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Unit 6 Earthquake and Faults

1) The document discusses the relationship between faults and earthquakes. It defines faults as surfaces or zones where one side of rock has moved relative to the other due to stress in the Earth's crust from plate tectonics. 2) Different types of faults are described based on the direction of movement including normal faults where the hanging wall moves down, reverse faults where the hanging wall moves up, and strike-slip faults where the sides move horizontally past each other. 3) Earthquakes occur when the sudden release of strain energy stored in rocks causes the rocks to break along faults, sending vibrations that people feel as shaking.

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John Mark Laurio
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415 views33 pages

Unit 6 Earthquake and Faults

1) The document discusses the relationship between faults and earthquakes. It defines faults as surfaces or zones where one side of rock has moved relative to the other due to stress in the Earth's crust from plate tectonics. 2) Different types of faults are described based on the direction of movement including normal faults where the hanging wall moves down, reverse faults where the hanging wall moves up, and strike-slip faults where the sides move horizontally past each other. 3) Earthquakes occur when the sudden release of strain energy stored in rocks causes the rocks to break along faults, sending vibrations that people feel as shaking.

Uploaded by

John Mark Laurio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIT

6
EARTHQUAKES AND FAULTS
PREPARED BY: JANICE T. FRANCISCO
“The world as we
have created it is a
process of our
thinking. It cannot be
changed without
changing our
thinking”
-ALBERT EINSTEIN
The earthquake that caused the most
destruction in history occurred in the
Shansi province of China on January
23,1556. An estimated

The second most destructive


earthquake also occurred in China--
in July, 1976--and
RELATIONSHIP LESSON

BETWEEN FAULTS
AND EARTHQUAKES

PREPARED BY: JANICE T. FRANCISCO


1
Earthquake
•Sudden shaking of the
ground that we feel when
rock layers of Earth
suddenly slip past one
another to a new position

•Violent ground-shaking
phenomenon caused by
the sudden release of
strain energy stored in
rocks
•One of the most catastrophic
and devastating hazards
The simplest definition of an earthquake
is… vibrations that cause the breaking of
rocks.
BASIC DEFINITIONS
•FAULT: A surface or
narrow zone along which
one side has moved
relative to the other.
• Faults are classified
based upon their
direction of movement.
FAULTS
• A fault is any surface or zone
in the Earth across which
measurable slip (shear
displacement) develops.

• Faults are fractures on which


slip develops primarily by
brittle deformation processes.
FAULTS
• Fault zone is a brittle structure
in which loss of cohesion and
slip occurs on several faults
within a band of definable
width.

• Shear zone: occurs at depth


without definable
displacement on the surface
STRESS, FAULTS, AND FOLDS
Deformation is the bending, tilting, and
breaking of the Earth’s crust. Plate tectonics
is the major cause of crustal deformation.
Thicker and
heavier crust
sink deeper
into the
mantle
where
thinner and
lighter crust
will rise
higher on the
mantle.
There are 3 basic kinds of stress that the
isostatic adjustment causes, compression,
tension, and shearing.
Compression occurs when crustal rocks
are squeezed together.
Tension is the force that pulls
rocks apart. Here rocks tend
to become thinner.
Shearing pushes rocks in opposite directions.
Sheared rocks bend, twist and break.
The results of stress are folding and
faulting.
When a rock has stress put on it and does not
break it is called folding. Folds appear as
wave-like structures in rock layers. Some folds
are small and can be seen in individual rocks
and some folds are huge and can only be
seen from the air.
The 3 general types of folds are
anticlines, which are upcurved folds
where the oldest rock layers are in the
center,
synclines which are downcurved fold in
which the youngest layers are in the
center
and monoclines in which both ends stay
horizontal but one side is lower than the
other.
Rocks don’t always bend, sometimes
they break. When the rock moves and
breaks it is called a fault.
There are several different kinds of
faults. There are two sides to a fault.
The side that is above the fault plane is
called the hanging wall.

Hanging Wall
When the hanging wall moves down it is
called a normal fault. Normal faults
occur in places where there is tension or
the rocks are being pulled apart.
When the hanging wall moves up it is
called a reverse fault. Reverse faults are
caused by compressional forces.
A low angle reverse fault is called a
thrust fault because one side is being
thrust onto the other.
The last type of faults are called strike-
slip faults. Strike-slip faults slide
horizontally past one another.
If you are looking across to the other side of a strike-
slip fault and that side moves to the left of you it is
called a left lateral strike-slip fault. Strike-slip faults
occur in and around transform plate boundaries
like where we live near the San Andreas fault. This is
also where shearing takes place.
Epicenter Focus

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