Lesson How Do Movements Along Faults

1 Generate Earthquakes

An earthquake is brought about by an abrupt slip on a fault, much like what happens when you
snap your fingers. Going before the snap, you push your fingers together and sideways. Since you
are pushing them together, friction keeps them from moving to the side. At the point when you
push sideways hard enough to overcome this friction, your fingers move unexpectedly, discharging
energy in a form of sound waves that set the air vibrating and travel from your hand to your ear,
where you hear the snap.

The same process goes on in an earthquake. Stress in the outer layer of the Earth pushes the
sides of the fault together. The grinding over the surface of the fault holds the rocks together so they
do not slip promptly when pushed sideways. In the long run , enough pressure develops, and the
rocks slip suddenly releasing energy in waves that make a travel through the rocks to cause the
shaking that we feel during an earthquake.

Earthquake is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from the sudden release of
energy in the Earth’s lithosphere. The energy will eventually be released once the fault overcomes
the friction movement.

Faults are thin zones of crushed blocks of rocks. These are often in centimeters to thousands
of kilometers long. Their surfaces can be vertical or horizontal. These can expand into the earth and
might possibly reach out up to the earth's surface. These are also breaking in the Earth's crust
where rocks on either side of the crack have slid past each other. There are three kinds of faults:
strike-slip, normal, and thrust (reverse) faults. Each type is the outcome of different forces pushing
or pulling on the crust, causing rocks to slide up, down or past each other. The amount of ground
displacement in an earthquake is called the slip.

Strike-slip faults are rocks sliding past one another on a horizontal plane, with little to no
vertical movement. Examples to these are the San Andreas Fault and the Anatolian Fault.

Normal faults are two blocks of crust layer pulling apart, extending the crust into a valley
thus, creating a space. A normal fault has the upper side or hanging wall appears to have moved
downward with respect to the footwall. The Basin and Range Province in North America and the
East African Rift Zone are two notable districts where normal fault is spreading apart Earth's crust.

Reverse faults are also known as thrust faults, the slide one block of crust on top of
another. These faults are normally found in collision zones where tectonic plates push up mountain
ranges, for example, the Himalayas and Rocky Mountains.

Lesson Epicenter vs Focus and Magnitude vs

2 Intensity
Earthquakes occur as large blocks of the Earth's crust move abruptly past each other at a
fault. At the point when the force of plate tectonics makes the bits of the Earth's outside layer move,
in some cases, the pieces do not slide easily past each other. There can be grinding along the fault’s
rough edges that catch the blocks of rocks. This makes it hard for them to move past one another.
Sometimes they get stuck together temporarily. At the point when the bits of rocks overcome the
snags, energy is released. The release of energy results the shaking of the ground surface.
 Normal Fault Reverse Fault Transform Fault

Focus and Epicenter

A fault is a weak point in the tectonic plate where the pressure inside the crust is released.
The area inside the Earth where an earthquake starts is known as the focal point of the quake or
the focus. It is centered on the portion of the fault that has the greatest movement. The point at the
Earth's surface directly above the focus is known as the epicenter of the quake. During an
earthquake, the strongest shaking occurs at the epicenter. Sometimes, the ground surface breaks
along the fault as shown in Figure 3. There are also times the movement is deep underground and
the surface does not break. Scientists often name an earthquake after the region that is closest to
its epicenter. Generally, if two earthquakes of equal strength originate from the same epicenter, the
one with the shallower focus causes more destruction. Seismic waves from a deep-focus earthquake
lose more of their energy as they travel farther up to surface.

Figure 3: Cross section of Fault with waves

Magnitude and Intensity

The earthquake’s magnitude and intensity have different characteristics. Magnitude

measures the energy being released from the origin of the earthquake. It is measured by an
instrument called seismograph. The Richter Magnitude Scale measures the quantity of seismic
energy released by an earthquake. Intensity is the strength of the trembling made by the
 earthquake at a place. The intensity of an earthquake varies relying on where you are and is
determined by the Mercalli Scale.

Active and Inactive Faults

Active faults are areas along in which displacement is expected to occur. Since a shallow
earthquake produces displacement across a fault, all shallow earthquakes occur on active
faults. These are considered to be geologic hazards. Inactive faults are areas that can be identified,
but which do not have earthquakes.

Table 1. Magnitude Scale of an Earthquake

Magnitude Description Effects of Earthquakes

< 2.0 micro micro earthquakes, not felt

2.0 - 2.9 minor generally not felt, but recorded
3.0 - 3.9 minor often felt, but rarely causes damage
light, noticeable shaking of indoor things, shaking clamors significant
4.0 - 4.9 light
damage is unlikely
cause serious harm to ineffectively developed structures over small
5.0 - 5.9 moderate
regions at most slight damage to well-designed buildings
damaging in areas up to 160 kilometers (100 mi) across in populated
6.0 - 6.9 strong
areas
7.0 - 7.9 major cause major damage over larger areas
8.0 - 8.9 great cause serious damage in places several hundred miles across
9.0 - 9.9 great devastating in areas several thousand miles across
10.0+ epic never recorded
Table 2. Intensity Scale of an Earthquake

Intensity
Shaking Description
Scale
Scarcely Perceptible to people under favorable circumstances. Delicately balanced objects are
I disturbed slightly. Still Water in containers oscillates slowly.
Perceptible
Felt by few individuals at rest indoors. Hanging objects swing slightly. Still Water in
II Slightly Felt containers oscillates noticeably.
Felt by many people indoors especially in upper floors of buildings. Vibration is felt
III Weak like one passing of a light truck. Dizziness and nausea are experienced by some
people.
Felt generally by people indoors and by some people outdoors. Light sleepers are
Moderately
IV awakened. Vibration is felt like a passing of heavy truck. Hanging objects swing
Strong
considerably.
Generally felt by most people indoors and outdoors. Many sleeping people are
V Strong awakened. Some are frightened, some run outdoors. Strong shaking and rocking felt
throughout building.
Many people are frightened; many run outdoors. Some people lose their balance.
VI Very Strong Motorists feel like driving in flat tires.
Most people are frightened and run outdoors. People find it difficult to stand in
VII Destructive upper floors. Heavy objects and furniture overturn or topple. Big church bells may
ring.
People are panicky. People find it difficult to stand even outdoors. Many well-built
Very
VIII buildings are considerably damaged. Concrete dikes and foundation of bridges are
Destructive
destroyed by ground settling or toppling.
People are forcibly thrown to ground. Many cries and shake with fear. Most
buildings are totally damaged. Bridges and elevated concrete structures are toppled
IX Devastating
or destroyed. Numerous utility posts, towers, and monument are tilted, toppled or
broken.
X Completely Practically all man-made structures are destroyed. Massive landslides and
 liquefaction, large scale subsidence and uplifting of landforms and many ground
Devastating
fissures are observed.

Lesso Seismic Waves

n3
Earthquake is the shaking of the Earth crust that occurs naturally or by human activities.
This is also part of the geological processes that result to the formation of oceans, valleys,
mountains, and plains. Over the last 100 years, scientists have learned a great deal about these
processes, causes, measures, and occurrences of an earthquake. By studying earthquake, scientists
were able to discover more about the Earth.

What causes Earthquake?

An earthquake occurs because of geologic forces
inside the Earth. These inner forces build up slowly and
eventually become so strong that may cause
underground rocks to break.

When this happens, tremendous energy is

released causing the ground to move and shake. These
waves of energy travel through the Earth are called
seismic waves.

Seismic waves behave in different ways, depending on

what they encounter along the way.
Figure 1. The behavior of seismic
waves reveals what the Earth looks like
inside.

What are Seismic Waves? Illustrated by: Angelo Zaldy C. Francia

Seismic waves are the waves of energy that travel either along or near the Earth’s surface.
This energy that travels through the Earth is recorded by seismographs.

Types of Earthquake Waves

1. body waves

2. surface waves

Body Waves

The body waves are seismic waves that travel through the interior of the Earth. These waves
are of higher frequency than surface waves. The two types of body waves are primary and secondary
waves.

Primary Waves

The first type of body waves are the P waves or primary waves. These are the fastest kind
of seismic waves, and consequently, the first to arrive at a seismic station and recorded in the
seismograph. The P waves can move through solid rocks and fluids, like water or the liquid layers of
the Earth. They push and pull the rocks as they move through just like the sound waves that push
and pull the air.

P waves are also known as compressional or longitudinal waves because of the pushing
and pulling they do. P waves vibrate parallel to the direction and travelling in a push-pull motion.
Primary waves can travel at a velocity of about 4 to 6 km/s depending on the nature of the material
it passes through.
Secondary Waves

The second type of body waves are the S waves or secondary waves. These are waves that
arrive second, after P waves are being detected in the seismic station and recorded in the
seismograph. S waves are slower than P waves and can only move through solid rocks, not through
any liquid medium. This concludes that the Earth’s outer core is liquid due to this property of the S
wave. These waves move rock particles up and down, or side-to-side perpendicular to the direction
that the waves are traveling in. S waves are also known as transverse or shear waves, which
create the shaking of the ground back and forth perpendicular to the direction the waves are
moving. S waves have a velocity of 3 to 4 km/s.

Surface Waves

Surface waves travel only through the crust. These are of lower frequency than body waves,
and are easily distinguished on a seismograph. Though they arrive after body waves, it is the
surface waves that are almost entirely responsible for the destruction associated with earthquakes.
There are two types of surface waves, the Love wave and Rayleigh wave.

Love Waves

The first type of surface wave is called Love wave, named after Augustus Edward Hough
Love, a British mathematician who worked out the mathematical model for this kind of wave in
1911. This wave is the fastest surface wave and moves the ground from side-to-side. Love waves
produce entirely horizontal motion. It can travel a velocity of 4 km/s and create more shaking.

Rayleigh Waves

The second type of surface wave is the Rayleigh wave, named after John William Strutt,
Lord Rayleigh, a British scientist who predicted the existence of this kind of wave in 1885. This
wave rolls along the ground just like a wave rolls across a lake or an ocean. It moves the ground
side-to-side and up and down in the same direction that the wave is moving. Most of the trembling
felt from an earthquake is due to the Rayleigh wave, which can be much larger than the other
waves.

What can seismic waves tell us?

The different types of seismic waves can tell us more about the nature of the Earth’s interior.

For instance, seismologists use the seismic waves such as the P waves and S waves to
determine the distance from the source of an earthquake by getting the direction and the difference
in the time of arrival of the waves. When the seismic waves travel deeper into the crust, the quake
will speed up. This means that at depth, the rocks are denser. When it reaches the upper part of the
mantle, the waves will slow down. This means that the rocks are partially molten.

As the waves reach the core, one kind of seismic waves called the secondary waves, will
disappear thus, the outer core is liquid. At a certain depth, the waves are reflected and refracted.
This means that the Earth must be layered.