Earthquakes
Introduction
Earthquakes are a common natural disaster caused by the movement of the Earth's tectonic
plates. These movements generate pressure that, when released, causes the ground to shake.
This study guide provides an overview of the causes, measurement, and types of earthquakes.
Tectonic Plates and Earth's Structure
The Earth's crust is composed of several large and many small tectonic plates. Beneath the crust
is the liquid mantle. Convection currents within the mantle cause the plates to move, albeit
slowly, a few inches per year.
The key layers of the Earth relevant to earthquakes are:
Crust: The outermost solid layer, made up of tectonic plates.
Mantle: A liquid layer beneath the crust where convection currents drive plate movement.
Tectonic plates interact in three primary ways:
Moving Away: Plates diverge, creating new crust.
Moving Past: Plates slide past each other, causing friction.
Moving Towards: Plates collide, building pressure.
Causes of Earthquakes
The friction resulting from the movement of tectonic plates creates pressure. When this pressure
becomes too great, it is released in a sudden jolt, causing an earthquake. These earthquakes
primarily occur along the edges of tectonic plates. A notable example is the Pacific coast of
Japan, where four plates converge.
Key terms related to earthquake location:
Hypocenter: The point of origin of the earthquake within the Earth.
Epicenter: The point on the Earth's surface directly above the hypocenter, where the most
severe damage usually occurs.
Measuring Earthquakes
The strength of an earthquake is measured using a seismograph. The Richter scale is used to
assign a magnitude to the earthquake, ranging from 1 to 10.
Earthquake magnitude and its impact:
Level 5: Buildings can be damaged.
Above Level 5: Significant impact on the safety of entire regions.
The Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale, which means that for each whole number
increase, the amplitude of the seismic waves recorded by seismographs increases by a factor of
ten. The energy released increases by a factor of approximately 31.6 with each whole number
increase.
For example, an earthquake of magnitude is ten times larger in amplitude and releases
approximately 31.6 times more energy than an earthquake of magnitude
We can quantify this relationship using the following
where and are the amplitudes of the seismic waves and are the magnitudes of the earthquakes.
Similarly, the ratio of energies released can be expressed as:
where and are the energies released by the earthquakes.
Types of Earthquakes
While tectonic earthquakes are the most common, earthquakes can also be caused by other
factors:
Tectonic Earthquakes: Caused by the movement and interaction of tectonic plates.
Volcanic Earthquakes: Associated with volcanic eruptions.
Collapse Earthquakes: Result from the collapse of underground caverns.
Induced Earthquakes: Triggered by human activities such as extraction, drilling, and mining.
Frequency of Earthquakes
Earthquakes occur frequently, several thousand times a day, across the globe. However, most are
so weak that they can only be detected by seismographs.