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 earths 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 cant 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.