LECTURE 23 SUMMARY

Focal Mechanisms
Elastic rebound theory (Reid, 1906)
o Two sides of fault at rest; undeformed but with linear feature (fence)
crossing them.
o Strain accumulates as the two sides of the fault move. Ultimately this
results on a stress on the fault that exceeds friction.
o Earthquake occurs, but since material is elastic, the two sides rebound to
their initial undeformed shape but now the fence is offset.
Focal mechanisms represent the geometry of faulting

Sleep and Fujita (1997)

Sleep and Fujita (1997)

o As the energy travels through the Earth, the ground motion will be up or
towards you in two quadrants, and down or away from you, in the other
two. Up and down in the above figure represent ground motion away from
or towards the earthquake or towards or away from the observer. The
ups and downs are separated into four quadrants by the auxiliary plane
and the fault plane (these are called nodal planes because there is no P-
wave energy released along them, see below). The initial up or down is
called the first motion of the P-wave.
o The force orientations describe a pair of
couples (above left) oriented parallel to
the nodal planes, so this is called a
double couple. The above center and
right diagrams show energy radiation as a
function of direction. Note that P nodal
planes are the fault and auxiliary planes
and P-nodes are S maxima (above)
Displacement in 3-D: ur ~ sin2
sin2; u ~ sin 2 sin 2; u ~ sin
cos 2.
This is the static
displacement field for a
double couple derived from the wave equation (F = ma).
See Lay and Wallace (1995), chapter 8, if interested.
if the fault plane is the z-x (or z-y) plane, then in the x-y plane, =
90 and, ur ~ sin 2 (P-wave) and u ~ cos 2 (S-wave).
and are often interchanged and other definitions of the
coordinate system exist be careful to check the sign and
variable conventions
o Use of first motions (strike-slip fault)
UP, compression, push, C, + (away from
earthquake)
o DOWN, dilitation, pull, D, - (towards
earthquake)
find two lines that go through the epicenter
that separate compressions from dilitations
Note that fault plane is ambiguous in this
case either left-lateral on NE-SW striking
Cox and Hart (1986)
plane or right-lateral on NW-SE striking plane
For dip-slip faults all you do is rotate the coordinate system.
Plotting first motions at greater distances is more
difficult.
An imaginary hemisphere around the focus
can plotted showing where energy leaves
the focus; the lower hemisphere can be
plotted on a stereographic projection
 The quadrants with compressional first motions
is then shaded solid, those with dilatational first
motions is left white
Pure dip-slip events have 2-3 quadrants.
Oblique to strike-slip events have the
intersection within the focal sphere and
have four quadrants
Loma Prieta, CA, 1989
These are now computed
as Centroid Moment
Tensors using waveform
analysis and available
about an hour after larger
earthquakes
You should at least
know the interpretation
at right
o Relation to Principal Stresses
Principal stresses (P and T)
bisect the quadrants. Thus the
middle of the compressional above and below, Stein and Wysession (2003)
quadrant is T (3), and the middle of the
dilatational quadrant is P (1). The
intersection of the two nodal planes is
the B axis (2)
Many things affect the wave (and its shape) after it
leaves the source
o Earthquake rupture and focal mechanism
o Propagation effects (ray paths and
attenuation)
o Site response (conditions at the receiver)
o Instrument response and filtering
o Four wave types (P, S, R, L), wave
conversions (such as P to S), different paths,
and multiple reflections produce complex
seismogram!
o However, one can mathematically model the waveform to create a
synthetic seismogram.
combining all the parameters can give a complex seismogram

Nuclear Test-Ban Monitoring

1960s identify size violations by US, USSR
2000s identify small covert tests in seismically active areas
Explosions and Earthquakes
o On very simple difference is that explosions have higher mb/MS ratios
This, in and of itself, is not sufficient, but is an indication
 For example, nuclear test by North Korea 2/12/2013 mb 5.1 MS
4.0

Earthquake Hazards
Shaking
o Type of ground affects shaking
o Example, Mexico City, 1985 Epicenter off south coast of Mexico
Mexico City (400 km) located on old dried-up lake bed surrounded
by volcanoes like shaking a bowl of jello heavy damage
Acapulco (300 km) located on bedrock rocky cliffs minimal
damage
o Also resonance (20 story buildings => 2 sec); tall and short buildings
survived, intermediate did not (see lecture 17)
Construction
o Up to a point, flexible materials withstand shaking better: concrete and
brick collapse
5-story prefab concrete slab buildings collapsed in Neftegorsk,
Russia, 1995 (M 7.1), killing 60% of the population.
Up to a point wooden structures survive being more flexible (too
flexible, however, is a problem)
Structures with large open spaces or heavy, poorly supported roofs,
are vulnerable
Many people die in churches as a result of aftershocks due to
damage from the mainshock which is then exploited by the
aftershock
Landslides
o 1959 Hebgen Lake/Madison Canyon landslide
26 presumed killed under landslide that dammed the Madison River.
40 million tons of material slid. Many evacuated as Quake Lake
rose 8 feet flooding campgrounds.
o Peru, 1970 earthquake triggered landslide which mixed with snow.
18,000 killed, several towns buried.
Liquefaction
o Do Earthquakes Swallow Cities Not directly, although a legend has it
that cow was buried in 1906 (turns out to be just that).
Cracks along fault-lines are usually not that deep; only one person
killed by being swallowed in a crack
Liquefaction is ground behaving as a fluid when shock waves pass through
o usually in water saturated sand or clay
o also sand geysers or sand volcanoes
Shaking causes sand to liquefy and erupt like a fluid
Common in Midwest
Damage to transportation arteries
o Cantilevered bridges fail at joints
o Structures generally weaker to horizontal shaking, heavy material on top
causes beams to break
 steel rods used to reinforce concrete spread and broke in Loma
Prieta 1989 and Kobe 1995
Fires
o San Francisco, 1906. Local city boosters started to refer to the event as
the Great Fire less threatening
o Tokyo, 1923 200,000 killed; 360,000 homes burned; fire tornados from
killed 40-60,000.
Tsunami (from the Japanese for harbor wave)
o Long period (~30 minutes) sea waves caused by displacement of water
(primarily vertically) by:
Large earthquake with vertical seafloor displacement
Submarine landslide (New Guinea, 1998)
Submarine volcanic eruption (Krakatau, 1883)
Pyroclastic flow into enclosed bays and inlets (Unzen, 1792)
Asteroid impact (presumed 70 million years ago)
o Tsunami have nothing to do with tides! Do not call them tidal waves
o Tsunami formation
Only really big earthquakes that move the
ocean floor vertically cause tsunami. Most
commonly shallow subduction zone
earthquakes
Over time stress and strain accumulate as
two converging plates move towards each
other and one subducts.
A major thrust earthquake occurs,
displacing the ocean floor and water. In
Japan 2011 the bottom of ocean rose ~10
m, displacing ~150-300 km3 of water.
Flooded 440 km2 along the coast.
ERI (2011) reconstruction of Japan 2011
rupture indicates initial rupture generating
high frequency waves down-dip, followed
after 75 sec by large, slow slip trenchward
generating the tsunami.
The upper plate springs back to its original
shape causing the upper plate to move
seaward and coastal areas to subside
(Japan 2011 coastal areas moved 4-8 m
east and ~1 m down). Hyndman and Hyndman (2012)