Earthquakes And Engineering Flashcards
Where do Earthquakes Happen?
Along plate boundaries, namely the ring of fire, alpide belt, circum-pacific belt, and the mid Atlantic ridge
What Causes Earthquakes
Stress in the rust caused by plate tectonics
What is a Seismograph?
Record the amplitude of ground movement as to record earthquake arrival
Fault types
Dip-slip faults
— normal
— reverse
— thrust
Strike-slip faults
— left thermal strike-slip
— right lateral strike slip
Normal fault
Extension, hanging wall goes down
Reverse fault
Compression, Hanging wall goes up, high angle
Thrust fault
Compression, Hanging wall goes up, at a low angle
Left lateral strike-slip fault
Shear, left plate goes down, has mountains
Right lateral strike-slip fault
Shear, Right plate goes down, has mountains on it
Why do faults occur?
Directed stress builds up in rocks by…
1. Compression
2. Tension
3. Shear (slipping along a plane parallel to the stress
Strain
An Accumulation of stress in a rock produces that deformation
Three stages:
1. Elastic deformation
2. Ductile defomation
3. Brittle deformation
Elastic deformation
Fully reversible, stretch and bounces back
Ductile defomation
Irreversible, can stretch but wont go back to its original shape
Brittle deformation
Fracture
Stretch and it breaks
Faults
Planar fractures in rocks where the rocks on either side have moved
Vary in size (can be mm)
Elastic rebound theory
When sufficient strain energy has accumulated in rocks,they may rupture rapidly (like how a rubber band breaks when it is stretched too far) and the stored energy is released as vibrations that radiation outward in all directions
1. Stress gets added
2. Rocks deform and store energy
3. Rocks break and release energy (earthquake)
4. Rocks rebound to undeformed shape
Rupture zone
The part of the fault that slips
Can’t predict how large/ when a rupture occurs
Focus/hypocentre?
Where pinpoint within the earth where the rupture starts
Epicentre
The location on the surface where the seismic waves first hit
Directly above focus
Where do the deepest earthquakes occur?
The ring of fire (circum pacific seismic belt)
Most earthquake foci occur at depths of <15km in the crust. Why don’t earthquakes occur in the mantle?
The deeper you go, the more ductile deformation you get. Without the brittle deformation, Faulkner cannot be generated.
Where can shallow, intermediate and deep earthquakes occur?
Subduction zones
Where can only shallow earthquakes occur?
Transform and divergent boundaries
Upper 15km of crust
body waves
Generated at the focus and travel through the interior of the earth
Two types:
1. P-wave
2. S-wave
P-waves
Primary waves
Compression-extension, longitudinal waves
Velocity increases with depth, fastest waves
Pass through solid and liquid
S-waves
Secondary
Transverse, shear waves
Produce ground motion perpendicular to direction of travel
Can only travel through solids (bc liquids and gases cannot be ruptured)
Slower