What Is An Earthquake?: Earthquake Fault Fault Plane Hypocenter Epicenter Foreshocks

What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past
one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. The
location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called
the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is
called the epicenter.
Sometimes an earthquake has foreshocks. These are smaller earthquakes that

happen in the same place as the larger earthquake that follows. Scientists can’t
tell that an earthquake is a foreshock until the larger earthquake happens. The
largest, main earthquake is called the mainshock. Mainshocks always
have aftershocks that follow. These are smaller earthquakes that occur
afterwards in the same place as the mainshock. Depending on the size of the
mainshock, aftershocks can continue for weeks, months, and even years after
the mainshock!
What causes earthquakes and where do they happen?

The earth has four major layers: the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust.
(figure 2) 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. (figure 3) 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 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.
Why does the earth shake when there is an earthquake?
While the edges of faults are stuck together, and the rest of the block is moving,
the energy that would normally cause the blocks to slide past one another is
being stored up. When the force of the moving blocks finally overcomes
the friction of the jagged edges of the fault and it unsticks, all that stored up
energy is released. The energy radiates outward from the fault in all directions in
the form of seismic waves like ripples on a pond. The seismic waves shake the
earth as they move through it, and when the waves reach the earth’s surface,
they shake the ground and anything on it, like our houses and us! (see P&S
Wave inset)
How are earthquakes recorded?

Earthquakes are recorded by instruments called seismographs. The recording
they make is called a seismogram. (figure 4) The seismograph has a base that
sets firmly in the ground, and a heavy weight that hangs free. When an
earthquake causes the ground to shake, the base of the seismograph shakes
too, but the hanging weight does not. Instead the spring or string that it is
hanging from absorbs all the movement. The difference in position between the
shaking part of the seismograph and the motionless part is what is recorded.
How do scientists measure the size of earthquakes?
The size of an earthquake depends on the size of the fault and the amount of slip
on the fault, but that’s not something scientists can simply measure with a
measuring tape since faults are many kilometers deep beneath the earth’s
surface. So how do they measure an earthquake? They use
the seismogram recordings made on the seismographs at the surface of the
earth to determine how large the earthquake was (figure 5). A short wiggly line
that doesn’t wiggle very much means a small earthquake, and a long wiggly line
that wiggles a lot means a large earthquake. The length of the wiggle depends
on the size of the fault, and the size of the wiggle depends on the amount of slip.
The size of the earthquake is called its magnitude. There is one magnitude for
each earthquake. Scientists also talk about the intensity of shaking from an
earthquake, and this varies depending on where you are during the earthquake.
How can scientists tell where the earthquake happened?
Seismograms come in handy for locating earthquakes too, and being able to see
the P wave and the S wave is important. You learned how P & S waves each
shake the ground in different ways as they travel through it. P waves are also
faster than S waves, and this fact is what allows us to tell where an earthquake
was. To understand how this works, let’s compare P and S waves to lightning
and thunder. Light travels faster than sound, so during a thunderstorm you will
first see the lightning and then you will hear the thunder. If you are close to the
lightning, the thunder will boom right after the lightning, but if you are far away
from the lightning, you can count several seconds before you hear the thunder.
The further you are from the storm, the longer it will take between the lightning
and the thunder.
P waves are like the lightning, and S waves are like the thunder. The P waves
travel faster and shake the ground where you are first. Then the S waves follow
and shake the ground also. If you are close to the earthquake, the P and S wave
will come one right after the other, but if you are far away, there will be more time
between the two. By looking at the amount of time between the P and S wave on
a seismogram recorded on a seismograph, scientists can tell how far away the
earthquake was from that location. However, they can’t tell in what direction from
the seismograph the earthquake was, only how far away it was. If they draw a
circle on a map around the station where the radius of the circle is the
determined distance to the earthquake, they know the earthquake lies
somewhere on the circle. But where?
Scientists then use a method called triangulation to determine exactly where the
earthquake was (figure 6). It is called triangulation because a triangle has three
sides, and it takes three seismographs to locate an earthquake. If you draw a
circle on a map around three different seismographs where the radius of each is
the distance from that station to the earthquake, the intersection of those three
circles is the epicenter!
Can scientists predict earthquakes?
No, and it is unlikely they will ever be able to predict them. Scientists have tried
many different ways of predicting earthquakes, but none have been successful.
On any particular fault, scientists know there will be another earthquake
sometime in the future, but they have no way of telling when it will happen.
Is there such a thing as earthquake weather? Can some animals or people tell when an
earthquake is about to hit?
These are two questions that do not yet have definite answers. If weather does
affect earthquake occurrence, or if some animals or people can tell when an
earthquake is coming, we do not yet understand how it works.

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What Is An Earthquake?: Earthquake Fault Fault Plane Hypocenter Epicenter Foreshocks

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What is an earthquake?

Sometimes an earthquake has foreshocks. These are smaller earthquakes that

What causes earthquakes and where do they happen?

Why does the earth shake when there is an earthquake?

How are earthquakes recorded?

How do scientists measure the size of earthquakes?

How can scientists tell where the earthquake happened?

Can scientists predict earthquakes?

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