Part 1

Taiwan, 1999. (Sathiyam.tv)

This document was modified and supplemented by BYU-Idaho faculty.

All illustrations are from USGS unless otherwise noted.

Learning Objectives
Your goals in studying this chapter are to:
Discuss exactly what an earthquake is and the
related terminology.
Describe the types of faults and seismic waves
Describe how earthquakes are measured.
Discuss the kinds of damage earthquakes can
cause.
Discuss earthquake mitigation measures,
including basic principles of seismic engineering.
Describe earthquake risk in the United States.
Discuss the limitations of earthquake prediction.

Discuss earthquake preparedness.

** Follow all links. They are part of your text. **

What Is An Earthquake?
On April 18, 1906, the earth moved. Not only did the ground shake on the day of the Great
San Francisco earthquake, but land on both sides of the San Andreas fault permanently
shifted. Precise measurements of the amount of motion led scientists to discover why
earthquakes happen. Fences across the San Andreas fault ripped apart, and it was no longer
clear who owned the land nearby. Surveyors went to mountain peaks to relocate the property
boundaries. While the fences showed that ground had moved near the fault, the surveyors also
discovered that much of northern California had moved and distorted during the earthquake.
The movement followed a pattern with most of the motion near the fault and less motion far
away. At the time, nobody knew what caused earthquakes. The survey measurements led a
scientist named H. F. Reid to propose one possible explanation (in the Lawson Report). He
hypothesized that strain built up in the earths crust like the stretching of a rubber band. At
some point, the earth would have to snap, sending shockwaves through the earth in an
earthquake. This process is called the elastic rebound theory. The problem was that Reid
didnt know what caused the strain to build up. Scientists continued to survey after the
earthquake and saw that motion continued throughout California, providing an important piece
of evidence that the Earths tectonic plates are in constant motion. This plate motion is Reids
missing cause of strain. Two plates can get stuck together where they meet (at boundaries
called faults), but forces deep within the earth drag and pull the plates in different directions.
Faults remain stuck together for many years as the nearby crust deforms and stretches, but
eventually the strain is too much and the two plates shift suddenly in an earthquake. Today,
scientists monitor the buildup of strain near locked faults using satellite observations, and have
discovered that the pattern is much like Reid hypothesized 100 years ago.

elastic rebound movie 1

elastic rebound movie 2
Elastic rebound

Faults and Basic Terminology

Earthquakes are the result of relentless forces deep within the Earth that continuously stress the lithosphere and crust. The energy from these
forces is stored as strain (deformation or bending) in the rocks. When this energy is released suddenly, an earthquake results. The area
underground on the fault where the sudden rupture takes place is called the focus or hypocenter of the earthquake. The point on the Earth's
surface directly above the hypocenter is called the epicenter of the earthquake. (see illustration on following page)

A fault scarp is a rupture of the earths surface along a fault. It is typically manifest as an unusually steep step in ground level.

Fault scarps at Borah Peak, Idaho (left) formed in the M6.9

earthquake in 1983, and at the Red Canyon fault, Montana
(above) formed during the M7.3 Hebgen Lake earthquake in
1959. The Culligan Ranch above had just been built as a safe
haven in case of nuclear war, but as they say in the real estate
business, location is everything. The building on the
upthrown side (right) was completely flattened.

The strike-slip Denali fault in Alaska (both photos) ruptured for

more than 200 miles in a M7.9 earthquake in 2002. In the photo
above, the fault (between the arrows) offset the canyon streams.
The geologists at right are examining the scarp. (USGS)

The aftershock pattern of this moderate earthquake in Hawaii is typical aftershocks die out
with time, and magnitudes decrease. (USGS)

Click to see an animation of

aftershocks. (IRIS)

An aftershock is a quake in the same volume of crust as the main shock, often on the same fault. They occur when the displaced rock stabilizes in
its new position, and they relieve the last bits of stress. Aftershocks diminish in both magnitude and frequency with time, as shown on the chart
above. Some aftershocks have occurred more than a year after the main shock.

A seismogram (above) showing a main shock, foreshock, and

aftershock. The map at right shows aftershocks of the great M9.0
Tuhoku earthquake in northern Japan in March, 2011. (USGS)

Fact: 80% of all earthquakes take place at or near tectonic plate boundaries. We will learn about some important exceptions.

epicenters (generalized)
hypocenters (generalized)

The rocks get narrower

At/near transform boundaries

The rocks are in compression

animation

animation

The rocks are in extension

animation
The rocks get wider

Normal faults break the crust into horsts (uplifted blocks) and grabens (valleys). Extension of the crust has broken the western United States
into horsts and grabens across western Utah, all of Nevada, and west to the Sierra Nevada mountains, which are also a horst. This region is
known as the Basin and Range geological province. (NPS)

Basin and Range province, United States

This diagram shows the Teton Range horst and the Jackson Hole graben. The block of rock above a fault is called the hanging wall, and the
block of rock below the fault is called the footwall. Miners gave them these names because they frequently tunneled along faults to find the
valuable minerals deposited there by hot waters one block hung over their heads, and the other was under their feet. The Teton Range is the
northeastern margin of the Basin and Range province. To the east is the northern Rocky Mountains province. (NPS)

The Teton fault in western Wyoming is one of the major seismic

hazards nearest to BYU-Idaho. The Tetons are a horst, and the Jackson
Hole valley is a graben. The fault scarp is shown at left, the result of
several earthquakes that ruptured the surface. (NPS)

Recognizing Active Faults

A fault is defined as a fracture in earths crust along which displacement
has taken place. Most faults shown on maps have not moved in a very
long time, up to millions of years. Active faults, however, are defined as
the ones that have had displacement more recently and have potential to
slip again. Faults are most often stuck tight, but at times they lurch
several feet in a great earthquake. Living near faults is a fact of life for
many, but how do you recognize an active fault? Some faults creep,
which means they move very slowly all the time. Structures like bridges,
sidewalks, and buildings built astride these faults will be offset as the
faults slowly move (up to a half inch each year). You can find these faults
by looking for bent or offset curbs and sidewalks in cities like Hollister,
California (see the photo at top right). Not every offset curb is a fault, but
if you find several features that all line up, you may have found a fault.
Most faults dont creep, however, so geologists look for the effects faults
have on the landscape. Natural features like streams, valleys, and ridges
can be offset from repeated earthquakes if they cross the fault (Photo 2).
Active faults also make their own landscape features. If one side of the
fault moves up or down, it creates a long, straight step called a scarp.
As faults move along in repeated earthquakes, the rock along the fault is
broken and ground down. This shattered zone is more easily eroded than
the surrounding rocks, so long valleys can form along the fault (Photo 3).
So faults can cause both ridges and valleys to form. Faults also can
disrupt the movement of underground water, forcing it to the surface to
form springs and ponds. Youve seen all of these features when you took
the Google Earth tour of the San Andreas in a previous week. A lot of
these features are easiest to spot from the air. Our newest tool to find
faults is Laser Imaging Detection And Ranging (LIDAR), which uses
laser light from an airplane to make a detailed image of the ground
surface that can even see through trees in a forest. Being able to read the
landscape allows us to pinpoint the exact location of dangerous faults.

This sidewalk is offset by

over one foot due to
creep on the Calaveras
Fault. The arrows show
the direction of
movement.

BYUI

The stream in this

photo is offset by
displacement along
the San Andreas
Fault. As the fault
continues to move,
the two parts of the
stream will get
farther apart. A
straight step, or scarp
runs along the fault.

Crystal Springs
Reservoir lies
within the long,
straight valley
broken up by the
San Andreas Fault,
several miles south
of San Francisco.

If you are unfamiliar with Google Earth, you will want to complete the Lesson 1 Guided Lab A before proceeding. If Google Earth is
installed on your computer, clicking on these links should open Google Earth with the tour file loaded. If not, then when you click on
the link choose to save the file to your computer and then open the file with Google Earth.
When you take these tours in Google Earth, make sure the faults item with each one is checked so the faults will be displayed. You
should also check the populated places layer (under borders and labels and the
labels subfolder).

Tour the Wasatch fault

Tour faults in southern

California
landslides

Tour faults in the BYUIdaho region

landslides

BYUI

Seismic Waves
Every earthquake generates a suite of seismic waves. The
waves generated at the hypocenter are primary or p-waves,
and secondary or s-waves. P-waves are compressional
waves, like sound waves. S-waves are shear waves, and
travel about a third slower than p-waves hence they are
secondary, or the second to arrive at a seismometer.
When p- and s-waves reach the earths surface, some of their
energy is converted into surface waves, which include
Rayleigh and Love waves (see the diagram and video).
Surface waves travel slower than s-waves, and have higher
amplitudes, especially in soft soils. Surface waves do most
of the damage in earthquakes, and are the memorable ones
most people describe after a quake.

seismic waves video

How seismic waves travel

animation
Watch the seismic waves from a quake on a normal fault
travel through earths crust and along the surface.

Part 1
Part 2
This animation compares travel of seismic waves to
waves from a drop hitting water. The data are from the
Wells, Nevada quake in 2005.