What are Earthquakes?

An earthquake is a series of shock

waves generated following the brittle failure of rocks within
the earth's crust or upper mantle as a result of a build up of
stress.
How are they generated? The topmost part of the earth is
made up of the various types of soil and rock I.e. crust, the
rock in this crust fails due to the movements of the plates and
the strain energy stored in the rock before failure stored in it
during the deformation periods is released , and this energy
flows in the form of the seismic waves and they causes
vibrations.
What is plate? Plate is the part of the upper mantle and the
crust in the surface of the earth which is in motion due to
convection taking place due to temperature and pressure
gradient between the earth surface and the center of the earth.
prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

The view of various plates on the earth surfaces

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

Figure : Inside the Earth; Crust,

Mantle, Outer Core, Inner Core

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

Definitions
Focus: That point within the Earth from which originates the first motion
of an earthquake and its elastic waves.
Hypocenter: The calculated location of the focus of an earthquake.
Epicenter : That point on the Earth's surface directly above the
hypocenter of an earthquake.

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

Foreshock A small tremor that commonly precedes a larger earthquake

or main shock by seconds to weeks and that originates at or near the
focus of the larger earthquake.
Tsunami A huge sea wave caused by earthquakes. (Referred to by many
as a tidal wave.)
Aftershock: An earthquake which follows a larger earthquake or main
shock and originates at or near the focus of the larger earthquake.
Generally, major earthquakes are followed by a larger number of
aftershocks, decreasing in frequency with time.

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

Earthquake Intensity The effects of earthquake waves at the surface can be measured using
an intensity scale. This is an arbitrary scale based on observations of phenomena such as: the type
and extent of damage, whether sleeping people were woken, whether items fell from
shelves,whether the event was felt or heard. Mercalli intensity is based upon observations of
the resulting earthquake damage and not actually measured on instruments. Invented by
Italian seismologist Giuseppe Mercalli

Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale

1 Not felt. Recorded by seismographs.
2 Rarely felt, usually only on top floors of high buildings.
3 Felt indoors, like a passing light truck.
4 Windows, dishes, doors rattle. Like passing train.
5 Felt by all. Small objects upset.
6 Books off shelves. Trees shake. Isolated damage.
7 Difficult to stand. Many poor buildings damaged.
8 Significant damage. Branches broken from trees.
9 General panic. Serious damage. Ground cracking.
10 Most buildings destroyed. Rails bent slightly.
11 Rails bent greatly. Pipelines destroyed.
12Near total damage. Objects thrown into the air.
prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

Magnitude: A measure of the strength/ Force of an earthquake or

strain energy released by it, as determined by seismographic
observations. The local body- and surface-wave magnitudes will
have approximately the same numerical value. The Richter scale
was created in 1935 by the American seismologist Charles F.
Richter. It measures how much the ground shakes 60 miles from the
earthquakes epicenter. Richter magnitudes increase logarithmically,
meaning the energy increases 10 times for each magnitude
number.i.e. 4.0 is 10 times greater than 3.0, 5.0 is 100 times greater
than a 3.0 6.0 is 1000 times greater than 3.0

Measurement recorded on a scale of 1.0 to 12.0

1.0 = 30 lbs of TNT explosion on a construction site
4.0 = small nuclear weapon (1000 tons of TNT)
7.0 = Largest Nuclear weapon available (32,000 tons of TNT)
8.0 = SF Quake 1906 (1 billion tons of TNT)
10.0 = San Andreas fault around the earth (75,000 largest nuclear
bombs)
12.0 = Earth splits in half

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

Richter

Mercalli

Magnitude

Intensity

Usually not felt, but detected by instruments.

II

Felt by very few people.

III

Felt by many, often mistaken for a passing vehicle.

IV

Felt by many indoors, dishes and doors disturbed.

Felt by nearly everyone. People awakened. Cracked walls, trees disturbed.

VI

Felt by all. Many run outdoors. Furniture moves. Slight damage occurs.

VII

Everyone runs outdoors. Poorly built buildings suffer severe damage. Slight

Description

damage every where else.

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VIII

Everyone runs outdoors. Moderate to major damage. Minor damage to

specially designed buildings. Chimneys and walls collapse.

IX

All buildings suffer major damage. Ground cracks, pipes break, foundations
shift.

Major damage. Structures destroyed. Ground is badly cracked. Landslides

occur.

XI

Almost all structures fall. Bridges wrecked. Very wide cracks in ground.

XII

Total destruction. Ground surface waves seen. Objects thrown into the air.
All construction destroyed.

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

Unlike the Richter Scale, it does not measure the absolute strength of the earthquake, but how
strongly it is felt at a particular place.
The Scale is useful in comparing damage from different quakes and in plotting damage
patterns from a given quake to figure out the factors that contribute to earthquake damage.
A map showing the Mercalli intensity at different locations for the same quake can be quite
revealing.
These maps can be related to geological maps to see what effect the underlying rocks have on
the intensity of the quake. They show that softer porous soils shake very violently, while
bedrock is less affected.
Intensity values can be correlated with other measures of ground motion, such as
displacement, velocity and acceleration. For example, MMI 6 corresponds to a peak ground
velocity of about 50 mm/s.
Intensity is easy to use, even for historic earthquakes.
Other intensity scales are used in some countries.
1. The Rossi-Forel scale is relatively old, has values from 1 to 10, and is still used in some
countries.
2. The JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) scale from 1 to 7 is used in Japan and Taiwan.
3. The MSK scale is the most recent, has 12 values that approximate but are not the same as the
Modified Mercalli values, and is used extensively in Europe.
4. A Modified Mercalli Intensity of six is abbreviated as MMI 6.

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Intensity Variability
Maximum intensity normally occurs near the earthquake epicentre, with
intensity values then decreasing with distance. An earthquake has a single
magnitude, but intensity varies with distance.
Many factors affect surface ground motion, including topography and
near-surface geology, especially soft surface sediments. These variations can
be considerable, even over short distances.
It is common to find intensities ranging by 1 unit in a neighborhood, and
not unusual to find values 2 or more.
Modified Mercalli scale: Mercalli scale modified for North American conditions.

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Benioff Zone: A dipping zone containing earthquake hypocentres

lying along the top of a subducting plate.
Focal zone The rupture zone of an earthquake. In the case of a great
earth , the focal zone may extend several hundred kilometers in
length
Subduction zone An elongated region along which a block of crusts descends
relative to another crustal block, for example, the descent of the Pacific plate beneath
the Andean plate along the Andean trench.
Teleseism An earthquake that is distant from the recording station.
Travel time The time required for a wave train to travel from its source to a point of
observation.

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Seismic Zones of India The varying geology at different locations in the country
implies that the likelihood of damaging earthquakes taking place at different locations
is different. Thus, a seismic zone map is required to identify these regions. Based on
the levels of intensities sustained during damaging past earthquakes, the 1970
version of the zone map subdivided India into five zones I, II, III, IV and V. The
maximum Modified Mercalli (MM) intensity of seismic shaking expected in these zones
were V or less, VI, VII, VIII, and IX and higher, respectively. Parts of Himalayan
boundary in the north and northeast, and the Kachcha area in the west were classified
as zone V. The seismic zone maps are revised from time to time as more
understanding is gained on the geology, the seismotectonics and the seismic activity
in the country. The Indian Standards provided the first seismic zone map in 1962,
which was later revised in1967 and again in 1970. The map has been revised again in
2002 (Figure 4), and it now has only four seismic zones II, III, IV and V. The areas
falling in seismic zone I in the 1970 version of the map are merged with those of
seismic zone II. Also, the seismic zone map in the peninsular region has been
modified. Madras now comes in seismic zone III as against in zone II in the 1970
version of the map. This 2002 seismic zone map is not the final word on the seismic
hazard of the country, and hence there can be no senseof complacency in this
regard.

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

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prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

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Prominent Past Earthquakes in India

A number of significant earthquakes occurred in and around India over the past
century (Figure 2). Some of these occurred in populated and urbanized areas and
hence
caused great damage. Many went unnoticed, as they occurred deep
under the Earths surface or in relatively un-inhabited places. Some of the
damaging and recent earthquakes are listed in Table 1. Most earthquakes occur
along the Himalayan plate boundary (these are inter-plate earthquakes), but a
number of earthquakes have also occurred in the peninsular region (these are
intra-plate earthquakes). Four Great earthquakes (M>8) occurred in a span of 53
years from 1897 to 1950; the January 2001 Bhuj earthquake (M7.7) is almost as
large. Each of these caused disasters, but also allowed us to learn about
earthquakes and to advance earthquake engineering. For instance, 1819 Cutch
Earthquake produced an unprecedented ~3m high uplift of the ground over 100km
(called Allah Bund). The 1897 Assam Earthquake caused severe damage up to
500km radial distances; the type of damage sustained led to improvements in the
intensity scale from I-X to I-XII. Extensive liquefaction of the ground took place
over a length of 300km (called the Slump Belt) during 1934 Bihar-Nepal
earthquake in which many structures went afloat.
prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

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prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

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LIST OF SOME SIGNIFICANT EARTHQUAKES IN INDIA

SINCE 1991
DATE

EPICENTRE
Lat( Deg N )

LOCATION

1991 OCT 20

30.75

Long( Deg E
)
78.86

1993 SEP 30

18.07

1997 MAY 22

MAGNITUDE

UTTARKASHI, UP HILLS

6.6

76.62

LATUR-OSMANABAD, MAHARASHTRA

6.3

23.08

80.06

JABALPUR,MP

6.0

1999 MAR 29

30.41

79.42

CHAMOLI DIST, UP

6.8

2001 JAN 26

23.40

70.28

BHUJ ,GUJRAT

6.9

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

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LIST OF SIGNIFICANT EARTHQUAKES IN INDIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD

DATE

EPICENTRE
Lat( Deg N )

LOCATION

1819 JUN 16

23.6

Long( Deg
E)
68.6

1869 JAN 10

25

93

1885 MAY 30

34.1

74.6

1897 JUN 12

26

91

1905 APR 04

32.3

1918 JUL 08

MAGNITUDE

KUTCH,GUJARAT

8.0

NEAR CACHAR, ASSAM

7.5

SOPOR, J&K

7.0

SHILLONGPLATEAU

8.7

76.3

KANGRA, H.P

8.0

24.5

91.0

SRIMANGAL, ASSAM

7.6

1930 JUL 02

25.8

90.2

DHUBRI, ASSAM

7.1

1934JAN 15

26.6

86.8

BIHAR-NEPALBORDER

8.3

1941 JUN 26

12.4

92.5

ANDAMAN ISLANDS

8.1

1943 OCT 23

26.8

94.0

ASSAM

7.2

1950 AUG 15

28.5

96.7

8.5

1956 JUL 21

23.3

70.0

ARUNACHAL PRADESH-CHINA
BORDER
ANJAR, GUJARAT

1967 DEC 10

17.37

73.75

KOYNA, MAHARASHTRA

6.5

1975 JAN 19

32.38

78.49

KINNAUR, HP

6.2

1988 AUG 06

25.13

95.15

MANIPUR-MYANMAR BORDER

6.6

1988 AUG 21

26.72

86.63

BIHAR-NEPAL BORDER

6.4

1991 OCT 20

30.75

78.86

UTTARKASHI, UP HILLS

6.6

1993 SEP 30

18.07

76.62

6.3

1997 MAY 22

23.08

80.06

LATUR-OSMANABAD,
MAHARASHTRA
JABALPUR,MP

1999 MAR 29

30.41

79.42

CHAMOLI DIST, UP

6.8

2001 JAN 26

23.40

70.28

BHUJ , GUJARAT

7.9

prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

7.0

6.0

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Seismic waves
The sudden movement of rocks along a fault causes vibrations that
transmit energy through the earth in the form of waves.
Body waves- moves through the interior of the earth starting at the
focus They are known as body waves because they travel though the
body of a material in all directions and not just at the surface, as water
waves do.
Surface waves-travel out from the epicenter
along the surface of the earth
wave type
body waves

particle motion

name

longitudinal

P wave

transverse

S wave

horizontal transverse
surface waves
vertical elliptical

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Love wave
Rayleigh wave

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1.Body waves:(a) P-waves: Primary/ push & pull / Longitudinal Compression wave, particle moving back
and forth along the direction of wave propagation. Velocity 5 to 7 km/sec (fastest seismic waves)
in the crust (more than seven times the speed of sound).
k is the bulk modulus
is shear modulus
is density of the elastic medium
They travels hrough fluids, and solids. They are compression waves and rely on the compressional
strength and elasticity of the materials to propagate. For P waves, the motion of the meterial particles
that transmit the energy move parallel to the direction of propagation. P waves travel the same way
as sound waves in air. The transmission of compressional waves is due to the strong electronic
between atoms that get squeezed together too tightly.

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Body waves:(b) S-waves-Shear wave / secondary or transverse waves. Particle oscillating in the direction normal
to the direction of wave propagation Velocity 3 to 4 km/sec
is shear modulus
is density of the elastic medium
S waves depends on the shear strength of the material. Imagine a very long and narrow block of Jello,
and then imagine shaking the end of it and then imagine shaking the end of it from side to side. A shear
wave will propagate down the long length of it. You shake it from side to side but the wave travels
forward and perpendicular to the direction of shaking. You can try this with a long spring or a Slinky
suspended from strings also. If you give it a sudden sideways deflection and a transverse or shear wave
will travel both lengths of the spring. Now try to imagine doing the same thing with water in a tank. No
shear wave will propagate through fluids because gases and fluids have no shear strength. They give
too easily. However, the strength of atomic bonds in solids allows them to transmit tranverse motions. S
waves do not travel as fast as P waves and have a velocity of about 3.5 km/s in the crust.

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Surface waves are very similar to ocean waves as they only occur at the
surface of the earth and do not penetrate into the interior deeply. There are two
types of surface waves: Love waves and Rayleigh waves. Typically, it the
surface waves that do the most damage during an earthquake, especially at
distances far from the epicenter. Most of the damage in the 1985 Mexico City
earthquake was from surface waves that had traveled over 200 kilometers from
the epicenter located near the west coast of Mexico. The velocity of surface
waves varies with their wavelength but always travel slower than P and S
waves.

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Buckled steel column

that

Collapsed garage
limited crossbracing

Corner of triangular
building

supports 6 stories
above it.

between columns

narrow corner has

little lateral

Compare the column

to the

probably was a
significant factor

support

adjacent masonry
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Earthquake Engineering Design Factors

Shape of building square or rectangular buildings generally perform better
Height of building different heights shake at different frequencies and are most
affected by waves of different wavelengths
Number and size of openings (e.g. windows, doors)
Building materials:

wood, steel, masonry, concrete, etc. (concrete is the most

widely used) more ductile materials (e.g. metals) perform better than less ductile
materials (e.g. unreinforced concrete)
Importance of joints between structural elements and cross-bracing
Risk from heavy roof materials
Hazards from non-structural failure (e.g. falling glass, interior contents)

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Earthquake Preparation and Engineering

1. Understand the hazard
long-term prediction
mapping
damage scenarios
2. Make plans to deal with the hazard and reduce the risk to people
Implement and enforce building codes, zoning, and land-use planning
which take into account the earthquake hazard so that new construction
will not add to the risk
Retrofit (strengthen) or replace older, high-risk buildings, especially
critical facilities (e.g. hospitals, fire stations, schools)
Prepare/retrofit critical infrastructure (lifelines)
(e.g. water, energy, transportation, communication)
Prepare and practice public emergency plans include emergency
management personnel: fire, police, hospitals, etc.
Educate public about the hazard and what they should do
Prepare yourself: e.g. food, water, light, heat, reducing the risk in your
home, personal emergency plan
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Precaution during Earthquakes

when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the
objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void
next to them.
The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less
the
object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the
person who is using this void for safety will not be injured.
TEN TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1. Most everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS
COLLAPSE are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like
desks or cars, are crushed
2. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller
void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, get down next to a large
bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.
3. As Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake & even
If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created &
has less concentrated, crushing weight thus Wooden buildings are the
safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake... While Brick
buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries
but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.
Contd
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Precaution during Earthquakes

Contd..

5.If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll
off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. lie down on the floor,
next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
6. If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the
door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a
sofa, or large chair ,or stand near the corner
6. If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward
you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you
will be cut in half by the doorway.
7.Never go to the stairs. (they swing separately from the main part of the
building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each
other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. Even if the building doesn't
collapse, stay away from the stairs. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the
earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They
should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not
damaged.
8.It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the
interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the
building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked People
inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in
an earthquake and crushes their vehicles you can survive by getting out and
sitting or lying next to your vehicles.
9.paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper so if
possible stay near such place if you find near by like;newspaper offices and other
offices with a lot of paper .
prepared by: Siddharth G.Shah.

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