EARTHQUAKES AND SEISMOLOGY

Seismology is the study of earthquakes and seismic waves. Seismologists are concern
with minimizing earthquakes destructiveness. They do this by assessing seismic risk in different
geographic regions, so that sensible buildings and zoning codes can be written, and by
researching the problems of tsunamis, earthquake control. By studying the pattern of the
earthquakes, seismologists have provided earthquake belts outline plate boundaries, the zones
along which plates collide, diverge, or slide past one another.
Earthquake is a series of shock waves generated at a point within the Earth crust or
mantle and spread in the Earth crust as elastic waves in the continues medium. The point of
generation of the earthquake is called focus and the point on the surface of the Earth above the
focus is called epicenter.

The focus of an earthquake is the site of initial slip on the fault. The epicenter is the point
on the surface above the focus. Seismic waves radiate from the focus.

Earthquakes are associated with large fractures, or faults, in the Earth crust and upper
mantle. Imagine a fault between two hypothetical crustal blocks. The blocks are moving in
opposite directions, but because they are pressed together by the weight of the overlying rock,
friction locks them together. Instead of slipping along the fault, the blocks are deformed near the
fault. As the rock is strained, elastic energy is stored in it. The movement continues, the strain
builds up until the frictional bond that locks the fault can no longer hold at some point of the
fault, and it breaks. The blocks suddenly slip at this point, which is the focus of the earthquake.
The elastic energy which had been stored over tens of hundreds of years, is suddenly released
in the form of intense seismic vibrations, which constitute the earthquake. The vibrational waves
are propagated large distances in all directions from the fault.

The basic causes of earthquakes are strains induced by plate motions. By their locations
and the nature of ruptures they produce, earthquakes define the plate boundaries. Analyses of
seismic waves, together with laboratory studies of rocks, help us to infer the composition and
state of the Earth interior.

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 The association of earthquakes with three types of plate boundaries: ocean ridges,
transform faults, and trenches.

Every earthquake is characterized by it’s amplitude (A) and period (T).

The earthquake acceleration can be calculated:

a = 4π2A/T2, m/s

Three main types of wave motion are generated by an earthquake:

L-waves: Low frequency, long-wavelength, transverse vibrations, which develop in the
immediate neighborhood of the epicenter and are responsible for most of the destructive force
of the earthquakes. They are confined to the outer skin of the crust.
S-waves: High frequency, short-wavelength, transverse waves, which are propagated in
all directions from the focus and travel with varying velocities (proportional to the density)
through the solid parts of the Earth crust, mantle and core.
P-waves: High frequency, short-wavelength, longitudinal waves, which have many of the
same characteristics as S-waves – the major difference is that P-waves travel not only though
the solid part of the Earth but also the liquid part of the core.

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Compressional (P) waves

Stages in the deformation of a block of material with the

passage of compressional P waves through it. The
undeformed block is shown at the top. In the sequence from
top to bottom, a crest of compression, marked by an arrow,
moves through the block with the P-wave velocity. It is
followed by an expansion, and any small piece of matter,
like the marked square, shakes back and forth in response to
alternating compressions and expansions as the wave train
moves through. A sudden push (or pull) in the direction of
wave propagation, indicated by the hammer blow, would set
up P waves

Shear (S) waves

Stages in the deformation of the block of material with the

passage of shear waves, or S-waves, through it. A wave
crest, marked by an arrow, moves through the block with the
S-wave velocity as vertical planes shake up and down. Any
small piece of matter, like the marked one, shakes up and
down and experiences a shearing deformation (from a square
to a parallelogram in the figure) as the shear wave passes
through. A sudden shear displacement, indicated by the
hammer blow at right angles to the direction of wave
propagation, would set up S waves.

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 Both S-waves and P-waves can be reflected and refracted, and, under certain
circumstances, a P-wave can change into an S-wave on refraction, or vice-versa. Much of our
knowledge of the internal structure of the Earth has been gained from the study of P- and S-
waves.
The devices which record the waves generated by earthquakes and explosions are
seismographs.

Seismograph recording of P,S and surface waves from a distant earthquake.

The time required for P, S and surface waves to travel a given distance can be
represented by curves on a graph of travel time against distance over the surface. To locate an
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 earthquake epicenter, the time interval observed at a given station is matched against the
travel-time curves for P and S waves until the distance is found at which the separation between
the curves agrees with the observed S-P time difference. Knowing the distance from the three
stations A, B and C, one can locate the epicenter as in the figure.

Cutout showing the pattern of P-wave paths

through the Earth`s interior. The numbers
show the travel time in minutes for the waves
to reach the associated broken line. Note the
shadow zone, a region not reached by P-waves
(for this hypothetical earthquake at the North
Pole) because they are deflected by the Earth`s
core.

A modern view of the structure of

the outermost 700 km of the Earth is
illustrated by a plot of S-wave
velocity against depth. Note how
changes in velocity mark the important
zones: lithosphere, partially molten
asthenosphere, transitions to more dense
molecular structures.

The basic causes of earthquakes are strains induced by plate motions. By their locations
and the nature and the nature of the ruptures they produce, earthquakes defined the plate
boundaries. Analyses of seismic waves together with laboratory studies of rocks, helps us to
infer the composition and state of the Earth’s interior.
The great earthquake regions of the Earth are the West coast of North, Central and South
America, Japan, the Philippines, South-east Asia, New Zealand, India, the Middle East, and the
Mediterranean. Submarine earthquakes occur along the lines of the ocean basin rifts, e.g. the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It will be noticed that the present earthquake regions are associated with the
younger fold-mountains regions, and the present earthquake activity is a phase of the end of the
Alpine orogeny.

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The seismicity maps show that narrow belts of epicenters.

Epicenters of some 30 000 earthquakes recoded in the years 1961-1967, with focal
depths between 0 and 700 km

Earthquake shocks are measured on more or less arbitrary scales.

The Modified Mercalli Scale is show down:

1. Instrumental – detected only by seismographs
2. Feeble – noticed only by sensitive people
3. Slight– resembling vibrations caused by heavy traffic
4. Moderate – felt by people walking; rocking of free standing objects
5. Rather strong- sleepers awakened; bells ring; widely felt trees sway; some damage
from overturning and falling of objects
6. Strong – trees sway; some damages from overturning and falling of objects
7. Very strong – general alarm; cracking of walls, etc.
8. Destructive – chimneys fall; some damages of buildings
9. Ruinous – ground begins to crack; houses to collapse and pipes to break
10. Disastrous – ground badly cracked; many buildings destroyed; some landslides
11. Very disastrous – few buildings stand; bridges, railways destroyed; water, gas,
electricity, telephones etc. out of action
12. Catastrophic – total destruction, objects thrown into air; much heaving, shaking and
distortion of surface.

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 Medvedev – Sponheuer – Karnik scale is used to estimate the seismic force in Bulgaria.
The scale takes into account how the earthquake is accepted – the damages in the building
structures (fallen structures, cracks in the walls etc.), the acceptance by people (physically and
mentally), the changes in the Earth surface (landslides, subsidence etc.) The scale has 12
degrees.

The MSK64 Scale

Behavioral
Degree Force Structural effects Geologic effects
effects
I Imperceptible Not felt — —
Felt
II Very light — —
sporadically
Felt only by
III Light — —
people at rest
Felt indoors,
IV Moderate many Windows vibrate —
awakened
Widely felt Interior plaster cracks, hanging
V Fairly strong —
outdoors objects swing, tables shift
Damage to chimneys and Isolated cracks in soft
VI Strong Fright
masonry ground
Many people Serious damage to buildings in
Isolated landslides on
VII Very strong flee their poor condition, chimneys
steep slopes
dwellings collapse
Many old houses undergo
Changes in wells,
VIII Damaging General fright partial collapse, breaks in
rockfalls onto roads
canals
Large breaks in substandard
Cracks in ground,
structures, damage to well-
IX Destructive Panic sand eruptions,
constructed houses,
widespread landslides
underground pipe breakages
Rails twisted,
landslides on
X Devastating General panic Brick buildings destroyed
riverbanks, formation
of new lakes
Few buildings remain standing, Widespread ground
XI Catastrophic —
water thrown from canals disturbances, tsunamis
Surface and underground
Very Upheaval of the
XII — structures completely
catastrophic landscape, tsunamis
destroyed

The highest degree in Bulgaria according to MSK scale is IX. It is mapped in the regions
of Kaliakra Cape, Sofia City, Plovdiv City, Tarnovo – Gorna Oriahovica town and Kresna town.

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 Seismic force is calculated according to the maximum acceleration of every degree of
MSK.
S = Ks g m,
where
g is the gravity,
m is the mass of the given element,
Ks is the coefficient of seismicity, different for every degree of MSC.

For IX degree – Ks = 0,27;

For VIII degree - Ks = 15;
For VII degree - Ks = 10

The Richter magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the
California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the size of earthquakes.
The Richter scale assigns a magnitude number to quantify the energy released by an
earthquake. This scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale, which defines magnitude as the logarithm
of the ratio of the amplitude of the seismic waves to an arbitrary, minor amplitude.
Energy released gives the most precise measure of the size of an earthquake, but it is a
long, complicated process to determine the fault dimensions, the slip and the other factors
needed to compute the total energy involved. Seismologists have therefore adopted the Richter
magnitude scale, which is based on the amplitude of seismic waves recorded by seismographs.
Actually magnitude m is based on a logarithm of the maximum amplitude adjusted by a factor
that takes into account the weakening of seismic waves as they spread away from the focus.
Thus seismologists all over the world can study their records and in a few minutes come up with
nearly the same value for the magnitude of an earthquake. The largest earthquakes yet
recorded have Richter magnitudes of about 8.5. Earthquakes with magnitudes exceeding 8
occur about once every 5 to 10 years. Damages begin at magnitude 5 and increases to nearly
total destruction in nearby settlements for earthquakes with m greater then 8. As magnitudes
are based on a logarithmic scale, an increase in magnitude of one unit corresponds to a tenfold
increase in the size of an earthquake as measured by the amplitude of seismic waves.

Determination of earthquake magnitude from a seismograph recording.

Dividing A, the maximum trace motion, by the magnification of the seismograph gives the
maximum ground motion a, measured in micrometers (10-4 cm). T is the duration of one
oscillation, or the period of seismic wave in seconds.
Magnitude M = log (a/T)+B,
where B is the factor that allows for the weakening of seismic waves with increasing
distance from the earthquake.

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 Example:
An earthquake 10 000 km away (B = 6,8 from the table of data) produced a ground
motion a = 10µm with period T = 1 sec.
Thus
M = log10 + 6,8 = 7,8
The correction factor B is found empirically, so that a seismograph located any place in
the world gives the proper magnitude of an earthquake, regardless of distance to it.