CHAPTER 2

ELEMENTS OF
SEISMOLOGY

WHAT IS SEISMOLOGY?

Seismology is a science dealing with all

aspects of earthquakes
Multidisciplinary science, links physics
with other geosciences
(geology, geography)
Large span of amplitudes ( ~ 10-9 101 m)
Very large span of wave periods ( ~ 10-3
104 s)
Very young science (second half of the
19th century)

ELEMENTS OF
SEISMOLOGY

1. THEORY OF
PLATE
TECTONICS
2. EARTHQUAKE
FAULTS

THEORY OF PLATE
TECTONICS

PLATE TECTONICS

PLATE TECTONICS theory is very

young (1960-ies)

It

provides answers to the most

fundamental questions in seismology:
Why earthquakes occur?
Why are earthquake epicenters not
uniformly distributed around the
globe?
At what depths are their foci?

TECTONIC PLATES
By definition the word "plate" in geologic
terms means a large slab of solid rock.
"Tectonics" is a part of the Greek root for
"to build" and together the terms define
how the Earth's surface is built up of
moving plates.The theory of plate tectonics
itself says that the Earth's lithosphere is
made up individual plates that are broken
down into over a dozen large and small
pieces of solid rock.

TECTONIC PLATES
Plate tectonics is the scientific
theory that attempts to explain
the movements of the Earth's
lithosphere that have formed the
landscape features we see
across the globe today.

TECTONIC PLATES
These fragmented plates ride
next to each other on top of the
Earth'smore fluid lower
mantleto create different types
of plate boundaries that have
shaped the Earth's landscape
over millions of years.

MAjOR TECTONIC PLATES

MAJOR TECTONIC PLATES

OCEAN-BOTTOM AGE

EARTHQUAKE EPICENTRES

VOLCANOES

ONE YEAR OF
SEISMCITY

MAJOR TECTONIC PLATES

EARTHQUAKE EPICENTRES

TECTONIC PLATES

Tectonic plates are

large parts of
litosphere floating
on the
astenosphere

Convective currents move them around with

velocities of several cm/year.
The plates interact with one another in three
basic ways:
1. They collide
2. They move away from each other
3. They slide one past another

INTERACTING PLATES

Plates moving past

each other do so
along the
TRANSFORM
FAULTS.
The earthquakes
may be very
strong.

EXAMPLES: San Andreas Fault (Pacific North

EARTHQUAKE
FAULTS

HOW EARTHQUAKES
OCCURS??

Earthquakes occur at FAULTS.

Fault is a weak zone separating
two geological blocks.
Tectonic forces cause the
blocks
to move relative one to another.

FAULTS

In geology, a fault is a planar

fracture or discontinuity in a volume
of rock, across which there has been
significant displacement along the
fractures as a result of earth
movement