Geology                     Natural Science 1003

Primary goals

• Explain why earthquakes occur
• Describe seismic waves
• Explain how earthquakes are measured

Topics

14.1  How do earthquakes occur?  

• Description: How do quakes occur?

• Story: Describe elastic rebound theory

• Terms: foreshocks; aftershocks; focus; epicenter 

14.2  Earthquakes and plate tectonics

• Description: Describe the quakes that occur at divergent boundaries

• Description: Describe the quakes that occur at continent-continent convegent boundaries

• Description: Describe the quakes that occur at subduction zones

• Description: Describe the quakes that occur at transform boundaries

14.3  Seismic waves  

• Description: describe waves

• Description: How do P waves travel?

• Description: How do S waves travel?

• Compare: P waves and S waves

• Description: What are surface waves like?

14.4  Measuring quakes  

• Terms: seisomometer; seismopgraph; seismogram; Richter scale; seismic moment; moment magnitude

• Analytical: What do the numbers of the seismic moment scale mean? How much bigger is a magnitude 6 quake than a magnitude 4 quake?

• Description: What is the Mercalli Intensity scale?

14.5  Earthquake destruction

• Story: What causes tsunamis?  

14.6  Using seismic waves to learn about the interior of the Earth  

• Relationship: Explain how seismic waves travel differently through materials of different density

• Description: Describe how seismic waves travel differently through rocks of different materials

• Explanation: Explain how seismic waves reflect

• Relationship: Explain how seismic waves bend (refract)

• Relationship: Explain what happens when S waves enter liquids

• Description: What conclusions can we make about the interior of the Earth from studying seismic waves?

Resources for students

Entire topic

• Lecture notes from Prof. Nelson

Links for further interest

Latest quake info