Fig 1

EARTH’S INTERIOR
Fifty years ago earthquakes were viewed mainly in the light of the
frightful human experiences associated with them. In more recent
years, however, geologists have learned to regard the physical
phenomena resulting from earthquakes as one of the most important
sources of information about the earth’s interior.

This chapter will be concerned with the facts about earthquakes on

which deductions about the physical conditions deep within the
earth are based.

The fact that man has found some academic use for earthquakes
does not reduce the effect of a quake on a heavily populated area,
nor is it much comfort to the average individual that with all of their
modern instruments of earthquake detection, the experts still are
unable to predict accurately the time and place of the next severe
shock.
 EARTH’S INTERIOR
Although it is extremely doubtful whether geophysicists will ever be able
to predict the time of an earthquake to the nearest day or week, it is not
beyond the realm of possibility that they eventually may be able to
predict the time of occurrence to the nearest year or so.

Facts About Earthquakes

An earthquake is a natural vibration of the ground produced by the
rupturing of large masses of rock beneath the surface. The intensities of
earthquakes vary over a wide range from those barely perceptible to
people near by to those which create widespread destruction of life and
property.

The energy released during the largest shocks is roughly equivalent to

10,000 of the original atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima late in World
War 11.
 EARTH’S INTERIOR
The place beneath the earth’s surface where an earthquake originates is
called the focus, and the point on the earth’s surface immediately above the
focus is the epicenter. Earthquake foci are distributed in three general depth
ranges. Shallow earthquakes originate within 40 miles of the surface.

Intermediate earthquakes have foci between 40 and 200 miles down, and
the deep focus earthquakes originate at depths between 200 and 400 miles.
The deepest focus ever recorded was 435 miles. Most of the million
earthquakes a year are shallow. These also have the greatest energy.

Distribution of Earthquakes. The greatest belt of earthquake activity is

concentrated in what is known as the circum-Pacific belt. Earthquakes in
this area affect Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, Japan, the Philippines, New
Guinea, New Zealand, and the west coasts of North and South America.Fig1

Another belt extends from the Mediterranean eastward through Asia and
eventually joins the Pacific belt in the East Indies.
 EARTH’S INTERIOR
Theoretically, no place on the earth’s surface is entirely safe from
earthquakes. However, 80 to 90 per cent of the shallow and
intermediate shocks and almost all of the deep focus quakes are
concentrated in the circum-Pacific belt.

Nearly all of the remainder of shallow and intermediate

earthquakes occur in the Mediterranean-Asiastic belt. A few major
shocks and a number of minor ones occur along the mid- Atlantic
ridge as well as in the Arctic and Indian Oceans.

In the eastern United States earthquakes of varying intensities have

occurred in Boston (1775), Missouri (1811), South Carolina (1886),
Maine (1904), New York City (1987), and Chicago (1938). Eastern
Canada has also experienced several shocks within the last hundred
years.
 EARTH’S INTERIOR
But the California-Nevada region has had about five thousand
earthquakes a year since the first human record of a California quake
in 1769. This amounts to about 21/2 per cent of all quakes felt in the
entire world, and almost 90 per cent of all shocks felt in the United
States.

VanderHoof estimates that an earthquake of sufficient intensity’ to

be felt by a person somewhere in the California-Nevada region occurs
on the average of once every hour and three-quarters.

It is for this reason that the science of seismology, the scientific study
of earthquakes, made its North American debut in California when
the first earthquake recording instrument, a seismograph, was set tip
at Berkeley in 1887. We thus turn to California for much of our
knowledge about the causes and effects of earthquakes.
 EARTH’S INTERIOR
The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906
On April 18, 1906, San Francisco was partially destroyed by a severe
earthquake. To this day it is probably one of the best documented
quakes of California history. Oddly enough, direct damage by the quake
to buildings and property on that fateful clay amounted to only about 5
per cent of the total damage.

Most of the havoc was caused by fire which broke out after the quake.
The quake itself lasted only about 40 seconds, but water mains,
disrupted by the shock, reduced the fire-fighting capacity of the city to
nil.

The quake’s intensity has been exceeded many times elsewhere, but
the geologic circumstances surrounding it make the San Francisco
quake one of the most valuable examples of the way in which an
earthquake is produced.
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Causes of Earth quakes
Aristotle (384—322 B.C.), the Einstein of his day, explained that
earthquakes were the result of entrapped air escaping from the
earth’s interior. No less fanciful were the writings of some
theologians two thousand years later who taught that earthquakes
were manifestations of Gods wrath.
Modern earthquake theory is based on factual data rather than the
musings of philosophers and theologians. Earthquakes are produced
by the slippage of rock masses along a rupture or break called a fault.
Where such faults intersect the earth’s surface, a fault trace is
produced (Fig. 2).
One of the most intensely studied and best known faults in the
earth’s crust is the San Andreas fault of California which passes near
San francisco. The surface trace of this great fault extends from a
point off the Oregon coast to the lower reaches of the Gulf of
California
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(Fig. 3), a total distance of over 1800 miles. Not only is the trace of
the San Andreas fault visible on the ground but its trend beneath the
ocean has been established by the positions of many earthquake
epicenters (Fig. 3).

The total movement along the fault since its origin in the geologic
past is estimated by some geologists at 350 miles, the west Side
having moved to the north.

Sporadic movements along this fault resulted in many earthquakes

including the San Francisco quakes of 1906 and 1957. Displacement
along the fault zone in 1906 was practically all in a horizontal
direction and amounted to 21 feet.
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Why did the slippage take place on that early morning in April, 1906?
the answer to this question lies in the elastic rebound theory. a
widely accepted idea advanced by seismologists to explain the
mechanism of faulting.

However, this theory does not account for the force which produced
faulting, but only the manner in which the rocks yield to these forces.
Ultimately, the forces which cause faulting are the same as those
which produce the mountains and other structural features of the
crust.

The Elastic Rebound Theory. When a solid is squeezed (by

compression ) or stretched (by tension) it deforms according to
certain physical laws which depend on the inherent properties of the
solid itself. The squeezing or stretching force on a unit is called a
stress,and the deformation of the solid yielding to the stress is called
strain.
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Elastic materials are those in
which the stress is proportional
to the strain. For example, to
increase the length of a rubber
band to twice its unstretched
length, a certain pull is required.

If the amount of stretching is

doubled, twice the pull must be
exerted, and if the stretching is
tripled, three times the original
pull is required. But the band
cannot be stretched indefinitely
because eventually it will break.
 INTERIOR OF EARTH
The same analysis can be applied to a stick of wood bent across the
knee. Up to a certain point the stick can be deformed without breaking.
If the bending stress is released, the stick returns to its original
unstressed shape. but if the stress continues to increase, the stick
snaps. At that instant the stress returns to zero.

Some materials are elastic up to a certain stress value. When the stress
exceeds a certain point, the solid continues to deform without the
addition of more stress. Such deformation is called plastic
deformation, and the stress value where the deformation changes from
elastic to plastic is called the yield point

Another factor involved in this matter is the rate at which the stress is
applied. For some solids it has been shown experimentally that if the
stress is applied very slowly, the material will deform plastically at stress
values far below the ‘normal’ yield point.
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But when the stress is built up rapidy, the material ruptures or breaks
shortly after the yield point is reached without much plastic
deformation. This important experimental evidence may explain
rocks will be folded under certain conditions and faulted under
others.

In rock masses where the stress is building up rapidly, faulting occurs

and when rupturing takes place an earthquake is born, hence the
elastic rebound theory requires that the stresses build up rapidly to
the point where rupture takes place.

Some breaking may occur before the principal shock in the form of
foreshocks, and adjustments along
the fault zone after the principal shock produce aftershocks (Fig. 4).
 INTERIOR OF EARTH
After the principal shock occurs, most of the strain in the rocks is released However,
the ruptured zone is a plane of weakness along which
further movement will take place when the stress becomes large enough
to overcome the friction which holds the two sides of the ruptured rock
mass together. Hence, recurrent movements along faults like the San
Andreas are to be expected.

EarthquakeWaves
The energy released during movement along a fault plane is transmitted away
from the focus in the form of earthquake waves. The seismograph is an instrument
which automatically records the various kinds of earthquake waves and their exact
time of arrival even at recording stations so far from the epicenter that the waves
cannot be felt by humans.

A network of seismograph stations is absolutely necessary for the study

of earthquakes. Several hundred stations are in operation all over the
world, especially in Japan, New Zealand, central Europe, and North America
The seismograph consists essentially of a weight suspended from a
rigid frame. The frame vibrates when earthquake waves arrive, and the
suspended weight tends to remain at rest because of its own inertia. By
measuring the magnified movement of the frame with respect to the
suspended mass, the traces of earthquake waves are recorded. A
mechanism is also attached to the seismograph which accurately places
time marks on the record sheet so that the exact time of arrival of each
vibration can be determined. The graphic record produced by a
seismograph is a seismogram (Fig.6).
 INTERIOR OF EARTH
Types of earth quake Waves. The energy released during faulting
produces two classes of waves. One group travels deep within the
earth. These are known as body waves. The second group, known as
surface wave, travels along the surface.

Body waves consist of longitudinal waves (P waves) and transverse

waves (S waves). The terms transverse and longitudinal refer to the
vibration direction in relation to the direction of propagation of the
wave (Fig.7). The P waves travel faster than the S waves and
therefore arrive at the seismograph station before the S waves.

The surface waves , L waves are mainly responsible for the damage
experienced at the ground surfaces. Magnitude of the earthquake
can be measured on the ritcher scale.

Mild 2 Moderate 3-5 worse 8 or more

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Seismologists have been able to construct travel-time graphs for
earthquake waves (Fig 9), Such graphs show that the difference in
time of arrival of P and S waves at a seismograph station is a function
of the distance between the station and the epicenter of the quake.

The farther away the station is from the epicenter, the greater will be
the time lapse between the P and S waves. The seismographs indicate
the distance hut not the direction of the epicenter, therefore,
seismograms from a minimum of three stations are necessary to
locate it accurately.

The Earth’s interior as Deduced from Earthquake Waves

The major subdivisions of the earth were defined as the crust,
mantle, and core. The reader may wonder how such positive
statements can be made about parts of the earth that have never
been observed directly.
 INTERIOR OF EARTH
The answer lies in the
tremendous strides made by
seismologists in the
interpretation of earthquake
waves.
The knowledge gained from
earthquake waves used in
conjunction with laboratory
experiments has revealed much
about the earth as a planet.

Theoretical considerations
confirmed by laboratory
experiments reveal
that vibrations travel faster as
the elasticity of the transmitting
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medium is increased. (Elasticity is simply an expression of the ratio of stress to
strain.) It is also known that velocity decreases as density increases.

Seismologists have learned that the velocities of hotly waves increase as they
penetrate the deeper portions of the earth, at least to a depth of 1800 miles (Fig.
9). Hence, the deduction is that the elasticity of the earth increases more rapidly
than the density with depth.

The question is, however, does the earth consist of a number of concentric shells,
each of which permits waves to travel at a higher velocity than the shell
immediately surrounding it, or is the increase in the velocity of earthquake waves
gradual so that no sharp boundaries exist? Actually, the evidence points to both
conditions some definite boundaries (discontinuities) do exist, but between these
the increase in velocity is gradual (Fig. 9).
TheCrust
The base of the crust is marked by a sharp boundary known as the Mohorovicic or
M discontinuity .At this depth, 20 to 25 miles below the earth’s surface, the
velocities of both P and S waves increase abruptly.
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The speed of P waves increases from a
velocity of about kilometers per second (4
miles per second) to about 8 kilometers per
second (5 miles per second) as they cross the
M discontinuity or the base of the crust.

The depth of the M discontinuity is greater

beneath the continents than beneath the
ocean basins, Also some seismic evidence
suggests the presence of an intermediate
layer lying above the M discontinuity but
below the granitic continental crust.

This zone is denser than granite, a fact which

suggests that it is probably equivalent to the
basaltic material which characterizes the
oceanic crust. However, the upper limit of
this intermediate “layer” is riot well defined.
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The long surface earthquake waves travel faster in oceanic crustal material than they do in
continental crustal rocks. This fact gives added support to the concept of light granitic
continents “floating” in a sea of basalt.

TheMantle
From the M discontinuity to a depth of 1800 miles, the velocity of both P and S waves
increases gradually (Fig. 9). About 300 miles down there is an increase in the rate of velocity
increase. The experts are not in agreement as to the significance of this flexure in the velocity-
depth curve, But the geophysicist, Birch, believes it to indicate a boundary between materials
of different composition rather than a boundary between two phases of the same material.
About 500 miles down the rate of velocity increase falls off somewhat.
From 500 miles to 1800 miles the mantle is apparently quite uniform in composition but
increases in density. The most pronounced discontinuity below the crust is the core boundary
which not only indicates a change in density and composition, but a change in state as well.

TheCore
Earthquake waves that reach depths of 1800 miles or more are drastically affected. The P
wave arrives several minutes “late” after it passes through the core, and S waves are lost
entirely. S waves are transverse and therefore cannot be transmitted through a material that
lacks rigidity. Liquids and gases have no rigidity, but in view of the high density the materials
at the earth’s core must have, it is not probable they are in the gaseous state.
INTERIOR OF EARTH
This leaves us with the concept that the earth’s
core consists of an extremely dense liquid,
dense because the earth as a whole has a
density of 5.52 whereas the crustal rocks
have densities of about 2.7 to 3.0, and the
difference must be made up in the deeper
earth materials. The densitv of the core is
probably 12 or more but its exact
composition is not known. Some favor au
iron—nickel composition while others
support the idea of iron—silicate core.
An abrupt velocity increase of P waves at
1360 miles below the core boundary (3160
miles below the earth’s surface) suggests
an inner core (Fig. 9). This may mean a
change from the liquid to the solid state,
but this is not a well established fact.
Modern views concerning the origin of the
earth’s magnetic’ field at attribute it to
electric currents set up by motion in the
liquid core. This is possible because the
core is thought to be metallic, and
therefore a good conductor.