Earthquakes and seismotectonics

Elastic rebound model of

earthquakes

An earthquake is a rapid release of stored elastic strain on 1-30 s time-scales.

The earthquake happens (nucleates) when the stress on a fault plane
exceeds the strength (frictional) of a fault plane in a region. Then, the inertial
accelerations can run-away to rupture a significant length of the fault plane.
(a)Movement of plates (blocks) on either side of fault produce accumulating
stress over time.
(b)This accumulating stress creates accumulating strain that localizes along
the fault plane.
(c)The fault brittle strength is exceeded making an earthquake that ruptures

Eq origin
time ???

Locating an earthquake
approximately

t = x/v

Know velocity
(v)
But dont know x
The arrival-times of the first arriving P-wave is measured. From this
arrival-time measurement we now know that station (A) is closest to the
earthquake and station (B) the farthest away. WHY ?
Thus, to honor the travel-time measurements, we know that the
earthquake epicentre is somewhere within the shaded region in (b).
To locate an earthquake we must solve for the location (x,y,z) and origin
time. Note this method is very poor for locating the depth below the

Locating earthquake more exactly using P and S

arrival times

If we know the P- and S-wave velocity structure AND can measure the
P- and S-wave arrival times, then an earthquakes origin-time and
location can be estimated.
The S-P interval time will tell you the distance of the earthquake. Then,
a circle can be drawn around the recording station at that distance. Do
that for 3 or more S-P interval times and the earthquakes location can
be estimated as the intersection point of the circular arcs.

Constrain the depth of an earthquake using pP

phase

The hypocentre is where the earthquake occurred and is denoted by

its latitude, longitude and depth.
The epicentre is just the latitude and longitude of the earthquake.
For an earthquake that occurs at depth (most earthquakes occur
between 5-40 km depth), the depth of the earthquake can be
constrained by measuring the arrival time of both the first arrival Pwave and the surface reflection phases called little-p big-P (pP). Note
that the time separation between P and pP phases increases with the
increasing depth of the earthquake.

Force types: linear, couple, double

couple
linear-force
double couple

cc force-couple c force-couple

Torques

Forces

Elastic
medium

A force has direction and magnitude. A linear force is just one force
vector. A torque is a rotational force that requires two force vectors and
is define as =2F*d where d is the length of moment arm. A double
couple is two force couples with opposite signs; this means the net
torque is ZERO! All earthquakes are double-couples, otherwise angular
momentum would NOT be conserved (a mortal sin!). Not confirmed

Seismic P and S-wave radiation patterns to

applied force impulse (hammer blow)

When a force is applied over a finite time, the force-impulse (F*t)

excites radiation of seismic (elastic) waves. (a) The direction of the
hammer impulse makes the rock to the north compress and the rock to
the south dilitate which is the P-wave. S-wave radiate to the E and W.
(b) Given the direction of the force-impulse (hammer blow), the first
motion recorded by station to the north will be compressive, and
conversely the first motion recorded to the south will be dilitational. (c)
S-wave radiation pattern is a maximum in the E and W directions. Note
that the S-waves are transverse waves.

Earthquake double couple force

The force system driving an earthquake is a double couple. WHY ?

(a)The fault plane, its displacement, and the auxiliary fault plane.
(b)The P-wave radiation pattern. (+) defines compressional (up) first
motion and (-) defines dilitational (down) first motion. The double couple
force system that drives the earthquake defines a compression and
tension axis at 45 angle to the fault and auxiliary planes.

First motion of P-wave

Important: from the seismic first motion analysis it is IMPOSSIBLE to

know which of the two planes is the one that ruptures (the fault or
auxiliary plane). One must use other information to resolve the fault
plane ambiguity.

Lower hemisphere focal sphere

To handle arbitrary fault planes in 3-dimensions, a sphere is place around

the earthquake hypocentre. The sphere is oriented with respect to the
cardinal directions.
(a)Shows the fault and auxiliary fault planes (strike and dip).
(b) Because 3-d drawings are a pain, a lower hemisphere projection is
used to exactly represent the geometry in (a). The hypocenter is at the
middle of the beach-ball and the fault and its auxiliary plane are shown.

Different fault types: normal, thrust,

strike-slip

Different fault types make different beach-ball patterns of

compressional and dilitational first motion of the P-wave. Note that
the normal and thrust fault planes are the same but the pattern of
compression/dilitation is reversed.

Plate kinematics and Earthquake mechanisms

Max/min stress axes orientation and

fault type
1 Maximum stress
axis
3 Minimum stress
axis
2 Intermediate stress
axis

Finding best fault/auxiliary fault plane using measured first-motions and

stereonet analysis

Double couples again

Single
couple

Single couple
makes
Rotation
WRONG!

Double
couple force
equivalent

Double
couple

The double couple shown in (d) is

equivalent to a compressional
stress axis (C-C) and a tensional
(dilatational) stress axis (P-P)!

Rupture dimensions and

displacement

A fault is often described by three parameters: a plane with a

width (W) and length (L) and the average displacement (D) that
occur on the fault plane.

Earthquake (main shock) and aftershocks

After a significant size earthquake, residual stress exists that cause

small earthquakes called after-shocks. These aftershock can be
used to map the vertical and lateral extent (i.e., spatial size) of the
main-shock.

Measuring ground displacement from GPS to constrain

fault plane size

The number are in meters (m) of horizontal displacement caused

by the quake.

Definition of seismic moment

The definition of the moment
for a linear force is M = F*d (Nm).
The definition of the moment of
a force couple is: M = F*2b (Nm).

M 2* F * b

Seismic moment is how

seismologist represent the
magnitude (energy) of a quake.

Fcouple M / (2* b)

d 2* b

Fstrain * A * * A *(d / 2* b)
Fstrain Fcouple
M * A* d

>

* A *(d / 2* b) M / (2* b)

Use of Rayleigh and Love (surface) waves to

estimate earthquake focal mechanism and
moment

Using the recorded surface waves to measure earthquake source

parameters (time and location and depth) is easy to do and routine.
Within seconds after the waves from any earthquake larger than
magnitude 5.5 are recorded by a few seismometers, an automatic
focal mechanism and moment estimate (magnitude) are calculated

A simple definition of seismic magnitude

(relative scale)

If one can estimate the distance to the quake using the S-P time
and the peak
amplitude of the S-wave, a seismic magnitude (not moment) can
be calculated.

Regional seismic moment

analysis
By adding up all the seismic
moment measured from
seismograms, one can check to
see if the earthquakes are
accommodating most of the
measured displacement (e.g., as
measured by GPS).
It turns out that this analysis
shows that most of the
displacement on major faults is
accommodated by the slip the
occurs during infrequent
earthquakes.
However, sometimes a fault does
NOT make big earthquakes, but
instead creeps and only makes
many small quakes.

Importance of accurate
velocity model to locate
earthquakes

dl
t ( , v )
v ( x, y , z )
L ( v ( x , y , z ))

Rupture length and seismic moment

scaling

(b) Shows that larger earthquake

(bigger moments) have bigger
rupture lengths.
This is called a scaling. It means that
big displacements do NOT happen on
small fault plane area!

Scaling between energy and moment

magnitude

This shows the relation between moment magnitude and energy.

On a log base 10 scale (a), the moment versus energy relation
is a straight line. This means that moment magnitude is a
logarithmic scale (as defined!).

Guttenberg-Richter scaling
relation

This straight line relation between the logarithm of the number of

earthquakes and their magnitude is called the Guttenberg-Richter
relation. This means that are A LOT more small earthquakes occur with
respect to big earthquakes : e.g., there are a 100,000 magnitude 4 quakes
for every magnitude 8 quake! A deep physics finding from this power
law relation is that earthquakes are a manifestation of a self-organized

Energy release of
earthquakes

Real-time global seismic

network

Earthquakes are computer detected and located within about 5

sec after P-waves arrive at stations to guide damage estimates
and provide tsunami warnings.

Weekly earthquakes detected by GSN for 8

months

Global Earthquakes Mb >

5.2

Damaging Earthquake Risk

So. California Earthquake ruptur

e
South California 3-d earthquake
.mov
seismic earth waves homo.avi

Fault induced stress change

INSAR demonstration