GEO 1111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Moment Magnitude Scale, Richter Magnitude Scale, Mercalli Intensity Scale

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Geology
• Course: GEO 1111
• Professor: David Schneider

Document Summary

Faults (3) are a loci discontinuity in a volume of rock: normal: wall dropping down bc gravity, reverse: opposite of normal, divergent, transform: rocks that slide past each other. Intensity: measures the degree of the earthquake shaking at the given location: estimate the amount of damage through a qualitative approach. Magnitude: the amount of energy that is released from the focus: quantitative approach. Intensity scale: leveled from 1-12, qualitative; it was more about what people felt, kind of like a survey, different regions have varied intensities, where the epicentre is the most intense. There are (3) types of seismic waves: s, p and surface waves. Duration of earthquake is just as important as the size. In arctic environments, the intensity of the shaking destroyed the frozen soil. Liquefaction: materials saturated in water converts into mobile fluid; no matter is added. Seiches: sloshing of water in lakes, basins and reservoirs.