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EQ Mechanisms Bay Area Faults EQ Magnitude. Earthquake Waves. Frequency. 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz (outside human sensory range). Types of Motion. P waves. velocity. S waves. amplitude. surface waves. What is an Earthquake?. A release of energy stored on a fault. What is a fault?.
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Earthquake Waves Frequency 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz (outside human sensory range) Types of Motion P waves velocity S waves amplitude surface waves
What is an Earthquake? A release of energy stored on a fault What is a fault? A roughly planar surface where rock has broken and separated Why does an earthquake happen? Built-up energy exceeds frictional resistance on the fault
How does “slip” on the fault happen? Elastic rebound Remember the fence • Rocks accumulate stress as two sides of fault move past each other • Elastic strainis built up in rocks as they deform • Stress = force per unit area • Strain = change in shape of rocks due to stresses • Elastic = returns to original shape when released
Fault Geometry (focus) from: http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ep/nvguide/sbg1.html and http://eqseis.geosc.psu.edu/~cammon/HTML/Classes/IntroQuakes/Notes/faults.html
Normal Fault Reverse Fault Strike-slip Fault Thrust Fault Faults Types from: http://www.tinynet.com/faults.html
Find faults? How do geologists....
Find faults? How do geologists.... The Hayward Fault is open for you to walk down into until October 31, 2006 See: http://1906centennial.org/activities/calendar/?id=135
How do geologists....determine whether a fault is active? State of California (A-P act): An active fault is one that has slipped once in the last 11,000 years (or 2 or more times in the last 700,000 years) Consider this schematic roadcut/seacliff: fault #1 fault #2 fault #3
Spaced-based measurements (VLBI* and GPS) show that PAC-NA motion in CA is ~50 mm/yr. *Very Long Baseline Interferometry
The San Andreas is NOT “the PAC-NA plate boundary.” Red arrow: predicted motion: 50 mm/yr Blue arrows: subsets of the motion that “add up” to the predicted motion. This diagram applies at the latitude of Bakersfield or San Luis Obispo.
4-8? About 36 mm/yr happens on the San Andreas in central CA, but northwest of Hollister, things are a LOT messier. 9 23 >6 ~Stockton 9 17-23 2-5? Farallon Islands The ~36 mm/yr must be divided up on many faults. Geologists study each to determine individual rates. 6 9 17 7-10? 1-3? Let’s add up the slip on faults along four paths to see whether we’ve found the ~36 mm/yr. 15 17? 23?