ERTH 2415 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Plate Tectonics, Hypocenter, Natural Hazard
8 Feb 2019
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Objectives = to understand the relation tectonic environments and earthquake characteristics. An earthquake is a natural hazard that gets its source of energy from. Earthquakes and volcanoes do not occur at random locations, they are more frequent at plate boundaries and in certain tectonic environments. Remember the connect-the-dot picture with the earthquake epicenters. Usually released in frequent, strong (6-7), and shallow (0-100km) earthquakes. Occur near the north-east pacific (british columbia). Convergent zone earthquakes (due to compression): an immense amount of energy is released: either in subduction zones, or continent-continent. Usually released in infrequent, and great earthquakes. The world"s largest earthquakes are megathrust earthquakes: they have shallow hypocenters and a large amount of energy is released, megathrust fault: the boundary b/w the subducting and overriding plates, are the largest earthquakes. Large amount of energy is released, and there are shallow hypocenters: at depth >100 km: intra-slab earthquakes occur due to cold rock being consumed into the hot asthenosphere.
