GEOL 11040 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Epicenter, Seismometer, Foreshock

• School: Kent State University
• Department: Geology
• Course: GEOL 11040
• Professor: Christopher Rowan

Document Summary

Magnitude is a factor, but there are a lot of more important things to know when predicting casualties. Ex: a magnitude 8 earthquake in haiti will be more disastrous than one in the new zealand because the buildings in haiti are not built as strong as those in the new. If you are at the same distance from both a small earthquake and a large earthquake, the large one will shake you more. Wet soils amplify shaking more than dry soils will. Liquefaction: when seismic waves cause the strength of materials, like streets, to weaken to the point of the material becoming like liquid. Landslides triggered by earthquakes can cause a lot of casualties. Large magnitude (8 or 9) earthquakes can trigger tsunamis. A tsunami is responsible for most of the casualties in the 2011 earthquake in japan. Foreshocks don"t appear any different than main and aftershocks, making main shocks less predictable.