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What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past
one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. The
location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called
the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is
called the epicenter.
The earth has four major layers: the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust.
(figure 2) The crust and the top of the mantle make up a thin skin on the surface
of our planet. But this skin is not all in one piece – it is made up of many pieces
like a puzzle covering the surface of the earth. (figure 3) Not only that, but these
puzzle pieces keep slowly moving around, sliding past one another and bumping
into each other. We call these puzzle pieces tectonic plates, and the edges of the
plates are called the plate boundaries. The plate boundaries are made up of
many faults, and most of the earthquakes around the world occur on these faults.
Since the edges of the plates are rough, they get stuck while the rest of the plate
keeps moving. Finally, when the plate has moved far enough, the edges unstick
on one of the faults and there is an earthquake.
The size of an earthquake depends on the size of the fault and the amount of slip
on the fault, but that’s not something scientists can simply measure with a
measuring tape since faults are many kilometers deep beneath the earth’s
surface. So how do they measure an earthquake? They use
the seismogram recordings made on the seismographs at the surface of the
earth to determine how large the earthquake was (figure 5). A short wiggly line
that doesn’t wiggle very much means a small earthquake, and a long wiggly line
that wiggles a lot means a large earthquake. The length of the wiggle depends
on the size of the fault, and the size of the wiggle depends on the amount of slip.
The size of the earthquake is called its magnitude. There is one magnitude for
each earthquake. Scientists also talk about the intensity of shaking from an
earthquake, and this varies depending on where you are during the earthquake.
P waves are like the lightning, and S waves are like the thunder. The P waves
travel faster and shake the ground where you are first. Then the S waves follow
and shake the ground also. If you are close to the earthquake, the P and S wave
will come one right after the other, but if you are far away, there will be more time
between the two. By looking at the amount of time between the P and S wave on
a seismogram recorded on a seismograph, scientists can tell how far away the
earthquake was from that location. However, they can’t tell in what direction from
the seismograph the earthquake was, only how far away it was. If they draw a
circle on a map around the station where the radius of the circle is the
determined distance to the earthquake, they know the earthquake lies
somewhere on the circle. But where?
Scientists then use a method called triangulation to determine exactly where the
earthquake was (figure 6). It is called triangulation because a triangle has three
sides, and it takes three seismographs to locate an earthquake. If you draw a
circle on a map around three different seismographs where the radius of each is
the distance from that station to the earthquake, the intersection of those three
circles is the epicenter!
No, and it is unlikely they will ever be able to predict them. Scientists have tried
many different ways of predicting earthquakes, but none have been successful.
On any particular fault, scientists know there will be another earthquake
sometime in the future, but they have no way of telling when it will happen.
Is there such a thing as earthquake weather? Can some animals or people tell when
an earthquake is about to hit?
These are two questions that do not yet have definite answers. If weather does
affect earthquake occurrence, or if some animals or people can tell when an
earthquake is coming, we do not yet understand how it works.
1. Natural events such as volcanic eruptions and meteor impacts can cause earthquakes,
but the majority of naturally-occurring earthquakes are triggered by movement of the
earth's plates.
2. The earth's surface consists of 20 constantly moving plates. The pressure increase
from shifting plates can cause the crust to break. This break allows stress to be
released as energy, which moves through the earth in the form of waves (aka
earthquakes).
3. Normally, it's not the shaking ground itself that claims lives during an earthquake. It's
the associated destruction of man-made structures and the instigation of other natural
disasters such as tsunamis, avalanches and landslides. Not only is it important to have
a plan for yourself in the case of an earthquake, but your pets need a disaster plan as
well. Create an earthquake plan for the animals around so if disaster strikes, you’ll be
prepared. Sign up for Save Our Pets.
4. The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) records an average of 20,000
earthquakes every year (about 50 a day) around the world. There are, however,
millions of earthquakes estimated to occur every year that are too weak to be
recorded.
5. Each year the southern California area has about 10,000 earthquakes -- the majority of
which go unnoticed. However, if there is a large earthquake the aftershock sequence
will produce many more earthquakes of all magnitudes for months.
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6. Almost 80% of all the planet's earthquakes occur along the rim of the Pacific Ocean,
called the "Ring of Fire"; a region that encircles the Pacific Ocean and is home to 452
volcanoes (over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes).
7. The largest recorded earthquake in the United States was a magnitude 9.2 that struck
Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 28, 1964.
8. The largest recorded earthquake in the world was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile on May
22, 1960.
9. When the Chilean earthquake occurred in 1960, seismographs recorded seismic waves
that traveled around the world. These seismic waves shook the entire earth for many
days.
10. An undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a series of devastating tsunamis
on Dec. 26, 2004. The tsunamis struck the coasts of most landmasses bordering the
Indian Ocean, bringing 100-foot waves and killing over 225,000 people in 11
countries.
11. Alaska is the most earthquake-prone state and one of the most seismically active
regions in the world. The region experiences a magnitude 7.0 earthquake almost every
year and a magnitude 8.0 or greater earthquake approximately once every 14 years.
Figure 3. Fault blocks showing stress field and planar movement for (a) normal fault in which
the hanging wall moves downward relative to the foot wall, (b) strike-slip in which the blocks
move laterally in opposing directions , and (c) reverse or thrust fault in which the hanging
wall moves upward relative to the foot wall. The three orthogonal stress directions are shown
for vertical (SV), maximum horizontal (SHmax) and minimum horizontal (SHmin) stresses
For additional information on earthquakes, plate tectonics, and faults, see the U.S Geological Survey
(USGS) and British Geological Survey sites.
In general, the closer you are to the source of an earthquake, the more likely you are to feel the
earth move beneath your feet. Richter magnitudes larger than about 3 can be felt by humans, and
earthquakes larger than about Richter magnitude 5 in a populated area can cause minor damage to
structures. An exception to this is the case when ground conditions alter the discharge of energy.
Because seismic waves travel more slowly through unconsolidated sediments than bedrock, when
the wave moves from bedrock to sediment, the energy of the seismic wave is used to displace
material instead of propagating the seismic wave, causing stronger ground movement.
Figure 5. Seismic signals from the 9 MW Tohoku earthquake on March 11, 2011, detected by
seismic stations in and around Alberta. The red flags mark the arrivals set by the automated
detection, association, and location algorithms of Antelope seismic acquisition and database
software used at the AGS to analyze events.
To more robustly determine an earthquake location, seismologists use a computer program, with
information about the seismic stations and the local or regional Earth structure, to calculate the
location in an iterative process. Accurate locations require many stations and a good spatial
distribution of the stations. Large earthquakes have more energy, and their signals are picked up by
both local and more distant stations, whereas small earthquakes (less than 2 ML) are only picked up
on stations within about 50 km.
Although the depth is the most poorly determined variable in an earthquake location, there are
several constraints that help seismologists. Intraplate earthquakes do not occur deeper than about
15–30 km, depending on the regional geotherm. This is because while colder materials are more
brittle and fracture, warmer materials behave as a plastic and are more likely to flow. Another
constraint is the identification of Rayleigh surface waves, which requires the focal depth to be less
than five kilometres.
The following table gives intensities that are typically observed at locations near
the epicenter of earthquakes of different magnitudes.
II. Felt only by a few persons at rest, especially on upper floors of buildings.
IV. Felt indoors by many, outdoors by few during the day. At night, some
awakened. Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; walls make cracking sound.
Sensation like heavy truck striking building. Standing motor cars rocked
noticeably.
VI. Felt by all, many frightened. Some heavy furniture moved; a few instances of
fallen plaster. Damage slight.
VII. Damage negligible in buildings of good design and construction; slight to
moderate in well-built ordinary structures; considerable damage in poorly built or
badly designed structures; some chimneys broken.
XI. Few, if any (masonry) structures remain standing. Bridges destroyed. Rails
bent greatly.
XII. Damage total. Lines of sight and level are distorted. Objects thrown into the
air.
Magnitudes are based on a logarithmic scale (base 10). What this means is that
for each whole number you go up on the magnitude scale, the amplitude of the
ground motion recorded by a seismograph goes up ten times. Using this scale,
a magnitude 5 earthquake would result in ten times the level of ground shaking
as a magnitude 4 earthquake (and 32 times as much energy would be released).
To give you an idea how these numbers can add up, think of it in terms of the
energy released by explosives: a magnitude 1 seismic wave releases as much
energy as blowing up 6 ounces of TNT. A magnitude 8 earthquake releases as
much energy as detonating 6 million tons of TNT. Pretty impressive, huh?
Fortunately, most of the earthquakes that occur each year are magnitude 2.5 or
less, too small to be felt by most people.
Magnitude scales can be used to desribe earthquakes so small that they are
expressed in negative numbers. The scale also has no upper limit, so it can
describe earthquakes of unimaginable and (so far) unexperienced intensity,
such as magnitude 10.0 and beyond.
Here's a table describing the magnitudes of earthquakes, their effects, and the
estimated number of those earthquakes that occur each year.