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Earthquakes.

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Presentation on theme: "Earthquakes."— Presentation transcript:

1 Earthquakes

2 You will learn about earthquakes and how they are measured.
what tools are used to measure earthquakes what scientists learn from measuring earthquakes What You Will Learn

3 VOCABULARY: Earthquake Seismology — the study of earthquakes
Seismologist — a scientist who studies earthquakes Epicenter Seismic Wave Seismometer — a tool scientists use to measure the strength of seismic waves Magnitude Richter Scale

4 Review: Lithosphere Tectonic plates are large slabs of crust that move on Earth's mantle. Faults are fractures in Earth's crust.

5 Three Types of Faults Strike-Slip Thrust Normal

6 What are Earthquakes? Vibrations in Earth's lithosphere caused by a sudden release of energy.  The energy is released in the form of seismic waves, or waves that travel through Earth. 

7 2 Locations: The location below Earth's surface where an earthquake starts is called the hypocenter.  The location on Earth's surface directly above the hypocenter is called the epicenter. 

8 Seismic Waves P waves, ( "primary" or "compression" ) waves.
shake the ground back and forth, parallel to the direction the waves are traveling. P waves travel faster than S waves S waves, ("secondary" or "shear”) waves.  shake the ground up and down, perpendicular to the direction the waves are traveling. S waves are more destructive

9 Primary Waves (P Waves)
A type of seismic wave that compresses and expands the ground The first wave to arrive at an earthquake

10 Secondary Waves (S Waves)
A type of seismic wave that moves the ground up and down or side to side

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12 Comparing Seismic Waves

13 Surface Waves Move along the Earth’s surface
Produces motion in the upper crust Motion can be up and down Motion can be around Motion can be back and forth Travel more slowly than S and P waves More destructive

14 Measuring Earthquakes:
Seismographs, ("seismometers,”) - instruments used to record earthquakes.    Seismograms - the recordings made by the instruments. Measuring Earthquakes:

15 Typical Seismogram

16 Measuring Earthquakes: Seismograms
Scientists use seismograms to determine the sizes of earthquakes.  Magnitude: the size of an earthquake -a measurement of the amount of energy released during an earthquake.  Richter Scale: a mathematical formula that assigns numbers to earthquakes. (size of the earthquake)

17 How do scientists calculate how far a location is from the epicenter of an earthquake?
Scientists calculate the difference between arrival times of the P waves and S waves The further away an earthquake is, the greater the time between the arrival of the P waves and the S waves

18 Richter Scale: logarithmic, meaning that a difference of one unit represents a tenfold difference in size.  For example, an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale is 10 times larger than an earthquake measuring 4.0, 100 times larger than an earthquake measuring 3.0, 1000 times larger than an earthquake measuring 2.0, and so on.

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21 Locating Earthquakes:
Triangulation-a triangle has three sides, and it takes three different seismographs to find the location of an earthquake's epicenter. The location where the three circles intersect, or cross each other, is the epicenter.  Locating Earthquakes:

22 Locating Earthquakes

23 Locating Earthquakes

24 Locating Earthquakes


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