Encyclopedia
An
earthquake is a phenomenon that results from and is powered by the sudden release of stored energy that radiates
seismic waves. At the
Earth's surface, earthquakes may manifest themselves by a shaking or displacement of the ground and sometimes
tsunamis, which may lead to loss of life and destruction of property.
Earthquakes may occur naturally or as a result of human activities. In its most generic sense, the word
earthquake is used to describe any seismic event—whether a natural phenomenon or an event caused by humans—that generates
seismic waves.
Types of earthquakes
Naturally occurring earthquakes
Most naturally occurring earthquakes are related to the tectonic nature of the
Earth. Such earthquakes are called
tectonic earthquakes. The Earth's
lithosphere is a patch work of plates in slow but constant motion caused by the heat in the Earth's
mantle and
core. Plate boundaries glide past each other, creating frictional stress. When the frictional stress exceeds a critical value, called
local strength, a sudden failure occurs. The boundary of tectonic plates along which failure occurs is called the
fault plane. When the failure at the fault plane results in a violent displacement of the Earth's crust, the elastic strain energy is released and elastic waves are radiated, thus causing an earthquake. It is estimated that only 10 percent or less of an earthquake's total energy is ultimately radiated as seismic energy, while most of the earthquake's energy is used to power the earthquake fracture growth and is eventually converted into heat. Therefore, earthquakes lower the Earth's available potential energy and thermal energy, though these losses are negligible. To describe the physical process of occurrence of an earthquake, seismologists use the
Elastic-rebound theory.
The majority of tectonic earthquakes originate at depths not exceeding a few tens of kilometers. Earthquakes occurring at boundaries of tectonic plates are called
interplate earthquakes, while the less frequent events that occur in the interior of the lithospheric plates are called
intraplate earthquakes.
Where the crust is thicker and colder, earthquakes occur at greater depths of hundreds of kilometers along
subduction zones where plates descend into the Earth's
mantle. These types of earthquakes are called
deep focus earthquakes. They are possibly generated when subducted lithospheric material catastrophically undergoes a phase transition , releasing stored energy—such as elastic strain, chemical energy or gravitational energy—that cannot be supported at the pressures and temperatures present at such depths.
Earthquakes may also occur in volcanic regions and are caused by the movement of magma in
volcanoes. Such quakes can be an early warning of volcanic eruptions.
A recently proposed theory suggests that some earthquakes may occur in a sort of earthquake storm, where one earthquake will trigger a series of earthquakes each triggered by the previous shifts on the fault lines, similar to aftershocks, but occurring years later, and with some of the later earthquakes as damaging as the early ones. Such a pattern was observed in the sequence of about a dozen earthquakes that struck the Anatolian Fault in Turkey in the 20th Century, the half dozen large earthquakes in New Madrid in 1811-1812, and has been inferred for older anomalous clusters of large earthquakes in the Middle East and in the Mojave Desert.
Induced earthquakes
Some earthquakes have anthropogenic sources, such as extraction of minerals and fossil fuel from the Earth's crust, the removal or injection of fluids into the crust, reservoir-induced seismicity, massive explosions, and collapse of large buildings. Seismic events caused by human activity are referred to by the term
induced seismicity. They however are not strictly earthquakes and usually show a different seismogram than earthquakes that occur naturally.
A rare few earthquakes have been associated with the build-up of large masses of water behind
dams, such as the
Kariba Dam in
Zambia,
Africa, and with the injection or extraction of fluids into the Earth's crust . Such earthquakes occur because the strength of the Earth's crust can be modified by fluid pressure. Earthquakes have also been known to be caused by the removal of
natural gas from subsurface deposits, for instance in the northern
Netherlands. The world’s largest reservoir-induced earthquake occurred on December 10, 1967 in the Koyna region of western Maharashtra in India. It had a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale. However, the U.S. geological survey reported the magnitude of 6.8.
The detonation of powerful
explosives, such as
nuclear explosions, can cause low-magnitude ground shaking. Thus, the 50-megaton nuclear bomb code-named
Ivan detonated by the
Soviet Union in 1961 created a seismic event comparable to a magnitude 7 earthquake, producing the
seismic shock so powerful that it was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth. In an effort to promote
nuclear non-proliferation, the
International Atomic Energy Agency uses the tools of
seismology to detect illicit activities such as
nuclear weapons tests. The
nuclear nations routinely monitor each other's activities through networks of interconnected
seismometers, which allow to precisely locate the source of an explosion.
Characteristics
Earthquakes occur on a daily basis around the world, most detected only by
seismometers and causing no damage. Large earthquakes however can cause serious destruction and massive loss of life through a variety of
agents of damage, including fault rupture, vibratory ground motion , inundation , various kinds of permanent ground failure , and
fire or a release of
hazardous materials, e.g. gas leaks or petrol leaks. In a particular earthquake, any of these agents of damage can dominate, and historically each has caused major damage and great loss of life; nonetheless, for most earthquakes shaking is the dominant and most widespread cause of damage. There are four types of
seismic waves that are all generated simultaneously and can be felt on the ground. These waves are responsible for the shaking hazard. They are
P-waves ,
S-waves and two types of surfaces waves, .
Most large earthquakes are accompanied by other, smaller ones that can occur either before or after the
main shock; these are called
foreshocks and
aftershocks, respectively. While almost all earthquakes have aftershocks, foreshocks occur in only about 10% of events. The power of an earthquake is always distributed over a significant area, but in large earthquakes, it can even spread over the entire planet. Ground motions caused by very distant earthquakes are called teleseisms. The
Rayleigh waves from the
Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake of 2004 caused ground motion of over 1 cm even at
seismometers that were located far from it, although this displacement was abnormally large. Using such ground motion records from around the world, seismologists can identify a point from which the earthquake's
seismic waves apparently originated. That point is called its
focus or
hypocenter and usually coincides with the point where the fault slip started. The location on the surface directly above the hypocenter is known as the
epicenter. The total length of the section of a fault that slips, the
rupture zone, can be as long as 250 km for the biggest earthquakes.
Earthquakes that occur below sea level and have large vertical displacements can give rise to
tsunamis, either as a direct result of the deformation of the sea bed due to the earthquake or as a result of submarine
landslides directly or indirectly triggered by the quake.
Measuring earthquakes
Since seismologists cannot directly observe rupture in the Earth's interior, they rely on geodetic measurements and numerical experiments to analyze
seismic waves and accurately assess severity of earthquakes. The severity of an earthquake can be measured in terms of
magnitude and
intensity. For that seismologists use two fundamentally different but equally important types of scales. The original force or energy of an earthquake is measured on a
magnitude scale, while the intensity of shaking occurring at any given point on the Earth's surface is measured on an
intensity scale.
While the non-specialized media will often refer to the magnitudes of earthquakes as being reported on the Richter scale, the magnitudes reported nowadays are actually on the moment magnitude scale. The older Richter scale is not adapted for larger earthquakes.
The analyses of earthquake severity allow scientists to estimate the locations and likelihoods of future earthquakes, helping identify areas of greatest hazard and ensure safety of people and infrastructure located in such areas.
Seismic maps
To show the extent of various levels of seismic effects within a particular locality, seismologists compile special maps called
isoseismal maps. An isoseismal map uses contours to outline areas of equal value in terms of ground shaking intensity, ground surface
liquefaction, shaking amplification, or other seismic effects. Typically, these maps are created by combining historical instrument-recorded data with responses to postal questionnaires that are sent to each post office near the earthquake and to a sparser sample of post offices with increasing distance from the earthquake. This way of preparing a seismic hazard map can take months to complete. In contrast to the old method, a newer method of information collection takes advantage of the Internet to generate initial hazard maps almost instantly. Data are received through a questionnaire on the Internet answered by people who actually experienced the earthquake, reducing the process of preparing and distributing a map for a particular earthquake from months to minutes.
Seismic hazard maps have many applications. They are used by insurance companies to set insurance rates for properties located in earthquake-risky areas, by civil engineers to estimate the stability of hillsides, by organizations responsible for the safety of nuclear waste disposal facilities, and also by building codes developers as the basis of design requirements.
In building codes, the shaking-hazard maps are converted into
seismic zone maps, which are used for
seismic analysis of structural components of buildings. The seismic zone maps depict seismic hazards as zones of different risk levels. Such zones are typically designated as Seismic Zone 0, Seismic Zone 1, Seismic Zone 2 and so on. The seismic zone maps usually show the severity of expected earthquake shaking for a particular level of probability, such as the levels of shaking that have a 1-in-10 chance of being exceeded in a 50-year period. Buildings and other structures must be designed with adequate strength to withstand the effects of probable seismic ground motions within the Seismic Zone where the building or structure is being constructed.
Size and frequency of occurrence
Small earthquakes occur every day all around the world, and often multiple times a day in places like
California and
Alaska in the U.S., as well as
Indonesia and
Japan on the other side of the Pacific. Large earthquakes occur less frequently, the relationship being
exponential; namely, roughly ten times as many earthquakes larger than magnitude 4 occur in a particular time period than earthquakes larger than magnitude 5. For example, it has been calculated that the average recurrence for the
United Kingdom can be described as follows:
- an earthquake of 3.7 or larger every year
- an earthquake of 4.7 or larger every 10 years
- an earthquake of 5.6 or larger every 100 years.
The number of earthquake reporting stations increased from about 350 in 1931 to about 4,000 today. As a result, many more earthquakes are reported than in the past -- currently, about 35 per day worldwide. This does not necessarily mean that the number of earthquakes has increased, however. The
USGS estimates that, since 1900, there have been an average of 18 major earthquakes and one great earthquake per year, and that this average has been relatively stable. In fact, in recent years, the number of major earthquakes per year has actually decreased. More detailed statistics on the size and frequency of earthquakes is available from the USGS.
Most of the world's earthquakes take place in the 40,000 km-long, horseshoe-shaped zone called the
circum-Pacific seismic belt, also known as the
Pacific Ring of Fire, which for the most part bounds the
Pacific Plate.Massive earthquakes tend to occur along other plate boundaries, too, such as along the
Himalaya Mountains.
Effects/impacts of earthquakes
There are many effects of earthquakes, these include, but are not limited to,
A
window is an opening in an otherwise solid and opaque surface through which light and, sometimes...
s
- Collapse of buildings
- Fires, as seen in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
- Tsunamis, as seen in the 2004 Sumatran earthquake
- Landslides
- Destabilisation of the base of some buildings which may lead to collapse in a future earthquake
- Disease
- Lack of basic necessities
- Human loss of life
- Higher insurance premiums
Preparation for earthquakes
Specific fault articles
Specific earthquake articles
Pre-20th Century
...
. Largest earthquake in the southeastern United States, killed 100.
- Assam earthquake of 1897 . Large earthquake that destroyed all masonry structures, measuring more than 8 on the Richter scale.
20th Century
- San Francisco Earthquake . Between 7.7 and 8.3 magnitudes; killed approximately 3,000 people and caused around $400 million in damage; most devastating earthquake in California and U.S. history.
- Great Kanto earthquake . On the Japanese island of Honshu, killing over 140,000 in Tokyo and environs.
- Napier earthquake . 256 dead.
- 1933 Long Beach earthquake
- Assam earthquake of 1950 . Earthquake in Assam, India measures 8.6M.
- Kamchatka earthquakes .
- Great Kern County earthquake . This was second strongest tremor in Southern California history, epicentered 60 miles North of Los Angeles. Major damage in Bakersfield, California
| align="center" colspan="2" |
City nickname [i]:"California's Country Music Capital" ...
and
Kern County, California, while it shook the Los Angeles area.
- Quake Lake Formed a lake in southern Montana, USA
- Great Chilean Earthquake . Biggest earthquake ever recorded, 9.5 on Moment magnitude scale, and generated tsumanis throughout the Pacific ocean.
- Good Friday Earthquake In Alaska, it was the third biggest earthquake recorded, measuring 9.2M. and generated tsunamis throughout the Pacific ocean.
- Ancash earthquake . Caused a landslide that buried the town of Yungay, Peru; killed over 40,000 people.
- Sylmar earthquake . Caused great and unexpected destruction of freeway bridges and flyways in the San Fernando Valley, leading to the first major seismic retrofits of these types of structures, but not at a sufficient pace to avoid the next California freeway collapse in 1989.
- Managua earthquake , which killed more than 10,000 people and destroyed 90% of the city. The earthquake took place on December 23, 1972 at mid-night.
- Frioul earthquake , Which killed more than 2.000 people in Northern Italy on the 6th of May.
- Tangshan earthquake . The most destructive earthquake of modern times. The official death toll was 255,000, but many experts believe that two or three times that number died.
- Guatemala . Causing 23,000 deaths, 77,000 injuries and the destruction of more than 250,000 homes.
- Coalinga, California earthquake . 6.5 on the Richter scale on a section of the San Andreas Fault. Six people killed, downtown Coalinga, California devastated and oil field blazes.
- Great Mexican Earthquake . Killed over 6,500 people
- Whittier Narrows earthquake .
- Armenian earthquake . Killed over 25,000.
- Loma Prieta earthquake . Severely affecting Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Oakland in California. This is also called the World Series Earthquake. It struck as the World Series was just getting underway. Revealed necessity of accelerated seismic retrofit of road and bridge structures.
- Landers, California earthquake . Serious damage in the small town of Yucca Valley, California and was felt across 10 states in Western U.S. Another tremor measured 6.4 struck 3 hours later and felt across Southern California.
- Northridge, California earthquake . Damage showed seismic resistance deficiencies in modern low-rise apartment construction.
- Great Hanshin earthquake . Killed over 6,400 people in and around Kobe, Japan.
- Izmit earthquake Killed over 17,000 in northwestern Turkey.
- Hector Mine earthquake . 7.1 on the Richter scale, epicentered 30 miles east of Barstow, California, widely felt in California and Nevada.
- Düzce earthquake
- Chi-Chi earthquake
- Baku earthquake .
21st Century
- Nisqually Earthquake .
- Gujarat Earthquake .
- Dudley Earthquake .
- Bam Earthquake . Over 40,000 people are reported dead.
- Parkfield, California earthquake . Not large , but the most anticipated and intensely instrumented earthquake ever recorded and likely to offer insights into predicting future earthquakes elsewhere on similar slip-strike fault structures.
- Chuetsu Earthquake .
- Indian Ocean Earthquake . One of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, registering a moment magnitude of 9.1-9.3. Epicentered off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, this massive tremor triggered a series of gigantic tsunamis that smashed onto the shores of a number of nations, causing more than 229,000 fatalities. It is regarded as one of the worst natural disasters ever to have hit the planet.
- Sumatran Earthquake .
- Fukuoka earthquake .
- Kashmir earthquake . Killed over 79,000 people. Many more at risk from the Kashmiri winter. -update needed.
- Lake Tanganyika earthquake .
- May 2006 Java earthquake .
- July 2006 7.7 magnitude Java earthquake which triggered tsunamis .
- July 2006 6.3 magnitude Java earthquake .
- July 2006 6.6 magnitude Celebes earthquake .
- August 2006 5.9 magnitude Michoacan earthquake .
- September 2006 6.0 magnitude Gulf of Mexico earthquake
See also
References
External links
Educational
- — an educational booklet by Kaye M. Shedlock & Louis C. Pakiser
- Answers to FAQs about Earthquakes and Earthquake Preparedness
- - an educational presentation by Guardian Unlimited
- — an educational third presentation system for looking at and understanding earthquake data
- - educational site explaining how epicenters are located and magnitude is determined
- — Another site showing how to locate an earthquake's epicenter
- - geological information for kids
Seismological data centers
Europe
United States
- An Earthquake Science and Preparedness Handbook produced by SCEC
- , earthquake database and software
- - world map of recent earthquakes
- - seismogram archives of significant earthquakes of the world
Seismic scales
Scientific information
Miscellaneous
- - a list of the worst earthquakes ever recorded
- - official PETSAAF system which relies on strange or atypical animal behavior to predict earthquakes.
