Land Damage Caused By Earthquakes

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Land Damage Caused By Earthquakes

Ground Shaking

Surface Faulting
Ground Failure Landslides Tsunamis
Ground Shaking Ground shaking is a term used to describe the vibration of the ground during an earthquake. Ground shaking is caused by body waves and surface seismic waves. Ground shaking leads to landslides and other soil movement. These are the main damage-causing events that occur during an earthquake. (#3)

Surface Faulting
Surface faulting is the differential movement of the two sides of a fracture at the Earth's surface. There are there types of surface faulting: (1) Strike-Slip (2) Normal (3) Reverse

Strike-Slip Faulting - a fault along which the movement is horizontal. Normal - a fault in which the rock above the fault plane has moved down relative to the rock below. Reverse - a fault in which the material above the fault plane moves up in relation to the material below. (#6)

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Types of faults

For more information on faults, click here, http://encarta.msn.com/index/conciseindex/30/0307B000.htm? z=1&pg=2&br=1

Ground Failure
Liquefaction Induced - Is not a type of ground failure. It is a physical process that takes place during some earthquakes that may lead to ground failure. As a consequence of liquefaction, clay-free soil deposits, primarily sands and silts, temporarily lose strength and behave as viscous fluids rather than as solids. Liquefaction takes place when seismic S waves pass through a saturated granular soil layer, distort its granular structure, and cause some of the void spaces to collapse.

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Example of Liquefaction Liquefaction causes three types of ground failure: (1) lateral spreads (2) flow failures (3) loss of bearing strength.

Lateral Spreads - Lateral spreads involve the lateral movement of large blocks of soil as a result of liquefaction in a subsurface layer. Movement takes place in response to the ground shaking generated by an earthquake.

Flow Failures- Flow failures, consisting of liquefied soil or blocks of intact material riding on a layer of liquefied soil, are the most catastrophic type of ground failure caused by liquefaction. Flow failures can originate either underwater or on land. Many of the largest and most damaging flow failures have taken place underwater in coastal areas. Loss of Bearing Strength - When the soil supporting a building or some other structure liquefies and loses strength, large deformations can occur within the soil, allowing the structure to settle and tip. (#3) For pictures and information on land damage due to ground failure, click here, http://www.es.ucsc.edu/~es10/fieldtripEarthQ/Damage1.html

Landslides

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A landslide is a descent of a mass of earth and rock down a mountain slope. Landslides may occur when water from rain and melting snow sinks through the earth on top of a slope, seeps through cracks and pore spaces in underlying sandstone, and encounters a layer of slippery material, such as shale or clay, inclined toward the valley. The water collects along the upper surface of this layer, which it softens. If the support is sufficiently weakened, a mass of earth and rock slides down along the welllubricated layer. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions can also cause severe, fastmoving landslides. Landslides that suddenly rush down a steep slope can cause great destruction across a wide area of habitable land and sometimes cause floods by damming up bodies of water. (#5)

Example of a Landslide

For pictures of landslide damage, click here, http://landslides.usgs.gov/html_files/landslides/slides/landslideimages.htm

Tsunamis
Japanese word meaning, "harbor wave" and used as the scientific term for seismic sea wave generated by an undersea earthquake or possibly an undersea landslide or volcanic eruption. When the ocean floor is tilted or offset during an earthquake, a set of waves is created similar to the concentric waves generated by an object dropped into

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the water. Most tsunamis originate along the Ring of Fire, a zone of volcanoes and seismic activity, 32,500 km (24,000 mi) long, which encircles the Pacific Ocean.(#8)

Tsunamis Wave Example of Tsunamis Damage

To view an animation of a tsunamis, click here, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/animations/tsunami/index.html

Land damage due to earthquakes is pretty much the same all over the world. Major earthquakes cause more damage than minor earthquakes, but in general, the type of land damage caused is the same no matter where an earthquake occurs in the world. For a Real-Time Earthquake Map of California, click here, http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/ recenteqs/latest.htm For a Real-Time Earthquake Map of Japan, click here, http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/ japan.html For more information on earthquakes, click on the following links: USGS National Earthquake Center: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/ Links to other earthquake related sites: http://www.sristi.org/earthquake/read_exp.html

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