(1.2) Global Seismology and Potential Field Techniques Flashcards
How are earthquake first motion pulls represented on a diagram?
White
How are earthquake first motion pushes represented on a diagram?
Black
What is a lower focal hemisphere plot?
“Beach-ball” diagram - plotting first motion pull and pushes of an earthquake
What is the correct name for a diagram showing first motion pulls and pushes of an earthquake?
Lower Focal Hemisphere Plot
What does the red line show on the following diagram?
Dextral fault trending NE
What does the red line show on the following diagram?
Normal, steep fault downthrowing to SW
What does the red line show on the following diagram?
Thrust. steep fault with top to NW
What does the red line show on the following diagram?
Normal plus Strike slip on shallow fault tranding NNE
What does the blue line show on the following diagram?
Sinistral fault trending SE
What does the blue line show on the following diagram?
Normal, shallow fault downthrowing to NE
What does the blue line show on the following diagram?
Thrust, shallow fault with top to SE
What does the blue line show on the following diagram?
Normal plus Strike slip on shallow fault tranding NNW
What is an Anisotropic Medium?
A medium which has a preferred direction of seismic wave travel
What is an Isotropic Medium?
A medium which acts the same in all directions
Give two prominent examples of an Anisotropic Mediums in modern Earth?
Olivine crystals which have undergone strain, Fluid filled voids with a preferential direction
What can anisotropic Olivine give an indication of?
Strain in upper mantle
How can the theory of anisotropy be used for reservoir identification in basins?
The presence of preferentially orientated fractures containing hydrocarbons
Give a modern day example where the presence of magma is aiding rifting by reducing friction
East African Rift Valley
How does the theory of anisotropy relate to the East African Rift Valley
There is a preferred orientation of fractures running parallel to the rift which contain magma in abundance
Why are nearly all of the biggest earthquakes occurring around the edges of the Pacific Ocean?
Rocks are stronger in compression than tension, so store more energy before brittle failure occurs. Pacific margins are areas of compression and so release higher amounts of energy than a spreading centre
What was the biggest ever earthquake?
Chile, 22/05/1960, Mw 9.5
What is the CTBT and why are seismometers important to it?
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for Nuclear Weapons Development. These types of explosions actually have a unique signature in the seismological record and thus can be recognised over a normal seismic release
What did the study by Earle and Shearer (1994) set out to achieve?
Creation of an automatic phase picker for P and S wave arrival times
What was the main advantage of the algorithm created by Earle and Shearer (1994)?
Lots of data can be processed quickly and efficiently to determine source of earthquake
Who were the researchers whom created the arrival time algorithm?
Earle and Shearer (1994)
What was the main disadvantage of the arrival time algorithm created by Earle and Shearer (1994)?
Humans are better able to destinguish the arrival time manually
What is the name of the researchers whom studied the Northern Ethiopian Rift?
Kendall et al (2005)
What did the model created by Kendall et al. (2005) determine?
Very likely that melt induced anistropy aided in rift
Who were the researchers whom observed six plumes stretching into the lowermost mantle?
Montelli et al. (2010)
Which were the six plumes which Montelli et al. (2010) determined streched into the lowermost mantle?
Ascension, Azores, Canary, Easter, Samoa, Tahiti
What did Montelli et al. (2010) suggest for those plumes which were restricted to the upper mantle?
The possibility of the existance of two depth regiemes in plume development
How did Montelli et al. (2010) suggest that mantle plumes effected the entire heat regieme of the earth?
Plumes contribute towards a substantial fraction of internal heat escape
How large did Montelli et al. (2010) suggest mantle plumes are based on their tomographic findings?
Several hundreds of km’s
Who were the researchers whom used tomography to determine the process of the Indian plate collision with Asia?
Replumaz et al. (2004)
What did Replumaz et al. (2004) suggest happened to the Indian Plate’s mantle?
Over-ridden by the Indian plate, not significantly thrusted beneath Tibet
How much deformation was absorbed by the Asian plate during the Indian collision according to Replumaz et al. (2004)?
~1500km
What does the Indian plates slab look like at 1100 km and 700 km?
Linear at 1100 km, becomes more deformed with shallowing - so 700 km highly deformed
What do the components of the following equation mean?
F = Force, G is the Universal Gravitational Constant (~6.7 x10^-11), r is the seperation between m1 and m2, the masses which are interacting gravitationally
What happens to gravity with increasing seperation? What is another name for this law?
Rapidly decreases with increasing seperation - inverse square law
Substitute Newton’s second Law into the following equation and simplify.
F= G m1 m2 / r^2
F = ma where m is the smaller second mass, m2, giving:
How much does “g” vary in gravitational surveys?
up to 100 micrometer s-2
What are the two controlling factors influencing changes in “g” in gravitational surveys?
Densities of rocks, pore fluids