Euly Boy M.

Canada BCES 2 (9823)

➢ Origin and Causes of Earthquakes

Earthquake occurs when two blocks of the
earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface
where they slip is called the fault or fault plane.
Earthquake originates below the earth’s surface
which is called the hypocenter, and the location
directly above it on the surface of the earth is called
the epicenter.

The inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust

are the four main layers of the planet. Our planet's
surface is covered by a thin layer of skin made up of the crust and the top of the mantle.
However, this skin does not cover the entire surface of the earth in one piece; rather,
it is composed of several pieces. On top of that, these pieces are continuously shifting,
slipping by one another, and colliding. These tectonic plates are the parts of the entire
surface that make up the earth, and their limits are known as plate boundaries. Most
earthquakes in the world happen on the many faults that make up the plate
boundaries. The rough edges of the plates cause them to become caught while the
rest of the plate continues to move. When the plate has shifted sufficiently, an
earthquake occurs resulted from one of the faults' edges detaching [1].

➢ Plate Tectonic Theory

By the 1970s, researchers had
accumulated enough knowledge regarding
the motion of the Earth's crust to formulate
a comprehensive hypothesis. The theory of
plate tectonics states that Earth’s solid, solid
lithosphere, the layer of Earth consisting of
the crust and upper mantle, is divided into
tectonic plates which are also known as
lithospheric plates. They are denser where
tectonic plates are made of oceanic crust.
Tectonic plates are less dense if they are
made of continental crust.
 Tectonic plates grind against one
another as they move. Earthquakes are
caused by these motions. These holes are
referred as volcanoes because tectonic plate
movements also produce cracks in the Earth's
crust through which lava can enter the planet's
surface. Scientists have been able to identify
the tectonic plate boundaries of the Earth by
analyzing the sites of earthquakes and
volcanoes. The major tectonic plates of the Earth are identified, along with a few
smaller plates [2].

➢ Faulting
When under stress, being forced apart or crushed close to the Earth's surface,
rocks react by breaking. A fracture or joint occurs when rocks split and there is no
offset on either side of the break. Additionally, rocks can fracture due to thermal
expansion and contraction, the consequences of fluids freezing, or when they are
dragged or crushed together. When two rocks pass one other along a fracture surface,
it is called a faulting.

Faulting is classified into four types - normal, reverse, strike-slip, and oblique. A
normal fault is one in which the hanging wall or footwall of rocks above the fault plane
moves downward in relation to the footwall of those rocks. When the footwall rises
relative to the hanging wall, this is known as a reversal fault. The movement is known
as strike-slip when the rocks on each side of a nearly vertical fault line shift horizontally.
When movement is not exactly parallel to the fault plane, a specific type of fault called
an oblique-slip fault develops. Oblique movement happens when faults that are either
normal or reverse have some strike-slip movement and when faults that are either
normal or reverse have some strike-slip movement [3].

➢ Seismic Waves
Seismic waves are defined as,
“the waves of energy produced by the
rapid breaking of rock within the earth or
an explosion”. They are the energy that
travels through the earth. Body waves
and surface waves are the two primary
forms of waves. Unlike surface waves,
which can only flow along the earth's
surface like water ripples, body waves
may pass into the core layers of the
globe. Seismic energy from
earthquakes is released as both surface
and body waves [4].
• Body Waves
Body waves travel through the earth's interior, arriving before the surface
waves produced by an earthquake. The frequency of these waves is higher
compared to surface waves.
▪ P Waves – because of its characteristics as the fastest seismic wave, it is
the first to "arrive" at a seismic station. The P wave may travel through
both solid rock and liquids, such as water or the earth's liquid layers. P
waves are also known as compressional waves, because of the pushing
and pulling they do.
▪ S Waves - an S wave cannot go through any liquid media; it can only
pass-through solid rock and is slower than a P wave which led the
seismologists to conclude that the Earth's outer core is a liquid. Rock
fragments are moved by S waves in a direction perpendicular to the
wave's direction, either up and down or side to side.

• Surface Waves
Surface waves are of a lower frequency than body waves that travels only
through the crust.
▪ Love Waves – It is the fastest surface wave and moves the ground from
side-to-side entirely horizontal motion. Love wave was named after A.E.H.
Love, a British mathematician who worked out the mathematical model for
this kind of wave in 1911.
▪ Rayleigh Waves - named after John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, who
mathematically calculated the existence of this kind of wave in 1885. It
rolls along the ground making the ground move up and down and side-to-
side in the same direction that the wave is moving [4].
➢ Types of Earthquakes
The location where an earthquake
occurs, and its geology determine the type
of earthquake that will occur there.
Tectonic earthquakes are the most
frequent. These happen when tectonic
plate movement produces geological
forces that cause rocks in the earth's crust
to fracture. Volcanic earthquakes are a
different type that also happen in
combination with volcanic activity.
Explosion earthquakes are caused by the explosion of nuclear and chemical
devices, whereas collapse earthquakes are minor earthquakes that occur in
subterranean mines and caves. Because the rocks on each side of a fault move during
significant tectonic earthquakes, we can use GPS to quantify motion [5].
References:
[1] U. S. S. Commission, “All About Earthquakes: The Science Behind
Earthquakes,” All About Earthquakes Sci. Behind Earthquakes, p. 1, 2010,
[Online]. Available: https://nhmu.utah.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/All
About Earthquakes.pdf
[2] “Plate Tectonic Theory,” pp. 1–9, [Online]. Available:
https://www.alvinisd.net/cms/lib/TX01001897/Centricity/Domain/6241/Plate
Tectonic Theory.pdf
[3] K. Mcclay and M. Bonora, “Fault Systems,” vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 233–260, 2001.
[4] S. De, “Seismic Waves.,” Shock Vib. Dig., vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 17–33, 1982, doi:
10.1177/058310248201400106.
[5] M. Glasscoe, “Types of earthquakes,” The Southern California Integrated GPS
Network Education Module. http://scecinfo.usc.edu/education/k12/learn/eq2.htm