EOSC 114 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Slinky, Love Wave, Skipping Rope
5 Dec 2017
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Earthquakes are created by volcanic activity, meteorite impacts, undersea landslides, but most commonly they are caused by sudden earth movements along faults. The lithosphere deforms elastically at first, but eventually breaks (brittle deformation). Another way to visualize how faults move is to imagine rolling out a large carpet to cover an auditorium floor. Suppose that the (cid:272)arpet (cid:373)isses (cid:272)o(cid:448)eri(cid:374)g the floor to the far (cid:449)all (cid:271)y a foot. You (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t pull the rug the rest of the (cid:449)ay to the (cid:449)all; it (cid:449)o(cid:374)"t (cid:373)o(cid:448)e (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause the fri(cid:272)tio(cid:374) is si(cid:373)ply too great. However, if you create a large ripple in the carpet and push the ripple across the auditorium floor, the carpet can be moved. A small portion of a fault may slip, creating a ripple that concentrates elastic energy at its leading edge. The farther the ripple travels, the bigger the earthquake.
