Earthquake

Hazards
 Earthquake

 also known as
a quake, tremor or temblor, is the
perceptible shaking of the surface of the
Earth, resulting from the sudden release
of energy in the Earth’s crust that
creates seismic waves.
 Factors

 Seismic waves – are the waves of

energy that travel through the earth’s
layers.
 Hypocenter(Focus) – the point of origin
of an earthquake or a subsurface
nuclear explosion.
 Epicenter – the part of the earth’s
surface directly above the focus of an
earthquake.
 Potential Earthquake
Hazards:
 Ground shaking- is caused by the
passage of seismic waves, especially
surface waves near the epicenter of the
earthquake are responsible for the most
damage during an earthquake. Is the
primary cause of earthquake damage to
man-made structures. When the ground
shakes strongly, buildings can be
damaged or destroyed and their
occupants may be injured or killed.
 Ground Rupture -is an offset of the
ground surface when
fault rupture extends to the
Earth's surface. Any structure built
across the fault is at risk of being
torn apart as the two sides of the
fault slip past each other.
 Liquefaction
 is the mixing of sand or soil and
groundwater (water underground) during the
shaking of a moderate or strong earthquake.
When the water and soil are mixed, the ground
becomes very soft and acts similar to quicksand.
If liquefaction occurs under a building, it may
start to lean, tip over, or sink several feet. The
ground firms up again after the earthquake has
past and the water has settled back down to its
usual place deeper in the ground. Liquefaction is
a hazard in areas that have groundwater near the
surface and sandy soil.
 Largest Earthquake in
History
LOCATION
Chile
Magnitude
9.5

1964 Great Alaska Earthquake 9.2

Off the West Coast of Northern 9.1

Sumatra
Near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan 9.0

Kamchatka 9.0

Offshore Maule, Chile 8.8

Off the Coast of Ecuador 8.8

Rat Islands, Alaska 8.7

Northern Sumatra, Indonesia 8.6

Assam - Tibet 8.6

 Why do Earthquakes occur?
 The crust and the top of the mantle make up a thin
skin on the surface of our planet. But this skin is not
all in one piece – it is made up of many pieces like a
puzzle covering the surface of the earth. Not only
that, but these puzzle pieces keep slowly moving
around, sliding past one another and bumping into
each other. We call these puzzle pieces as tectonic
plates, and the edges of the plates are called
the plate boundaries. The plate boundaries are made
up of many faults, and most of the earthquakes
around the world occur on these faults. Since the
edges of the plates are rough, they get stuck while
the rest of the plate keeps moving. Finally, when the
plate has moved far enough, the edges unstick on
one of the faults and there is an earthquake.
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