Earthquake and Faults

Earthquake
 is a caused of a sudden slip on a fault.
 It occurs when parts of the earth’s crust break and also the rocks together
with a fault slide near each other or far away from each other. This is often
called faulting.
 Two types of Earthquake:
1. Tectonic earthquake – caused by the movement of crust’s place

2. Volcanic earthquake- caused by a volcanic activity.

 Hazard Map
• associated with potential earthquakes in a particular area, and a seismic
hazard map shows the relative hazards in different areas. The maps are
made by considering what we currently know about: Past faults and
earthquakes.
 Fault
 A fault is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock.
Faults allow the blocks to move relative to each other. This movement
may occur rapidly, in the form of an earthquake - or may occur slowly, in
the form of creep. Faults may range in length from a few millimeters to
thousands of kilometers.
 3 types of fault
1. Normal fault- occurs when the hanging wall moves down relative to the
foot wall.
 3 types of fault
2. Reverse fault- occurs when the hanging wall moves up or is thrust
over the foot wallIn a reverse fault, the block above the fault moves up relative to
the block below the fault. This fault motion is caused by compressional forces and
results in shortening. A reverse fault is called a thrust fault if the dip of the fault
plane is small.
3. strike- slip fault- vertical (or nearly vertical) fractures where the
blocks have mostly moved horizontally. If the block opposite an observer
looking across the fault moves to the right, the slip style is termed right-
lateral; if the block moves to the left, the motion is termed left-lateral.