Earthquakes

 Quaking of the Earth’s crust

 Major earthquakes originate along plate boundaries

Elastic Rebound Theory

- rocks behaves like elastic masses. Due to stress,
rocks initially bend and when their elastic limit is
reached, rupture and faulting develops which results
in the release of enormous amount of stored energy in
the form of shock waves.
A map of the Pacific Ring
of Fire Seismic Activity
Megathrust Earthquake
1960 Great Chilean Earthquake – magnitude of 9.5
- Nazca is subducting beneath South American Plate

1964 Alaska Earthquake - magnitude of 9.2

- Pacific Plate subducting beneath North American

2011 Tohoku Earthquake – 9.1

- Pacific plate subducting beneath Okhotsk Plate
P wave S wave Body waves and the
Earth’s interior
 Primary  Secondary
wave wave
 First to  Travel
travel slower than
 Can pass P wave
through  Cannot pass
solid and thru liquid
liquid
Seafloor spreading
- occurs at the mid-ocean ridges where two plates move away
from one another resulting in spreading of the sea floor.
* Convection occurs
* The process will gradually move the lithosphere to
the direction of the convection current
* Hot materials flows into the seafloor and hardens as it
cools creating a new young crust.
Example of Ridges
Mid-Atlantic Ridge – spreads 2.5 cm
every year
East Pacific Rise – spreads 6-16 cm
every year
Trenches

 Long deep depression on the sea floor

 Deepest part of the ocean floor

Ex. Marianas Trench ( 11, 034 km, subduction of Pacific plate

beneath Mariana plate)
Philippines Trench (10,545 km, northwestern part of
Philippine Sea Plate subducts under Eurasian plate)
Volcanic Arcs
 Cascade Volcanoes (North America)
– Juan de Fuca subducts
beneath North America

 Andes Mountains (South America) –

Nazca and Antarctic undearneath
South America Plate

 Aleutian Mountains (Alaska)–

subduction of Pacific Plate beneath
North America