EARTHQUAKE

PRESENTED BY SOURAV KUMAR KARN

 Definition and Common term
• Earthquake-Natural vibration induced from the interior of the earth due to seismic
force that shake the part of the earth and disturb natural phenomenon.
• Seismic waves – An elastic waves that is generated during an earthquake. These are
low frequency waves .Seismic waves are studied by seismologist.
• Focus- Is the place beneath the Earth’s surface from where an earthquake originates.
Also known as hypocenter.
• Epicenter-The point or line on the Earth’s surface immediately above the focus.
Diagram representing focus and epicenter
Epicenter is the first place where the earthquake
wave reach first and cause the maximum damage.
Area around the epicenter is called epicentral area.
Types of Earthquake on the basis of depth of focus

• Shallow earthquake – When the focus of earthquake is within 60 km depth

• Intermediate earthquake- When the focus of earthquake have the depth range
between 60 km – 300 km
• Deep earthquake- When the focus of earthquake have depth greater than 300 km .
The deepest earthquake ever recorded was in Vanuatu at the depth of 735.8 kilometer
in 2004.The deep focus earthquake are rare. Shallow focus earthquake are more
common and most damaging than other. The area affected by shallow focus
earthquake is smaller.
 Cause of earthquake
Depending upon the possible cause of earthquake ,earthquake are now a day
classified under two possible categories-
1.Tectonic earthquake
2.Non tectonic earthquake
 The tectonic earthquake
Earthquakes that are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks
along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves that make
the ground shake.
The tectonic earthquake are caused by the occasional movement of the crustal
block along the fracture plane called fault. Faulting is the phenomenon which
has been found associated with most of the serve earthquake of the world.
Diagram representing fault

Two blocks moves past each

other
 Controversy????
Whether faulting is due to earthquake or earthquake is due to faulting??
 ELASTIC REBOUND THEORY
The tectonic cause of earthquake was best explained by H.F Reid in his
“ELASTIC REBOUND THEORY” based on study of San Francisco
earthquake 1906.
According to him earth behave as an elastic mass that can regain its original
shape by releasing energy in response of force acting on the body.
 Observation by Reid
• Geodetic survey showed that during last 50 year prior to the
earthquake , distant points on the either side of the San Andreas
fault had moved a total of about 10 – 20feet.
• The fault itself however had not moved during the same 50year
• After the earthquake fault had also moved about 10-20 feet in
about one minute
• The damage was not caused by the fault movement , but it was
caused by the shaking ground ( earthquake) that accompanied the
fault movement
 summary
• Slow and gradual movement on either side of fault build up elastic strain in
the surrounding rocks .
• At some point the fault rupture releasing all this elastic energy as earthquake
wave .
• Wave radiate outward from this point of rupture (focus)
• It follows that once the energy is released , there will be no more earthquake
on this specific part of fault foe some time to time.
Diagram
 Earthquake wave
• The energy released during faulting , produces seismic waves ,which can be
detected by sensitive and delicate instrument called Seismograph.
• Record of the seismic waves is called seismogram.
Seismic waves and their type
BODY WAVES -These waves moves within the body of the
rock and travel through the of the earth
P- WAVE
• These are compressional in nature and
travel like a sound waves . The particle
vibrate in longitudinal direction with pull
and push effect, therefore these waves also
called longitudinal waves or
compressional wave or push and pull wave
.P wave is the fastest of all waves and has
ability to travel in all states of matter. This
is the first wave to be recorded in seismic
station.
S WAVE
• These waves are transverse or distortional
like those of light wave . The particles,
therefore travel in a direction at right angle
to the direction of waves .The velocity of
S-wave is controlled by the resistance of
medium to shear. These wave cannot travel
in liquid medium. S-wave travel slower
than P-wave and recorded second
DIAGRAM COMPARISION

P- WAVE S- WAVE
Surface wave –This wave can only travel near the surface of
the earth.
L-WAVE(LOVE
WAVE)
• Travel along the surface of the
earth from the point directly above
the quake or epicenter. Love wave
are the shear wave where the
shearing (back and forth)motion , is
confined to horizontal plane at the
Earth’s surface.
R- WAVE (RAYLEIGH
WAVE)
• These waves are similar to water
wave- a piece of the Earth’s surface
moves in a vertical ,elliptical path
parallel to the direction of wave
movement when an R-waves passes
through the crust. This wave is the
most destructive wave of all.
DIAGRAM OF L-WAVE AND R -WAVE

L -WAVE
 NON -TECTONIC EARTHQUAKE

Non-tectonic earthquakes-The non-tectonic

earthquakes are mainly of three types due to
surface causes, volcanic causes and collapse of
cavity roofs. The non-tectonic earthquakes
due Volcanic to surface causes Earthquakes or
Denudation earthquakes
 TRAVEL – TIME CURVE AND LOCATING THE
EPICENTRE

• The arrival times of P and S waves are used to determine the distance to an
earthquake using standard travel-time curves. P & S waves each shake the ground in
different ways as they travel through the Earth. P waves are faster than S waves so
by looking at seismograms, scientists can accurately locate the epicenter as well as
the hypocenter, or focus of the earthquake at depth.
• In simple word if we considered two car start with the same point and travel at the
different rate car 1 travel at speed of 40kmph and car 2 travel at speed of
30kmph.The faster car will arrive first at the station and if it arrive 6 hr ahead of car
2 then we can easily calculate the travelled distance is 720 km
 Calculation
Distance travelled by car 1 = speed *time =40*t
Distance travelled by car 2=30(t+6)
Therefore
40*t = 30*(t+6)
40*t = 30t+180
40t-30t = 180
10t = 180
t=180/10=18hr
distance =40 * 18 = 720 km
 TRAVEL TIME CURVE
Let the P wave arrive at 10.05 am and S wave arrive at 10.12 am
then what is the epicentral distance ?
After 4 min how much P wave travel ?
Locating the epicenter by three circle method
 Measuring an earthquake
• Measurement of earthquake can be done Qualitatively and Quantitatively
both.
• Qualitative measure of an earthquake is known as the intensity of an
earthquake while Quantitative measure is known as the magnitude of an
earthquake.
 Intensity of an earthquake
• Intensity of an earthquake is defined as the rating of an earthquake based on
actual effect produced by the quake on the Earth. In other word we can say
that the amount of damage done by an earthquake
• There is no doubt that maximum damage done by an earthquake is due to
maximum acceleration produced .This value can be estimated from
seismograph record .
• Intensity of an earthquake is measured by “MODIFIED MERCALLI’S
INTENSITY SCALE”
Modified Mercalli’s Intensity scale
MAGNITUDE OF AN EARTHQUAKE
• Magnitude of an earthquake is measure of the size of an earthquake based
on the total amount of energy released by an earthquake ,when an
overstrained rocks suddenly rebound to cause the given earthquake .
• The released energy in fact travel in the form of the earthquake waves, which
were recorded in the seismographic station.
• The energy released E and the earthquake magnitude M are estimated with
the help of the record of the Surface wave (L- wave)
Accelerogram of an earthquake
 Description
• Such a graph will indicate the maximum acceleration (α) reached during an
earthquake (maximum ordinate recorded on Y – axis).This value of maximum
ground acceleration (α) is then empirically connected to the value of E i.e. the
maximum energy released –
𝛼
𝐸=𝐶× 𝐷 2 + ℎ2
𝑛
E= maximum energy released in erg
α= maximum ground acceleration in mm/s²
D= distance of the recording station from the epicenter in K.m
C= CONSTANT =0.625
 Relation between magnitude of an earthquake and energy
released

log10 𝐸=4.8+1.5M
Where;
E = Max. energy released in erg
M =Magnitude of an earthquake in
 RELATION BETWEEN MAGNITUDE AND
AMPLITUDE

M = log10 𝐴 -log10 𝐴0
𝐴0 = the amplitude of the smallest detectable wave (or standard wave)
A= Amplitude of the maximum detectable wave
e.g. An earthquake is measured with a wave amplitude 392 times as great as 𝐴0 . What
is the magnitude of this earthquake using the Richter scale, to the nearest tenth?
𝐴 392 𝐴0
M = log =log = log 392 =2.6 RICHTER
𝐴0 𝐴0
 NOTE
• With every increase of earthquake magnitude the amplitude increase by 10
times and energy by 32 times.
e.g. For an earthquake of magnitude 6 and 7 , the seismic wave amplitude are
A6 and A7 and radiate energy are E6 AND E7 respectively
ANS. A7= 10 A6 AND E7=32 E6 GATE 2014
 RICHTER SCALE
• Richter scale (M )quantitative measure of an earthquake’s magnitude (size),
devised in 1935 by American seismologists Charles F. Richter and Beno
Gutenberg. The earthquake’s magnitude is determined using the logarithm
of the amplitude (height) of the largest seismic wave calibrated to a scale by
a seismograph.
• Richter scale has been subdivided into 10 scale from 1 to 10 and its every
successive higher number represent 32 times increase in enegy released
RICHTER SCALE
 Modified Richter Scales

• The shortcomings inherent in the original Richter scale spawned the development
of improved Richter scales by Richter and Gutenberg.
• In the decades that followed the creation of the original Richter scale, they
developed the body-wave magnitude scale( 𝑀𝑏 which calculates the magnitude of
primary, or P, and secondary, or S, seismic waves traveling within Earth) and the
surface-wave magnitude scale(𝑀𝑠 which calculates the magnitude of Love and
Rayleigh waves traveling along Earth’s surface).
• Although both scales continued to make use of seismographs and peak wave
amplitudes, they became relatively reliable ways to calculate the energy of all but the
largest earthquakes.
 Continue
• The surface-wave magnitude scale also had no distance restrictions between
the earthquake epicenter and the location of the seismograph, and the body-
wave magnitude scale, with its approximately 1,000-km (620-mile) range, was
viewed as accurate enough to measure the few relatively small earthquakes
that occurred in eastern North America. Both scales, however, suffered from
saturation when used to measure earthquakes of magnitude 8 and above.
 comparison 𝐴𝑝
𝑀𝑠 =log10
𝐴𝑠
+1.66log10 Δ +3.3 • 𝑚𝑏 =log10 𝑇
+ 𝑄(Δ, h)
𝑇
𝑀𝑠 is the vertical component of the
ground motion in micrometer and T is
the time period of the wave (18- 22sec)Δ
is an empirical distance in degree 200 ≤
Δ ≤ 1600 where the earthquake has focal
length of 50km.
 The moment magnitude (𝑀𝑊 or M) scale,
• Developed in the late 1970s by Japanese seismologist Hiroo Kanamori and American
seismologist Thomas C. Hanks, became the most popular measure of earthquake magnitude
worldwide during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It was designed to produce a more-
accurate measure of the total energy released by an earthquake. The scale abandoned the use
of peak wave amplitudes in its calculations, focusing instead on calculating an earthquake’s
seismic moment (M0)—that is, the displacement of the fault across its entire surface
multiplied by the force used to move the fault. Since the moment magnitude scale was not
limited by Richter’s process, it avoided the saturation problem and thus was used to
determine the magnitudes of the largest earthquakes. Moment magnitude calculations,
however, continue to express earthquake magnitude using a logarithmic scale, which allows
its results to compare favorably with those of other scales below magnitude 8.
 Continue….
• As we have already discussed the elastic rebound theory in which the blocks are displaced from their original position
let, the area S of the fractured segment and the amount by which it slipped D ,rigidity module µ of the rock adjacent to the
fault
then,
𝑀0 = µsd
moment magnitude (𝑀𝑊 )
𝑀𝑤ሶ = 2/3 (log10 𝑀0 - 9.1) in SI UNIT N.m
in c.g.s unit(dyne-cm)
𝑀𝑤 = 2/3(log10 𝑀0 − 16.1)

Used for large earthquake

 ISOSEISMAL LINE AND DEPTH OF
FOCUS
• Whenever an earthquake occur its intensity is maximum at the epicenter and
decreases away from the epicenter outward. The decrease in intensity is
inversely proportional to the inverse to the square of the distance from the
focus .
• LINE DRAWN THROUGH POINTS OF
EQUAL INTENSITY THEN THESE LINES ARE
KNOWN AS ISOSEISMAL LINES.
 DEPTH OF FOCUS
According to Oldham the depth of focus can be calculated as –

A B
𝜃

FOCUS
 Calculation
• Let A be the epicentral point of intensity a and point B is the another station where
the intensity is measured as b. The distance between the station B and the focus is r
focus (h) = dtan𝜃
If is known we can evaluate h
we have seen that intensity from the focus decrease as the square of the distance i.e.
𝑏 ℎ2 2𝜃
= =sin
𝑎 𝑟2
𝑏
= sin 𝜃
𝑎
 Distribution of earthquake
• The Pacific Ring of Fire accounts for about 68 per cent of all earthquakes and these are closely linked with
the phenomenon of plate tectonics. Chile, California, Alaska, Japan, Philippines, New Zealand and the mid-
ocean areas have had many minor and major earthquakes in this belt. Mountains here run along the border
of continents and nearly parallel to the depressions in oceans. The sharpest break in relief in this belt is the
cause of earthquake.

• The mid-world mountain belt extends parallel to the equator from Mexico across the Atlantic Ocean, the
Mediterranean Sea from Alpine- Caucasus ranges’ to the Caspian, Himalayan mountains and the adjoining
lands. This zone has folded mountains, large depressions and active volcanoes.

• The remaining 11 per cent of the shocks are recorded outside these two belts. Only a few occur along the
fracture in African lakes, Red Sea and the Dead Sea zone. For geographical distribution of earthquakes.
EARTHQUAKE ZONE OF INDIA