EARTHQUAKES

Ive Polanco 14-1006

Introduction
An earthquake occurs when a sudden release of energy causes the ground to
shake and vibrate, associated with passage of waves of energy released at its
source. Earthquakes can be extremely devastating and costly events, sometimes
killing tens or even hundreds of thousands of people and levelling entire cities in a
matter of a few seconds or minutes
What makes Earthquakes even more dangerous that are extremely random and
oscillatory in nature. We cant run away from them. It that would be impossible, as
the earths broken crust is constantly moving. The clashes between the pieces
creates them. What we can do is to be prepare for them. We do this by studying
how an earthquake is created and they happen. As well we watch for warning
signs that occurs naturally. From this, many lives can be save and the damage to
property it can be reduce.

Plate tectonic theory

Plate tectonic theory is a theory that
states the earth's lithosphere is
composed of a mosaic of rigid plates
that are always in motion. Some
plates separates, other collides and
still other slide under, or over or past
another. The lithosphere is broken
into seven large and many small
moving plates. These large plates
include the Eurasian Plate, African
Plate, North American Plate, South
American Plate, Australian Plate, and
Pacific Plate. Several large tectonic
plates sometimes encompass more
than one continent.

Plate boundaries - Convergent

Where oceanic crust meets ocean crust
Subduction zones occur when one or both of the tectonic plates are composed of oceanic
crust. The denser plate is subducted underneath the less dense plate. The plate being
forced under is eventually melted and destroyed. In these areas where major earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions. These eruptions form mountains on the overriding plate

Where oceanic crust meets continental crust

The denser oceanic plate is subducted, often forming a mountain range on the continent.
The Andes is an example of this type of collision.

Where continental crust meets continental crust

Both continental crusts are too light to subduct so a continent-continent collision occurs,
creating especially large mountain ranges. The most spectacular example of this is the
Himalayas.

Plate boundaries - Divergent

The space created can also fill with
new crustal material sourced from
molten magma that forms below.
Divergent boundaries can form
within continents but will eventually
open up and become ocean basins.
On land
Divergent boundaries within continents
initially produce rifts, which produce
rift valleys.

Under the sea

The most active divergent plate
boundaries are between oceanic plates
and are often called mid-oceanic
ridges.

Plate boundaries - Transform

In some places, plates simply slide past each
other without pulling apart or colliding. Those
are called transform plate boundaries or
transform faults. Some of them offset the midoceanic ridges. Because the ridges are
spreading zones, the plates move away from
them.
Transform plate boundaries typically generate
large numbers of earthquakes, a few of which
are catastrophic. Oceanic transform faults
generate significant earthquakes without
causing casualties because no one lives on the
ocean floor. On continents it is a different
story. A sudden movement along the San
Andreas Fault caused the San Francisco
earthquake of 1906, with its large toll of
casualties and property damage.

Elastic Rebound theory

An earthquake occurs when a sudden release of
energy causes the ground to shake and vibrate,
associated with passage of waves of energy
released at its source. That energy come from
the tension that is released from inside the crust.
Plates do not always move smoothly alongside
each other and sometimes get stuck. When this
happens pressure builds up. When this pressure
is eventually released, an earthquake tends to
occur.
When the stored energy increase to levels that
exceed the ability of the friction forces to hold
the plate boundaries together sliding along those
boundaries occurs creating a phenomenon
known as elastic rebound. Elastic rebound
release the stored energy in the form of seismic
strain wave in all directions.

Faults
A fault is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock. Faults allow
the blocks to move relative to each other. All faults are related to the movement of
Earth's tectonic plates. The biggest faults mark the boundary between two plates.
An earthquake is caused by a sudden slip on a fault. When a rupture begins, it
starts at the focus and then propagates up, down, and laterally along the fault
plane during the earthquake. The sudden rupture of the rocks produces shock
waves, called seismic waves, which can shake the ground. In other words, an
earthquake releases the pent-up energy of the strained rocks as a series of
vibrational pulses or waves of energy.

Faults
Faults can be classified according to the way the
rocks on either side of the fault move in relation to
each other.
Normal faults move on steeply inclined surface.
Rocks above the fault surface, slip down and over the
rocks beneath the fault. Normal faults move when
earths crust pull apart, during crustal extension.
Reverse faults move rocks on the upper side of the
fault up and over those below.
Thrust faults are similar to reverse faults, but the
fault surface is more gently inclined. Reverse and
thrust faults move when earths crust is pushed
together, during crustal compression.
Strike-slip fault more move horizontally as rocks on
one side of the fault slip laterally burst those on the
other side.

The strength of an earthquake

The size of an earthquake is related
to the amount of movement on a
fault. The displacement, or offset, is
the distance of movement across the
fault, and the surface rupture length
is the total length of the break. The
largest earthquake expected for a
particular fault generally depends on
the total fault length, or the longest
segment of the fault that typically
ruptures.

This relationship between faultsegment length and earthquake size

puts a theoretical limit on the size of
an earthquake at a given fault. A
short fault only a few kilometres long
can have many small earthquakes
but not an especially large one
because the whole fault is not long
enough to break a large area of rock.
The San Andreas Fault, however,
could conceivably break its whole
length in one shot, causing a giant
earthquake and catastrophic damage
in this heavily populated region

Waves Types Body

Strain waves are classified into two main
group: body waves and surface waves
P-waves the primary or compressional
waves, which come as a sudden jolt. They
travel roughly 5 to 6 kilometres per
second in the less dense continental crust
and 8 kilometres per second in dense, less
compressible rocks of the upper mantle.
The S-wave shake the ground
perpendicular to the direction in which
they are going through. Slower than the Pwaves, they travel 3.5 kilometres per
second in the crust and 4.5 kilometre per
second in the upper mantle

Waves Types Surface

Surface waves, in contrast to body waves can
only move along the surface. They arrive
after the main P and S waves and are
confined to the outer layers of the Earth
Love waves have a particle motion, which,
like the S-wave, is transverse to the direction
of propagation but with no vertical motion.
Their side-to-side motion (like a snake
wriggling) causes the ground to twist from
side to side
Rayleigh waves create a rolling, up and
down motion with an elliptical and
retrograde particle motion confined to the
vertical plane in the direction of
propagation..

Predicting Earthquakes
Earthquake prediction is generally
defined as specifying where, when,
how big, and how probable a
predicted event is. But, it is difficult
to predict exactly when and where an
earthquake will occur and how large
it may be.
Some observations have been able
to predict in a very general manner
which areas are most likely to have
earthquake in specific interval of
time.

Some of the physical properties of

rocks in fault zone actually change in
measurable way prior to some
earthquakes, and monitoring of these
change may also ultimately help
predict impending earthquake event.
One measurable change in rocks is
called dilation, where the rock
expands because of the development
of numerous minor cracks of fracture
in the rocks that form in respond to
the stresses concentrated along the
fault zone.

Preparations
The majority of deaths and injuries from
earthquakes are caused by the damage or
collapse of buildings and other structures.
These losses can be reduced through
documenting and understanding how
structures respond to earthquakes.
Earthquakes destroy buildings by generating
waves that propagate through soil and create
movement at a buildings foundation. This
energy transfers into the buildings structure;
if the structure cannot properly absorb it
through a combination of strength, flexibility,
and ductility (the ability to bend without
breaking)the building will fail. But there
are plenty of ways to prevent that happening.

Base isolation
Separate the substructure of a building
from its superstructure
System involves floating a building above
its foundation on lead-rubber bearings,
which contain a solid lead core wrapped
in alternating layers of rubber and steel.
Steel plates attach the bearings to the
building and its foundation and then,
when an earthquake hits, allow the
foundation to move without moving the
structure above it.

Shock absorbers
Shock absorbers slow down and
reduce the magnitude of vibratory
motions by turning the kinetic
energy of your bouncing suspension
into heat energy that can be
dissipated through hydraulic fluid.