chapter 3.. Our Changing Earth...

Glossary
Lithospheric plates:
The earth s crust
consists of several
large and some small,
rigid, irregularlyshaped
plates (slabs)
which carry
continents and the
ocean floor.
The lithosphere is broken into a number of plates known as the Lithospheric plat
es. You will be surprised to know that these plates move around very slowly
just
a few millimetres each year. This is because of the movement of the molten magm
a inside the earth. The molten magma inside the earth moves in a circular manner
as shown in the activity. The movement of these plates causes changes on the su
rface of the earth. The earth movements are divided on the basis of the forces w
hich cause them. The forces which act in the interior of the earth are called as
Endogenic forces and the forces that work on the surface of the earth are calle
d as Exogenic forces.
Earth movements..
Endogenic are of two types
1. Endogenic Sudden forces. like...
Earthquake.
Volcano.
Landslides.
2. Endogenic Diastrophic forces like..
Building mountains..
Now...
Exogenic forces
1. Exogenic Erosional and Depositional
River.
Wind.
Sea-waves.
Glaciers.
Endogenic forces sometimes produce sudden movements and at the other times produ
ce slow movements. Sudden movements like earthquakes and volcanoes cause mass de
struction over the surface of the earth.
Now...
Volcano................
A volcano is a vent (opening) in the

earth s crust through which molten

material erupts suddenly.
Similarly, when the Lithospheric plates move, the surface of the earth vibrates.
The vibrations can travel all round the earth. These vibrations are called eart
hquakes. The place in the crust where the movement starts is called the focus. T
he place on the surface above the focus is called the epicentre. Vibrations trav
el outwards from the epicentre as waves. Greatest damage is usually closest to t
he epicentre and the strength of the earthquake decreases away from the centre.
Epicentre Seismic waves radiate
out in all directions
Plate boundary.............
Seismic waves are waves of energy that travel through the Earth's layers, and ar
e a result of an earthquake, explosion, or a volcano that gives out low-frequenc
y acoustic energy. Many other natural and anthropogenic sources create low-ampli
tude waves commonly referred to as ambient vibrations.
Focus or Hypocentre.
this is where the
earthquake occurs. It is the
origin of the seismic energy.............
Do you know?
There are three types
of earthquake waves:
1. P waves or
longitudinal waves
2. S waves or
transverse waves
3. L waves or surface
waves
Try to find out the
properties of these
waves from an
encyclopedia.
P Waves. 'P' for Primary Wave. are body waves.
S Waves.
s for Secondary Waves are body waves.
L wave are surface. waves.

P Waves.
longitudinal in nature. P waves are pressure waves that travel f
aster than other waves through the earth to arrive at seismograph stations first
, hence the name "Primary".
.
.............
S Waves.
transverse in nature.
P Waves.
The P waves move in a compressional motion similar to the motion
of a slinky............
S Waves.
the S waves move in a shear motion perpendicular to the directio
n the wave is travelling.............
L wave. an earthquake wave that travels around the earth's surface and is usuall
y the third conspicuous wave to reach a seismograph.
P Waves.
P-waves are compression waves. .
............
S Waves.

S-waves are shear waves............

P Waves.
They can propagate in solid or liquid material. IS FASTER IN SPE
ED. They can travel up to 20 times the speed of sound in air! .
S Waves.
They only propagate in solid material. & THAT TOO AT A SLOWER SPEED............
L wave. Seismic surface waves travel along the Earth's surface. They can be clas
sified as a form of mechanical surface waves. They are called surface waves, as
they diminish as they get further from the surface. They travel more slowly than
seismic body waves (P and S). In large earthquakes, surface waves can have an a
mplitude of several centimeters.............
P Waves.
if a P-Wave is traveling West to East, all the things in the way
, like people and buildings, will oscillate or move back and forth in the West-E
ast direction.............
S Waves.
This means they make the earth vibrate perpendicularly to the di
rection of the wave travel. This wave causes damage due to its configuration. It
causes buildings to be thrust upward from the ground then the ground drops out
from under it as the wave travels by.............
P Waves.
Very little, if any, damage.
.
S Waves.
much mor
e destructive than P-Waves.
.
S Waves.
in the case of horizontally polarized S
waves, the ground moves alternately to one side and then the other. S-waves can
travel only through solids, as fluids (liquids and gases) do not support shear s
tresses. S-waves are slower than P-waves, and speeds are typically around 60% of
that of P-waves in any given material.
.
S Waves.
By studying the trajectories of S-waves,
scientists could prove that the Earth had a liquid outer core............
P Waves.
Usually noticed like, "I heard the earthquake coming!" This is b
ecause it IS, indeed, a sound wave. Most often it isn't noticed tho.
.
P Waves.
Physics types know this as a longitudinal wave. It "shakes" thin
gs in the same direction it travels.
.
P Waves.
P Waves.
In air, they take the form of sound waves, hence they travel at
the speed of sound. Typical speeds are 330m/s in air, 1450m/s in water and about 5
000m/s in granite.
.
Love wave............ it is type of Surface. wave.

Love waves are horizontally polarized shear waves (SH waves), existing only in t
he presence of a semi-infinite medium overlain by an upper layer of finite thick
ness.............
They are named after A.E.H. Love, a British mathematician who created a mathemat
ical model of the waves in 1911. They usually travel slightly faster than Raylei
gh waves, about 90% of the S wave velocity, and have the largest amplitude......
.......
Stoneley wave............

A Stoneley wave is a type of boundary wave (or interface wave) that propagates a

long a solid-fluid boundary or, under specific conditions, also along a solid-so
lid boundary. Amplitudes of Stoneley waves have their maximum values at the boun
dary between the two contacting media and decay exponentially towards the depth
of each of them. These waves can be generated along the walls of a fluid-filled
borehole, being an important source of coherent noise in VSPs and making up the
low frequency component of the source in sonic logging.............
The equation for Stoneley waves was first given by Dr. Robert Stoneley (1894 - 1
976), Emeritus Professor of Seismology, Cambridge.

A Seismograph...
An earthquake is
measured with a
machine called a
seismograph. The
magnitude of the
earthquake is
measured on the
Richter scale. An
earthquake of 2.0 or
less can be felt only a
little. An earthquake
over 5.0 can cause
damage from things
falling. A 6.0 or
higher magnitude is
considered very
strong and 7.0 is
classified as a major
earthquake.
Destruction
caused by an Earthquake
in Gujarat
1. Read the Earthquake
A case study given in the form of headlines that appeared i
n the newspapers after the quake. Arrange the events in the right sequence of th
eir happening. 2. Imagine if a quake suddenly shook in the middle of the school
day, where would you go for safety?
Although earthquakes cannot be predicted, the impact can certainly be minimised
if we are prepared before-hand. Some common earthquake prediction methods adopte
d locally by people include studying animal behaviour; fish in the ponds get agi
tated, snakes come to the surface.
Now...
Earthquake A Case Study.....
EARTHQUAKE HITS BHUJ
A massive earthquake measuring 6.9 on Richter scale hit Bhuj Town on 26th Januar
y 2001.
Fire in the city
Hundreds of fires
started as charcoal,
cookers overturned.
Emergency declared

in quake zone
The President declares
a state of emergency.
Atleast 971 students
and 31 teachers are
feared to have lost
their lives following
the collapse of
school buildings.
School worst
affected
Now...
CM S APPEAL TO THE CENTRE............
Gujarat appeals for
financial help. The
Chief Minister of
Gujarat has launched
an appeal for the
Centre to deal with
the disaster.
Destruction of Bhuj
Phone lines, water
pipelines and power
stations transmission
lines were knocked out.
Now...
BHUJ RELIEF EFFORT
BLIGHTED..............
Three days after the
quake, concern rose
about food, blankets
and medical supplies
not reaching everyone.
Now...
MAJOR LAND FORMS...
The landscape is being continuously worn away by two processes
weathering and er
osion. Weathering is the breaking up of the rocks on the earth s surface. Erosion
is the wearing away of the landscape by different agents like water, wind and ic
e. The eroded material is carried away or transported by water, wind, etc. and e
ventually deposited. This process of erosion and deposition create different lan
dforms on the surface of the earth.
Now...
Work of a River...
The running water in the river erodes the landscape. When the river tumbles at s
teep angle over very hard rocks or down a steep valley side it forms a waterfall
As the river enters the plain it twists and turns forming large bends known as

meanders. Due to continuous erosion and deposition along the sides of the meande
r, the ends of the meander loop come closer and closer. In due course of time th
e meander loop cuts off from the river and forms a cut-off lake, also called an
ox-bow lake. At times the river overflows its banks. This leads to the flooding
of the neighbouring areas. As it floods, it deposits layers of fine soil and oth
er material called sediments along its banks. This leads to the formation of a f
lat fertile floodplain. The raised banks are called levees. As the river approac
hes the sea, the speed of the flowing water decreases and the river begins to br
eak up into a number of streams called distributaries. The river becomes so slow
that it begins to deposit its load. Each distributary forms its own mouth. The
collection of sediments from all the mouths forms a delta.
Now...
Work of Sea Waves................
The erosion and deposition of
the sea waves gives rise to
coastal landforms. Seawaves
continuously strike at the
rocks. Cracks develop. Over
time they become larger and
wider. Thus, hollow like caves
are formed on the rocks. They
are called sea caves. As these
cavities become bigger and
bigger only the roof of the
caves remain, thus forming sea
arches . Further, erosion
breaks the roof and only walls
are left. These wall like features are called stacks. The steep rocky coast risi
ng almost vertically above sea water is called sea cliff. The sea waves deposit
sediments along the shores forming beaches.
Now...
Work of Ice...
Glaciers are rivers of ice which
too erode the landscape by
bulldozing soil and stones to
expose the solid rock below.
Glaciers carve out deep hollows.
As the ice melts they get filled
up with water and become
beautiful lakes in the
mountains. The material carried
by the glacier such as rocks big
and small, sand and silt gets
deposited. These deposits form
glacial moraines.
Now...
Work of wind...
Have you ever visited a desert? Try to collect some pictures of sand dunes. An a
ctive agent of erosion and deposition in the deserts is wind. In deserts you can
see rocks in the shape of a mushroom, commonly called mushroom rocks. Winds ero
de the lower section of the rock more than the upper part. Therefore, such rocks
have narrower base and wider top. When the wind blows, it lifts and transports
sand from one place to another. When it stops blowing the sand falls and gets de
posited in low hill like structures. These are called sand dunes. When the grain

s of sand are very fine and light, the wind can carry it over very long distance
s. When such sand is deposited in large areas, it is called loess. Large deposit
s of loess is found in China. Fig. 3.9: Sand Dunes..
Now...
There are
thousands of small
waterfalls in the
world. The highest
waterfall is Angel
Falls of Venezuela
in South America.
The other waterfalls
are Niagara falls
located on the
border between
Canada and USA in
North America and
Victoria Falls on
the borders of
Zambia and
Zimbabwe in Africa.............

The Niagra falls

Hard rock
Softer rock undercut
by the power of
the water...........