CEE 1030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Lithosphere, Moment Magnitude Scale, 32X
9 Sep 2020
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Document Summary
The study of seismic waves has allowed scientists to learn about the interior of the earth: ground shaking doesn"t kill people other hazards like falling buildings kill people. If an earthquake happen you should drop, cover, and hold on! Earthquake - the release of energy from rocks that were locked. Earth"s lithosphere - rocks are cold and elastic. Stress - the force that is applied to something. Strain - the shape that something takes as a result of stress. Elastic rebound theory (what the lithosphere is doing right before and during an earthquake): the brittle lithosphere deforms elastically as a result of stress: friction prevents slip along locked zone of fault. But you have that strain: when strain exceeds frictional strength, fault slips. When rocks are as far as they can go: energy is released earthquake happens! Generates permanent offset, heat, seismic waves (radiating energy). Earthquakes occur along faults and at plate boundaries.
