Earthquakes

• An earthquake is the shaking or trembling of the
earth’s surface, caused by the sudden movement

of a part of the earth’s crust. They result from the
sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust that
creates seismic waves or earthquake waves.
• About 50,000 earthquakes large enough to be
noticed without the aid of instruments occur
annually over the entire Earth.
• Of these, approximately 100 are of sufficient size
to produce substantial damage if their centers are
near areas of habitation.
Causes of Earthquakes
• Most earthquakes are causally related to compressional or tensional
stresses built up at the margins of the huge moving lithospheric plates.
• The immediate cause of most shallow earthquakes is the sudden release of
stress along a fault, or fracture in the earth’s crust.
• Sudden slipping of rock formations along faults and fractures in the earth’s
crust happen due to constant change in volume and density of rocks due to
intense temperature and pressure in the earth’s interior.
• Volcanic activity also can cause an earthquake but the earthquakes of
volcanic origin are generally less severe and more limited in extent than
those caused by fracturing of the earth’s crust.
• Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults, narrow zones where
rock masses move in relation to one another. The major fault lines of the
world are located at the fringes of the huge tectonic plates that make up
Earth’s crust.
• Plate tectonics: Slipping of land along the fault line along, convergent,
divergent and transform boundaries cause earthquakes.
Ex: San Andreas Fault is a transform fault where Pacific plate and North
American plate move horizontally relative to each other causing
earthquakes along the fault lines.
Human Induced Earthquakes
Some earthquakes are human induced.
• Earthquakes in the reservoir region, mining sites etc. are human induced.
Some Earthquake induced by human activities are:
• Deep mining
• Underground nuclear tests
• Reservoir induced seismicity (RIS)
• Extraction of fossil fuels
• Groundwater extraction
Volcanic Earthquakes
• A separate type of earthquake is associated with volcanic activity and is called a volcanic
earthquake. Yet it is likely that even in such cases the disturbance is the result of a sudden
slip of rock masses adjacent to the volcano and the consequent release of elastic strain
energy.
• The stored energy, however, may in part be of hydrodynamic origin due to heat provided by
magma moving in reservoirs beneath the volcano or to the release of gas under pressure.
• There is a clear correspondence between the geographic distribution of volcanoes and major
earthquakes, particularly in the Circum-Pacific Belt and along oceanic ridges.
• Volcanic vents, however, are generally several hundred kms from the epicenters of most
major shallow earthquakes, and many earthquake sources occur nowhere near active
volcanoes.
• Even in cases where an earthquake’s focus occurs directly below structures marked by
volcanic vents, there is probably no immediate causal connection between the two
activities; most likely both are the result of the same tectonic processes.
Seismic Waves or Earthquake Waves
• The slipping of land generates seismic waves and these waves travel in all
directions.
• Earthquake is any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic
waves through Earth’s rocks. (Earthquake is caused by vibrations in rocks. And the
vibrations in rocks are produced by seismic waves)
• Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in Earth’s crust is
suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another
suddenly fracture and “slip.”
Types of Seismic Waves
• Earthquake waves are basically of two types — body waves and surface waves.
• Body waves are generated due to the release of energy at the focus and move in all
directions travelling through the body of the earth. Hence, the name body waves.
• The body waves interact with the surface rocks and generate new set of waves
called surface waves. These waves move along the surface.
• The velocity of waves changes as they travel through materials with different
elasticity (stiffness) The more elastic the material is, the higher is the velocity. Their
direction also changes as they reflect or refract when coming across materials with
different densities.
There are two types of body waves. They are called P and S-waves.
• Primary waves or P waves (longitudinal)(fastest)
• Secondary waves or S waves (transverse)(least destructive)
• Surface waves or L waves (transverse)(slowest)(most destructive)
Primary Waves (P waves)
• Also called as the longitudinal or compressional
waves.
• Analogous to sound waves.
• Particles of the medium vibrate along the direction
of propagation of the wave.
• P-waves move faster and are the first to arrive at the
surface.
• These waves are of high frequency.
• They can travel in all mediums.
• Velocity of P waves in Solids > Liquids > Gases.
• Their velocity depends on shear strength or elasticity
of the material.
Secondary Waves (S waves)
• Also called as transverse or distortional waves.
• Analogous to water ripples or light waves.
• S-waves arrive at the surface with some time lag.
• A secondary wave cannot pass through liquids or gases.
• These waves are of high frequency waves.
• Travel at varying velocities (proportional to shear strength) through the
solid part of the Earth’s crust, mantle.
Surface Waves (L waves)

• Also called as long period waves.
• They are low frequency, long wavelength, and transverse vibration.
• Generally affect the surface of the Earth only and die out at smaller depth.
• Develop in the immediate neighborhood of the epicenter.
• They cause displacement of rocks, and hence, the collapse of structures
occurs.
• These waves are the most destructive.
• Recoded last on the seismograph.
Distribution of Earthquakes
• Earth’s major earthquakes occur mainly in belts coinciding with the margins
of tectonic plates.
• The most important earthquake belt is the Circum-Pacific Belt, which
affects many populated coastal regions around the Pacific Ocean—for
example, those of New Zealand, New Guinea, Japan, the Aleutian Islands,
Alaska, and the western coasts of North and South America.
• The seismic activity is by no means uniform throughout the belt, and there
are a number of branches at various points. Because at many places the
Circum-Pacific Belt is associated with volcanic activity, it has been popularly
dubbed the “Pacific Ring of Fire.” The Pacific Ring of Fire accounts for about
68 per cent of all earthquakes.
• A second belt, known as the Alpine Belt (Himalayas and Alps). The energy
released in earthquakes from this belt is about 15 percent of the world
total. The mid-world mountain belt (Alpine Belt) extends parallel to the
equator from Mexico across the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea
from Alpine-Caucasus ranges’ to the Caspian, Himalayan mountains and
the adjoining lands. This zone has folded mountains, large depressions and
active volcanoes.
• There also are striking connected belts of seismic activity, mainly along
oceanic ridges—including those in the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and
the western Indian Ocean—and along the rift valleys of East Africa.
Effects of Earthquakes
• Earthquakes cause landslides, damming of rivers,
depressions which form lakes.
• They can cause submergence and emergence of
landforms along coastal regions. Example:
Coastline of Kutch.
• Lead to change in surface drainage and
underground circulation of water.
• More devastating features of earthquakes are
fires and seismic waves (tsunamis).
• Formation of cracks or fissures especially in the
region of the epicenter is common.

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Earthquakes

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• An earthquake is the shaking or trembling of the

earth’s surface, caused by the sudden movement

Surface Waves (L waves)

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