An earthquake is a sudden shaking of the

ground. They generate Y
Y
 Y which

can be recorded on a sensitive instrument
called a Y
Y
. The record of ground
shaking recorded by the seismograph is
called a Y
Y
.
@ áarthquakes generate seismic
waves which can be detected
with a sensitive instrument
called a Y
Y
. Advances
in seismograph technology have
increased our understanding of
both earthquakes and the áarth
itself.
@ 6erhaps the earliest
seismograph was invented in
China A.D. 136 by a m an named
Choko.
@ This early eastern seismoscope
consisted of a copper vessel with
eight dragon heads attached to it,
positioned above eight frogs. áach
dragon head held a ball in its
mouth, which, when dropped due
to the strong shaking of an
earthquake, would fall into the
open mouth of the frog directly
below it.
@ By noting which frogs contained
balls after a strong earthquake, it
was possible to determine how the
áarth had moved in response to
the earthquake.
By the end of the 19th century,
several áuropean inventors had
constructed different
seismographs. Most were
electromagnetic and operated by
suspending a magnetic mass, or
pendulum, within an electric coil.
 Today's high-technology, digital
seismographs record ground shaking over a large
band of frequencies and seismic amplitudes.
Today's seismometers are called broadband
because they are able to sense ground motion
over a wide range of frequencies, from thousands
of seconds to less than a hundredth of a second.
The amplitude of the signals recorded by old
seismometers was limited by the amount of
movement possible between the mass, or
pendulum, and the seismometer housing.
Today's seismometers operate by measuring the
amount of electrical energy needed to keep the
mass centered in the housing in the presence of
strong ground shaking. Modern seismometers
can record a wide range of seismic signals, both
very small and very large.
@ Beginning in the 1960s, significant strides were made in the
study of earthquakes and the áarth's structure with the
deployment of the World-Wide Seismographic Station
Network (WWSSN). This network consists of over 120
seismographs in 60 countries. The seismographs were put in
vaults or old mine shafts deep in the áarth in order to make
sensitive recordings of seimic signals free from the "noise"
created by cars and other environmental factors.
@ This "global observatory" illustrates the international nature
of global seismology and the essential cooperation in data
exchange needed to study earthquakes.
@ To better understand how and why earthquakes occur, we
must understand the theory of 6late Tectonics.
 Divergent Motion: Movin' Apart
This is the most common kind of motion
along the mid-ocean ridges. This is a
system of undersea mountain ranges
that extends beneath the world's oceans
and connects together like the seams on
a baseball.

You can simulate divergent plate motion

by placing your palms down with your
index fingers touch. Now pull your hands
apart.
 Convergent Motion: Comin' Together

This is the most common kind of motion at

subduction zones. This motion happens
where dense oceanic plates colide and slide
beneath continental plates.

You can simulate convergent plate motion

by placing your hands together in front of
you with your palms down. Now gently
slide your bottom hand downward and your
top hand upward, while keeping them in
contact.
 Transformational Motion:
A good example of this type of motion is
the San Andreas Fault which runs
through California.

You can simulate transformational plate

motion by placing your hands together
in front of you with your palms down.
Now slide your left hand away from you
and your right hand toward you.
The movement between plates and along faults
is not smooth. They move in jerks, giving rise
to earthquakes. The locations of earthquakes
throughout the world delineate the major
tectonic boundaries.
£
 
 

@ Faults are narrow zones in the áarth, usually

extending no more than about 10 miles deep,
which separate rigid crustal blocks. A well known
fault is the San Andreas Fault which separates
the 6acific plate from the North American plate.
The 6acific plate has San Fransicso and Los
Angeles on it, while the North American plate
contains the rest of California and the U.S.
@ The 6acific plate is moving to the northwest at a
rate of about 4 inches per year.
Ñ   
@ áarthquakes occur on faults. Because faults
have friction, they resist the forces trying to
move the pieces apart. As the forces build,
the fault remains locked and the blocks get
deformed because of the increasing stress.
@ áventually the stresses get so high that the
fault breaks. This releases the built up stress
and allows the sides of the fault to slide past
one another. This is what we call an
earthquake.
@ The blocks return to their locked state until
the stresses build up enough to cause
another earthquake.
@ ÿow to Release Stress

@ You can simulate the earthquake this by

placing your hands together with your
thumbs up. By pushing your hands
together you create pressure between
your hands.
@ As you try to slide your hands apart, you
create friction which stops you from
sliding your hands easily. Stress builds up
in your hands and arm



áarthquakes create seismic waves which shake

the ground as they pass. They sometimes cause
buildings to topple. áarthquakes create waves
just like waves of water moving across the ocean
and waves of air moving across a field of wheat.
  

áarthquakes generate seismic waves which

travel all around the world and can be detected
with a sensitive instrument called a
seismograph. This was first discovered in 1889
by á. von Rebleur 6aschwitz who noted that
waves recorded on a horizontal pendulum in
6otsdam, Germany were generated by an
earthquake far away in Tokyo, Japan.
 › 
› 

áarthquakes generate several kinds of seismic

waves including 6, for "6rimary" and S, for
"Secondary" waves.
@ 6  Y
@ The 6 waves move in a compressional motion
similar to the motion of a slinky, while the S waves
move in a shear motion perpendicular to the
direction the wave is travelling.
@ x  Y
 
 

A Y
Y
 is a record of the ground shaking
recorded by a Y
Y
. The 6 waves travel
fastest through the áarth so they arrive at a
seismograph first, followed by the S waves and
lastly by the surface waves.
@ The figure above is the seismogram of the 1989
Loma 6rieta earthquake recorded at a
seismograph in Kongsberg, Norway, 8400 km
(about 5,200 miles) away.
º

  


@ Seismologists locate earthquakes by measuring
the time between the 6 and S waves in a
seismogram. After a seismogram "feels" an
earthquake, scientists compare the time
difference of these waves to figure out how far
away the earthquake is.
@ It takes at least three seismograms to locate
exactly where the earthquake is.
@ One siesmograph can only tell how far away it is
from that seismograph. The earthquake could be
located anywhere on a circle of radius equal to
this distance and centered on the observation
station. By measuring the S-6 times at 3 or more
stations these circles can be drawn around each
station and where they meet indicates the
earthquake location.


› 

 
 Y was orginally
developed by M
 Y

and Beno
Gutenberg to make more quantitative measures
of the relative sizes of earthquakes in southern
California. Today, modified versions of the scale
are used to measure earthquakes throughout the
world. The Richter magnitude is related to the
maximum amplitude of the S wave measured
from the seismogram. Because there is a great
range in the sizes of different earthquakes, the
Richter scale uses  

Y. Thus, a magnitude
7 (M 7) earthquake is 10 times as large as a
magnitude 6 earthquake, and releases over 30
times more energy.
@ By studying earthquakes scientists have made images of the
áarth's deep interior, far below the deepest drill holes of 10 km.
As seismic waves travel through the áarth's interior on their
way to distant recording stations, they are modified by the rock
structures through which they pass. By combining
seismograms from many earthquakes recorded by many
seismometers throughout the world, an image of the áarth's
deep interior can be created. The imaging procedure, called
seismic tomography, is very similar to the computer-aided
tomography (CAT) scans in which doctors use X-rays to create
an image the brain.
@ Modern global seismology has replaced old ideas of the áarth's
interior.
@ By analyzing the seismograms from many
earthquakes, scientists have discovered that
three main levels or shells exist within the áarth:
@ CRUST
@ MANTLá
@ CORá
1960-05-22 Valdivia, Chile 1960 Valdivia earthquake 9.5
1964-03-27 6rince William Sound, USA 1964 Alaska
earthquake 9.2
2004-12-26 Sumatra, Indonesia 2004 Indian Ocean
earthquake 9.1
1952-11-04 Kamchatka, Russia (then USSR) Kamchatka
earthquakes 9.0
1868-08-13 Arica, Chile (then 6eru) 1868 Arica
earthquake 9.0
1700-01-26 Cascadia subduction zone, Canada and USA
1700 Cascadia earthquake 9.0