of evolution in biology, plate
tectonics is the unifying concept of geology. It explains nearly all of Earth's major surface features and
activities. These include faults and earthquakes, volcanoes and volcanism, mountains and mountain
building, and even the origin of the continents and ocean basins.
The thin, solid outer portion of the planet is the crust. Beneath that is the mantle, which is solid near the
top and "soft" or partially melted beginning at a depth of about 40 miles (65 kilometers) beneath the
surface. The crust and the rigid portion of the mantle compose the lithosphere. The soft portion of the
mantle is called the asthenosphere. It is the lithosphere that is broken up into plates, which move about
while floating upon the underlying asthenosphere. There are about eight major plates and several smaller
ones that are in constant contact with each other. When one plate moves, it causes other plates to move.
These plates have many different shapes and sizes. Some, such as the Juan de Fuca plate off the west coast
of Washington State, have surface areas of a few thousand square miles. The largest, the Pacific plate,
underlies most of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of hundreds of thousands of square miles.

Plate movement: Most modern geologists believe convection currents in the asthenosphere are the driving
force for plate motion. The heat energy at the center of the planet is carried to the surface by currents. As
they reach the surface, the currents cool and begin to sink back toward the center. Below the crust,
pressure exerted on the bottom of the plates by the convection currents helps to push the plates along.
Plates move at rates of about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) per year. The fastest plates move more than 4 inches
(10 centimeters) per year.

Plate interactions: Tectonic plates can interact in one of three ways. They can move toward one another,
or converge. They can move away from one another, or diverge. Or they can slide past one another, or
transform. The boundaries where plates meet are known as plate margins. The types of geologic activity
that occur when two plates interact is dependent on the nature of the plate interaction and of the margins.
Plate margins come in three varieties: oceanic-oceanic, continental-continental, and continental-oceanic.

Oceanic-oceanic plates. When two oceanic plates converge, one of the plates subducts or sinks
underneath the other, forming a deep depression called an ocean trench. The subducted plate sinks
downward into the mantle where it begins to melt. Molten rock from the melting plate rises toward the
surface and forms a chain of volcanic islands, or a volcanic island arc, behind the ocean trench. When
oceanic plates diverge, a ridge (mountain chain) develops and seafloor spreading occurs. Molten rock
pushes up at the divergent margin, creating mountains and an expanding seafloor. Today, Europe and
North America move about 3 inches (7.5 centimeters) farther apart every year as the Atlantic Ocean grows
wider.

Figure: Tectonic plates can interact in one of three ways: a) ocean-ocean convergence, b) ocean-
continental convergence, or c) continent-continent collisions.

Continental-continental plates. Continental-continental convergent plates act quite differently than

oceanic-oceanic plates. Continental crust is too light to be carried downward into a trench. At continental-
continental convergent margins neither plate subducts. The two continental plates converge, buckle, and
compress to form complex mountains ranges of great height. Convergence of this sort produced the
Himalayas when the Indian-Australian plate collided with the Eurasian plate.

Continental-continental divergence causes a continent to separate into two or more smaller continents
when it is ripped apart along a series of fractures. The forces of divergence literally tear a continent apart
as the two or more blocks of continental crust begin slowly moving apart and magma pushes into the rift
formed between them. Eventually, if the process of continental rifting continues, a new sea is born
between the two continents. Rifting between the Arabian and African plates formed the Red Sea in this
way.

Continental-oceanic plates. When continental and oceanic plates converge, the oceanic plate (which is
denser) subducts below the edge of the continental plate. Volcanoes form as result, but in this setting, the
chain of volcanoes forms on the continental crust. This volcanic mountain chain, known as a volcanic arc,
is usually several hundred miles inland from the plate margin. The Andes Mountains of South America
and the Cascade Mountains of North America are examples of volcanic arcs. No continental-oceanic
divergent margins exist today. They are unlikely to form and would quickly become oceanic-oceanic
divergent margins as seafloor spreading occurred.

Transform motion. In addition to convergence and divergence, transform motion may occur along plate
margins. Transform margins are less spectacular than convergent and divergent ones, and the type of plates
involved is really of no significance. As two rock plates slide past one another at a margin, a crack or fault
develops. The energy generated by the movement is often released in the form of an earthquake. The best
known example of a transform plate margin is the San Andreas Fault in California, where the Pacific and
North American plates are in contact.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake measured a magnitude 7.9 and ruptured 300 miles of the San
Andreas Fault, which slipped as much as 21 feet in some places. Historians estimate that more than
3,000 people died in the quake and the ensuing fire, making it the deadliest earthquake in U.S. history.

Faults: Faults or fault lines are cracks in the Earth's crust, which is the result of tectonic forces.
Sometimes the stooping and forcing wave puts great pressure on the rocks. Rocks can be flexible, and can
be stoop without rupture. But, if the force is increased too much the rock layer would move and like
breakage of rock layers. This process results in fault. Usually, the rock on one side of the fault line is
moved with respect to the rock on the other side. Large faults within the Earth's crust are the result of
differential or shear motion and active fault zones are the causal locations of most earthquakes.
Earthquakes are caused by energy release during rapid slippage along a fault. A fault that runs along the
boundary between two tectonic plates is called a transform fault. Since faults do not usually consist of a
single, clean fracture, the term fault zone is used when referring to the zone of complex deformation that
is associated with the fault plane. The two sides of a non-vertical fault are called the hanging wall and
footwall. By definition, the hanging wall occurs above the fault and the footwall occurs below the fault.

Types of Faults: There are three main types of faults. Normal faults, reverse faults and lateral faults.
Normal faults occur due to the tension of overlying block moving down the fault plane. Reverse faults
occur due to the compression of overlying block moving up the fault plane. Lateral faults (Strike-Slip -
Horizontal Motion, Wrench Faults) occur when, due to either type of stress, the blocks move horizontally
past one another. There are faults also where there was no movement (Joints - No Movement).

 Dip-Slip - Vertical Motion

 A fault in Bédarieux, France. The left part moves down while the right part moves up.

o Normal (Extension)
 o Reverse or Thrust (Compression)
o San Fernando, 1971
o Alaska, 1964- up to 150 ft

 Strike-Slip - Horizontal Motion (Wrench Faults)

o San Andreas - 21 Ft. in 1906

Earthquake occurrence and prediction

Earth experiences more than one million earthquakes a year. The vast majority of these measure 3.4 or
below on the Richter scale and cannot be felt by people. The planet never ceases to vibrate with the
motion of its tectonic forces. Full of heat and kinetic energy (the energy of an object due to its motion),
Earth has been resounding with the violence of earthquakes for more than four billion years. In recorded
human history, great earthquakes have been responsible for some of the most horrendous natural disasters.
In the past 800 years, 17 earthquakes have each caused 50,000 or more deaths.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, an estimated 100 million Americans live on or near an active
earthquake fault. Hundreds of millions more lived on or near such faults around the world. Knowing the
exact time and place an earthquake will occur still lies beyond the ability of scientists. However, in order
to interpret seismic activity and possibly to prevent needless deaths, seismologists constantly monitor the
stresses within Earth's crust. Ultrasensitive instruments placed across faults at the surface measure the
slow, almost imperceptible movement of plates. Other instruments measure phenomena that seem to
precede earthquakes. These include changes in tide and ground-water levels, fluctuations in the magnetic
properties of rocks, and the swelling or tilting of the ground. Peculiar animal behavior has also been
reported before many earthquakes, and scientific research into this phenomenon has been conducted.

Seismology Instruments:

 GPS-Global Positioning Systems (signals from satellites that locate where the crust of the earth
has moved
 Seismometer (records vibrations in the ground)
 Creepmeter (measures ground movement)
 Magnetometer (measures the magnetism of the earth) (stress on the earth's rock changes the
magnet field)
Seismometer
 Earthquake history

Largest earthquakes by magnitude

Pos. Date Location Magnitude

1 May 22, 1960 Valdivia, Chile 9.5

2 December 26, 2004 Off west coast northern Sumatra, Indonesia 9.3

3 October 16, 1737 Kamchatka, Russia ~9.3

3 March 27, 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA 9.2

5 November 4, 1952 Kamchatka, Russia 9.0

6 January 26, 1700 Cascadia subduction zone ~9

7 January 31, 1906 Colombia-Ecuador 8.8

8 February 4, 1965 Rat Islands, Alaska, USA 8.7

8 November 25, 1833 Sumatra, Indonesia 8.7

10 November 1, 1755 Lisbon, Portugal ~8.7

11 March 28, 2005 Sumatra, Indonesia 8.6-8.7*

12 March 9, 1957 Andreanof Islands, Alaska, USA 8.6

12 December 16, 1920 Ningxia-Gansu, China 8.6

12 August 15, 1950 Assam-Tibet 8.6

15 December 16, 1575 Valdivia, Chile 8.5

15 September 12, 2007 Sumatra, Indonesia 8.5

Deadliest earthquakes on record

Rank Name Date Location Fatalities Magnitude Comments

January 23,
1 "Shaanxi" Shaanxi, China 830,000 8.0
1556
27, 255,000
2 "Tangshan" July Tangshan, China 7.5 Estimated death toll as
1976 (official) high as 655,000.
Off West coast of
Deaths from
3 "Indian December Northern ~230,210 9.3 earthquake
26, 2004 Sumatra, dead and
Indonesia tsunami. and
Ocean" missing
Death toll disputed as
"Aleppo" October 11, Aleppo, Syria 230,000 8.5 first mention of
4
1138 230,000 dead was in
the 15th century.
"Damghan" December Damghan, Iran 200,000
5 22, 856
"Gansu" December Ningxia-Gansu, 200,000 - 7.8 or 8.5 Major fractures,
 16, 1920 China 240,000 landslides.

7 "Ardabil" March 23, Ardabil, Iran 150,000

893+
"Great September Kantō region,
8 143,000 7.9 Great Tokyo fire.
Kantō" 1, 1923 Japan
6, Ashgabat,
9 "Ashgabat" October 110,000 7.3
1948 Turkmenista
n
100,000
3.5 people
October 8, India & N.W.F.P, (estimated),
10 "Kashmir" 7.6 or 7.8 million
2005 Pakistan 80,000 homeless, 100,000
(official) feared dead
Source: USGS