INTRODUCTION TO

EARTHQUAKE
 What is an earthquake?
• An earthquake is what
happens when two
blocks of the earth
suddenly slip past one
another. The surface
where they slip is called
the fault or fault plane.
• The location below the earth’s surface where
the earthquake starts is called the
hypocenter(focus), and the location directly
above it on the surface of the earth is called
the epicenter.
• Sometimes an earthquake has foreshocks. These
are smaller earthquakes that happen in the same
place as the larger earthquake that follows.
Scientists can’t tell that an earthquake is a
foreshock until the larger earthquake happens.
• The largest, main earthquake is called
the mainshock. Mainshocks always have
aftershocks that follow. These are smaller
earthquakes that occur afterwards in the same
place as the mainshock.
• depending on the size of the mainshock,
aftershocks can continue for weeks, months, and
even years after the mainshock!
 What causes earthquakes and where do they happen?

• The earth has four major layers: the inner core,

outer core, mantle and crust.
• The crust and the top of the mantle make puzzle-
pieces-like thin skin on the surface of our planet.
these puzzle pieces keep slowly moving around,
sliding past one another and bumping into each
other.
• We call these puzzle pieces tectonic plates, and the
edges of the plates are called the plate boundaries. 
• The plate boundaries are made up of many faults,
and most of the earthquakes around the world occur
on these faults.
• Since the edges of the plates are rough, they get
stuck while the rest of the plate keeps moving.
Finally, when the plate has moved far enough, the
edges unstick on one of the faults and there is an
earthquake.
 How do scientists measure the size of earthquakes?

• They use the seismogram recordings made on

the seismographs at the surface of the earth
to determine how large the earthquake was.
 geometric classification of faulting
• Dip-slip movement occurs when the hanging wall
moved predominantly up or down relative to the
footwall.
• If the motion was down, the fault is called a normal
fault, if the movement was up, the fault is called a
reverse fault.
• When the hanging wall moves horizontally, it's
a strike-slip earthquake. If the hanging wall moves
to the left, the earthquake is called right-lateral, if
it moves to the right, it's called a left-lateral fault.
• When the hanging wall motion is neither
dominantly vertical nor horizontal, the motion
is called oblique-slip. Although oblique
faulting isn't unusual, it is less common than
the normal, reverse, and strike-slip
movement.
 Measuring the Size of an Earthquake
• Amplitude It is based on the amplitude and distance
measured from seismograms. The most common scale is
the Richter scale which measures the magnitude on a
logarithmic scale.
• Magnitude - is a quantitative measure of the size of the
earthquake at its source. The Richter Magnitude
Scale measures the amount of seismic energy released
by an earthquake.
• Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale, each whole
number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold
increase in measured amplitude; as an estimate of
energy, each whole number step in the magnitude scale
corresponds to the release of about 31 times more
energy than the amount associated with the preceding
whole number value.
Magnitude (Richter Scale)
 Intensity
• Intensity It is based on the observed effects of
ground shaking on people and buildings. It
varies from place to place within the
disturbed region depending on the location of
the observer with respect to the earthquake
epicenter. The most common scale is the
Modified Mercalli Scale, which uses a twelve-
point scale to describe damage.