Earthquakes

An Earthquake is…

the shaking and trembling that results from the movement of rock beneath Earth's surface The movement of Earth's plates produces strong forces that squeeze or pull the rock in the crust

Stress

• Force that acts on rock to change its shape & volume

• Adds energy to rock until it breaks or changes shape

• Causes deformation• Rocks can break…creating a

fault• Causes earthquakes

Stress

There are three different types of stress that occur on the crust, shearing, tension, and compressionThese forces cause some rocks to become fragile and they snapSome other rocks tend to bend slowly like road tar softened by the suns heat

Shearing

•Pushes rocks in opposite directions

Tension

•Pulls, stretching rock so it becomes thinner in the middle

•2 plates move apart

Compression

•Squeezes rocks until it folds or breaks

Faults

A fault is a break in the crust where slabs of crust slip past each other. The rocks on both sides of a fault can move up or down or sideways When enough stress builds on a rock, the rock shatters, creating faultsFaults usually occur along plate boundaries, where the forces of plate motion compress, pull, or shear the crust too much so the crust smashes

Strike-Slip Faults

Shearing creates this faultRocks on both sides of the fault slide past each other sidewaysForms transform boundary

Strike-Slip Faults

Normal FaultsTension forces in Earth's crust causes these types of faultsNormal faults are at an angle, so one piece of rock is above the fault, while the other is below the faultThe above rock is called the hanging wall, and the one below is called the footwallWhen movement affects along a normal fault, the hanging wall slips downward Occurs at divergent boundaries

Normal Faults

Reverse Faults

Compression forces produce this faultSame structure as a normal fault, but blocks move in opposite directionsHanging wall slides up over footwallOccurs at convergent boundaries

Reverse Faults

Friction

• Force that opposes the motion of one surface across another

• Low friction: rocks slide without sticking

• Medium friction: sides of the fault jam together & then jerk-free to produce small earthquakes

• High friction: rocks lock & don’t move, stress increases until it overcomes friction, produces major earthquakes

How Do Mountains Form?

1.) By Faulting- when two normal faults form parallel to each other, a block of rock in between them moves upward as hanging wall slips down (fault-block mountain)

How Do Mountains Form?

2.) Folding: when 2 plates collide, compression forces cause the rock to fold or bend

Anticlines and Synclines  

An anticline is a fold in a rock that arcs upward A syncline is a fold in a rock that arcs downwardThese folds in rocks are found on many parts of the earths surface where compression forces have folded the crust

Anticline

Syncline

Plateaus

The forces that elevate mountains can also raise plateaus, a large area of flat land elevated high above sea level

How Earthquakes Form