Earthquakes and Seismology

Taiwan, September 1999

Earthquakes have devastated human civilization sporadically through time, yet the information gained through studies of earthquake vibrations is fundamental to our understanding of the inner workings of the Earth.

Earth
Our present understanding of Earth s origin is as an accreting mass of dust and larger particles orbiting the sun about 4.6 bya.

Four primary energy sources make the earth an active body are...
The earth s internal heat. The sun Gravity The impact of extraterrestrial bodies

Earth as a closed system:

Energy moves freely in and out of system but essentially no exchange of matter between Earth and rest of universe

Earth at Night Time

Physiography of the Earths Surface

Continents Ocean basins Mid-Ocean Ridges Trenches

Effects of Density

A block of continental lithosphere (containing continental crust) stands higher than a block of oceanic lithosphere (containing Oceanic crust) of the same dimensions

Oceanic crust: 3.0 g/cm3 Lithospheric mantle ~ 3.3 g/cm3

Continental crust: 2.7 g/cm3 Lithospheric mantle ~ 3.3 g/cm3

Asthenosphere (Mantle)

Isostacy
Vertical movements of the rigid lithosphere floating on the flexible asthenosphere are a result of isostacy isostatic equilibrium. Isostasy is a term used in geology to refer to the state of gravitational equilibrium between the Earth's lithosphere and asthenosphere such that the tectonic plates "float" at an elevation which depends on their thickness and density

Effect of Lithospheric Thickness

For a buoyant material, a thick block stands higher than a thin block Example: top surface of thick block of wood stands higher above Water level than that of thin block of wood. However, the proportion of material standing above and below water mark is the same for all blocks.

Earthquake Seismology
Earthquakes and Faulting, Faulting and earthquakes are two aspects of the same dynamical system: former is its long-timescale manifestation and the latter its short timescale manifestation. Earthquakes a result of an instability in faulting; most of the slip on most faults occurs during earthquakes. History of Ideas in the middle of the first millennium BC, Anaximenes of ancient Miletus suggested earthquakes are due to sudden subterranean volume changes, such as cave collapses. This view prevailed until the middle of the 19th Century. In 1857, Robert Mallet (born Dublin, educated TCD) showed that earthquakes are restricted to particular belts around the globe. He said that earthquakes result from elastic waves which propagate through the earth and invented the term seismology for the study of these waves. In 1884, Gilbert recognised that geological faults which have large osets are theresult of repeated earthquakes, each of which generate a small oset. The 1906, San Francisco earthquake provided direct observations of co-seismic slip and rupture length. These led to Reid s elastic rebound theory and to the idea that major faults can accommodate very large osets. During the 1960s, the observations of limited spatial earthquake distribution and shearing slip on faults led to the idea of plate boundaries.

Earthquakes - What? Where? Why?

What is an earthquake? An earthquake occurs when rocks break and slip along a fault in the earth. Energy is released during an earthquake in several forms, including as movement along the fault, as heat, and as seismic waves that radiate out from the "source" and causes the ground to shake, sometimes hundreds of km's away. What causes earthquakes? Earthquakes occur from the deformation of outer, brittle portions of "tectonic plates", the earth's outermost layer of crust and upper mantle. Due to the heating and cooling of the rock below these plates, the resulting convection causes the adjacently overlying plates to move, and, under great stresses, deform. The rates of plate movements range from about 2 to 12 centimeters per year. Sometimes, tremendous energy can build up within a single, or between neighbouring plates. If the accumulated stress exceeds the strength of the rocks making up these brittle zones, the rocks can break suddenly, releasing the stored energy as an earthquake. Where do earthquakes occur? Earthquakes occur all over the world; however, most occur on active faults that define the major tectonic plates of the earth. 90% of the world's earthquakes occur along these plate boundaries (that represent about 10% of the surface of the earth). The "Ring of Fire" circling the Pacific Ocean, and including Canada's west coast, is one of the most active areas in the world.

Can earthquakes be predicted? With the present state of scientific knowledge, it is not possible to predict earthquakes and certainly not possible to specify in advance their exact date, time and location. However, a great deal of research is being conducted to develop reliable prediction methods. Does a small earthquake mean that a larger earthquake is coming? No, except for very rare exceptions. Every year, hundreds of earthquakes occur in Canada. Only a very tiny minority of these precede a larger earthquake. Although a large earthquake may be preceded by a foreshock, the occurrence of a small earthquake is not in itself a typical sign. About 1500 small earthquakes occur every year in Canada, whereas major earthquakes have occurred only a few times in this century. Can humans trigger earthquakes? Yes! Minor earthquakes have been triggered by human activities such as the filling of reservoirs, and the injection of fluids into wells for oil recovery or waste disposal. Such cases have been documented in many areas, including the United States, Canada, Japan, and India.

Earthquake Statistics - How Big? How Often?

How big can earthquakes be? The largest earthquake ever recorded was magnitude 9.5! This earthquake struck just off the coast of southern Chile on May 22, 1960. It ruptured a segment of fault more than 1300 km long and caused a tsunami that caused destruction around the Pacific Ocean area, including Hawaii and Japan.This earthquake occurred along a subduction fault, where ocean floor is being pushed beneath a continent. This is the same plate tectonic setting as is found off the coast of southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California. How often do earthquakes occur? Earthquakes occur every day around the world. Each day there are about 1000 very small (magnitude 1-2) earthquakes on Earth (that is about one every 87 seconds!!!). Each year, on average, the Earth experiences 800 earthquakes capable of causing damage (magnitude 5-5.9), and 18 earthquakes of magnitude 7 or larger.

How Often Do Earthquakes Occur?

Earthquakes are always happening somewhere. Large earthquakes occur about once a year. Smaller earthquakes, such as magnitude 2 earthquakes, occur several hundred times a day. To create a mountain system might take several million medium size earthquakes over tens of millions of years. According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 17 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year.

Total 1900-2004 = 2049 earthquakes Average: 19.5 magnitude 7.0 and greater earthquakes per year. Based on new techniques, such as moment magnitude, a systematic review of all large events is underway. It is expected that as this review continues, these numbers will change. The review has been completed for events from 1990 to the present. Statistics were compiled from the Earthquake Data Base System of the U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center, Golden CO.

EARTHQUAKE
Sudden rapid shaking of the earth
Abrupt release of strain that has accumulated over a long time

The rupture on faults that causes earthquakes can be as small as micrometers or as large as meters.

Faults and Earthquakes

Release of energy

ELASTIC REBOUND THEORY

TYPES OF EARTHQUAKES AND FAULTS

Inter-plate Intra-plate

DIVERGENT BOUNDARIES
plates are moving apart

CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES

The collision of India and Asia produced the Himalayas

Deep-focus earthquakes occur along convergent boundaries

Earthquake locations

CONSERVATIVE BOUNDARIES
plates slide past each other transform boundaries

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Million years

Importance of plate tectonics

Within the framework of plate tectonics, geologists have found explanations for the geologic distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountains

Plate tectonics and earthquakes

Plate tectonics model accounts for the global distribution of earthquakes
Absence of deep-focus earthquakes along the oceanic ridge is consistent with plate tectonics theory Deep-focus earthquakes are closely associated with subduction zones The pattern of earthquakes along a trench provides a method for tracking the plate's descent

Earthquake Effects: Liquefaction

In areas where soils are saturated with water, seismic waves frequently cause water pressure to dramatically increase. This results in liquefaction, liquefaction,

the reduction in strength and stiffness of soil (the solid soil behaves more like a liquid, hence the name). Liquefaction has two major consequences. First, buildings built on unconsolidated sediment will suffer significant damage as supports sink unevenly into the soil. Secondly, water underground may burst through to the surface, where pressure is released.

Liquefaction

Liquefaction Features

Loma Prieta, CA,1989

El Centro, CA,1979

Water loaded with suspended sediment that blasts through to the surface creates sandboils.

Damage from Earthquakes

The extent of damage from an earthquake commonly hinges on the geology: rock/soil of contrasting mechanical properties or degree of water saturation (as demonstrated in the Turnagain Heights, AK quake of 1964).

Earthquake Effects: Tsunami

A tsunami is a giant wave or sequence of waves produced by large water displacements. These are most commonly caused by underwater earthquakes. Tsunamis can be destructive long distances from their sources.

Tsunami

Earthquakes: Building and Releasing Stress

Earthquake (Seismic) Waves

Slip on faults releases energy, which travels through rocks as waves identical to sound waves. They are called seismic waves.

They immediately split into components that travel by different specific mechanisms, and have different velocities.

Body waves include P-waves (which move by compression), and S-waves (which move by shear motion).

Surface waves appear when body waves hit the free surface and move with rolling or rippling effects.These cause some of the most prominent ground-shaking.

P- (Compressional) Waves

Primary Waves

S- (Shear) Waves

Note: S-waves cannot propagate through liquids

Secondary Waves

Surface Waves

Properties of seismic waves

At all distances from the focus, the mechanical properties of the rocks, such as incompressibility, rigidity, and density, play a role in the speed with which the waves travel and the shape and duration of the wave trains. The layering of the rocks and the physical properties of surface soil also affect these characteristics of the waves. In most cases, elastic behaviour occurs in earthquakes, but the shaking of surface soils from the incident seismic waves sometimes results in nonelastic behaviour, including slumping (i.e., the downward and outward movement of unconsolidated material) and the liquefaction of sandy soil. When a seismic wave encounters an interface or boundary that separates rocks of different elastic properties, it undergoes reflection and refraction. There is a special complication if a conversion between the wave types occurs at such a boundary: either an incident P or S wave can yield in general reflected P and S waves and refracted P and S waves. Boundaries between structural layers also give rise to diffracted and scattered waves. These additional waves are in part responsible for the complications observed in ground motion during earthquakes. Modern research is concerned with computing, from the theory of waves in complex structures, synthetic records of ground motion that are realistic in comparison with observed ground shaking. The frequency range of seismic waves is large. Seismic waves may have frequencies from as high as the audible range (greater than 20 hertz [Hz]) to as low as the free oscillations of the whole Earth, with gravest period being 54 minutes (i.e., the Earth vibrates in various modes, and the mode with the lowest pitch takes 54 minutes to complete a single vibration; see below Long-period oscillations of the globe). Attenuation of the waves in rock imposes high-frequency limits, and in small to moderate earthquakes measured surface waves have frequencies extending from about one to 0.005 Hz. The amplitude range of seismic waves is also great in most earthquakes. The displacements of the ground extend from 10 10 to 10 1 metres. In the greatest earthquakes, the ground amplitude of the predominant P waves may be several centimetres at periods of two to five seconds. Very close to the seismic sources of great earthquakes, investigators have measured large wave amplitudes with accelerations to the ground exceeding that of gravity at high frequencies and ground displacements of one metre at low frequencies.

Seismometers (seismographs)
Inertia (Newtons 2nd law of gravity) governs the movement of earthquakes and the functioning of instruments to measure them: seismometers.

Reading a Seismogram

P-waves travel fastest, and hence arrive first. The difference in the arrival time of the P- and S-waves is proportional to the distance to the focus.

As distance to the focus increases, so does the time gap between the arrival of the first P-wave and the first S-wave.
An earthquake occurs 500 km from a seismometer. The first P-wave arrives after 70 seconds, the first S-wave arrives in 150 seconds.
time (s)

Wave Speeds
350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 0 500 1000 1500 distance (km)

S-wave

P-wave

Quantifying Earthquake Intensity

Richter magnitude scale: calculated based on the amplitude (height) of the recorded waves Modified Mercalli intensity scale: estimated based on damage relative to set criteria (Roman numerals) Moment Magnitude: calculated based on the amount of energy released (distance of slip x area of slip x stiffness of rock)

Magnitude
It is a measure of the strength of an earthquake or strain energy released by it, as determined by seismographic observations. This is a logarithmic value originally defined by Charles Richter (1935). An increase of one unit of magnitude (for example, from 4.6 to 5.6) represents a 10-fold increase in wave amplitude on a seismogram or approximately a 30-fold increase in the energy released. In other words, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake releases over 900 times (30 times 30) the energy of a 4.7 earthquake - or it takes about 900 magnitude 4.7 earthquakes to equal the energy released in a single 6.7 earthquake! There is no beginning nor end to this scale. However, rock mechanics seems to preclude earthquakes smaller than about -1 or larger than about 9.5. A magnitude -1.0 event release about 900 times less energy than a magnitude 1.0 quake. Except in special circumstances, earthquakes below magnitude 2.5 are not generally felt by humans.

Intensity It is a measure of the effects of an earthquake at a particular place on humans, structures and (or) the land itself. The intensity at a point depends not only upon the strength of the earthquake (magnitude) but also upon the distance from the earthquake to the point and the local geology at that point.

Frequency of Occurrence of Earthquakes

Descriptor Magnitude Great Major Strong Moderate Light

(estimated)Minor
(estimated)Very Minor

Average Annually 1 17 134 1319 13,000 130,000 1,300,000

8 and higher 7 - 7.9 6 - 6.9 5 - 5.9 4 - 4.9 3 - 3.9 2 - 2.9

(estimated) Based on observations since 1900. Based on observations since 1990.

The magnitude scale is really comparing amplitudes of waves on a seismogram, not the STRENGTH (energy) of the quakes. So, a magnitude 8.7 is 794 times bigger than a 5.8 quake as measured on seismograms, but the 8.7 quake is about 23,000 times STRONGER than the 5.8! Since it is really the energy or strength that knocks down buildings, this is really the more important comparison. This means that it would take about 23,000 quakes of magnitude 5.8 to equal the energy released by one magnitude 8.7 event. The actual formula would be: ((10**1.5)**8.7)/((10**1.5)**5.8) = 10**(1.5*(8.7-5.8)) = 10**(1.5*2.9) = 22,387 This explains why big quakes are so much more devastating than small ones. The amplitude ("size") differences are big enough, but the energy ("strength") differences are huge. The amplitude numbers are neater and a little easier to explain, which is why those are used more often in publications. But it's the energy that does the damage

Magnitude vs. Ground Motion and Energy

Magnitude Change Ground Motion Change (Displacement) Energy Change

1.0 0.5 0.3 0.1

10.0 times 3.2 times 2.0 times 1.3 times

about 32 times about 5.5 times about 3 times about 1.4 times

This table shows, for example, that a magnitude 7.2 earthquake produces 10 times more ground motion that a magnitude 6.2 earthquake, but it releases about 32 times more energy. The energy release best indicates the destructive power of an earthquake.

What Is a Seismograph? Seismographs are instruments used to record and measure earthquakes. During an earthquake, vibrations initiated by the breakage of rock along the fault zone radiate outward from the point of fracture. Seismographs detect, amplify, and record these vibrations. The visual record produced by a seismograph is called a seismogram. How Do Seismographs Work? The motion of the earth during an earthquake is measured in terms of its movement relative to some object that remains independent of the ground motion. In a seismograph this object consists of a mass suspended on springs within a case. The unit is called a seismometer. During an earthquake the mass remains still, while the case around it moves with the ground motion. Most modern seismographs work electromagnetically. A large magnet is used for the mass and the outside case contains numerous windings of fine wire. Movements of the case relative to the magnet generate small electric signals in the wire coil. These signals are then amplified electronically and stored digitally on a computer or played out on a recording drum.

New Canadian Internet Accelerograph

Strong motion seismographs are often called accelerographs because they measure acceleration of the ground. For complete characterization of the ground movement, shaking is measured in three perpendicular directions (one vertical, and two horizontal). Strong motion records of past earthquakes are extremely useful to engineers designing earthquake resistant structures.

Locating Distant Earthquakes

A different example of the same principle, using the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake. With large numbers of very sophisticated, linked seismic stations we can determine the positions of distant earthquake foci extremely precisely. Such precision is needed to interpret things like the specific fault motion.

Locating Epicenter

The IRIS GSN stations continuously record seismic data from very broad band seismometers at 20 samples per second, and to provide for high-frequency (40 sps) and strong-motion (1 and 100 sps) sensors where scientifically warranted. It is also the goal of the GSN to provide for real-time access to its data via Internet or satellite. Over 75% of the IRIS GSN stations meet this goal.

A permanent network of 128, very broadband, digital seismic stations distributed globally comprise the Global Seismic Network (GSN). These extremely high quality, standardized stations are designed to study the structure of the Earth's interior using worldwide recordings of earthquakes, underground explosions and volcanic activity.

Paleoseismology
Without having been there then, how can we investigate the intensity of earthquakes? This is the field of paleoseismology: using indirect evidence of earthquakes to estimate their intensities. Earthquakes (particularly big ones) leave behind physical evidence.
sand dike: conduit that once fed a sandboil

Paleoseismic

Prominent features of past Features earthquakes include:

sand dikes and boils drowned trees (abrupt relative sea level change) changes in sediment

Where can I get some more information on earthquake engineering? University of British Columbia - Department of Civil Engineering Ottawa Carleton Earthquake Engineering Research Centre Earthquake Engineering Research Center - UC Berkeley EQE International (Engineering Information) Multidisciplinary Centre for Earthquake Engineering Research Earthquakes - What To Do... Before, During, and After What should I do during an earthquake? When an earthquake occurs, 1. turn away from windows and other glass. Windows may break and glass shards can fly great distances; 2. take cover under a sturdy desk, table, or door frame to prevent injury from falling debris; -if you are outside, try to keep to open areas well clear of buildings and power lines; -if you are driving, pull over and stop your vehicle, preferably in an open area. After an earthquake, follow emergency radio broacasts carefully, and restrict your telephone calls to genuine emergencies.

What should I do after a strong earthquake? Stay calm. Help the injured, if any. Speak calmly with family members, especially children about what has just happened, in order to relieve stress. Stay tuned to the radio and follow instructions. Use the telephone only in an emergency. Do not enter damaged buildings To prevent fire, check the chimneys or have them checked before using the furnace or fireplace. Check all gas lines. Will more shocks be felt after a strong earthquake? For several hours, or even days, after a strongly felt earthquake, it is quite possible that people may feel more shocks. However: In most cases, these shocks (called aftershocks) will be smaller; therefore, the shaking will be weaker. Aftershocks do not mean that a stronger earthquake is coming. Aftershocks are normal; they show that the earth's crust is readjusting after the main earthquake. The number of felt aftershocks is quite variable and thus cannot be predicted. There might be several per day, or only several per week. However, the number of aftershocks, and their magnitude, will normally decrease with time. It is impossible to predict either the number or the magnitude of aftershocks that might occur. These vary greatly from one region to another, according to many factors which are not yet well-understood.