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115 Earthquake Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Earthquakes are a natural phenomenon that can have devastating effects on communities and infrastructure. For students studying geology, geography, or environmental science, writing an essay on earthquakes can provide a deeper understanding of the causes, impacts, and mitigation strategies associated with these powerful events. To help spark your creativity, here are 115 earthquake essay topic ideas and examples:

The causes of earthquakes: exploring the geological processes that lead to seismic activity.

The Richter scale: how scientists measure the magnitude of earthquakes.

The relationship between earthquakes and plate tectonics.

Famous earthquakes in history: examining events like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The impact of earthquakes on buildings and infrastructure.

The role of early warning systems in mitigating earthquake damage.

The social and economic impacts of earthquakes on communities.

Earthquake forecasting: can scientists predict when and where earthquakes will occur?

The psychological effects of living in earthquake-prone regions.

The connection between earthquakes and tsunamis.

The role of government agencies in earthquake preparedness and response.

The ethics of rebuilding after a major earthquake.

Earthquake-resistant building design: how engineers are working to minimize damage.

The cultural significance of earthquakes in different societies.

The environmental impacts of earthquakes on ecosystems and wildlife.

The role of international cooperation in earthquake relief efforts.

The effects of climate change on seismic activity.

Earthquake diplomacy: how disasters can bring nations together.

The history of seismology: tracing the development of earthquake science.

The connection between fracking and induced earthquakes.

The role of social media in disseminating information during earthquakes.

The impact of earthquakes on global supply chains.

The relationship between earthquakes and volcanic activity.

The intersection of politics and earthquakes: how governments respond to disasters.

The ethics of disaster relief in earthquake-affected regions.

The role of citizen science in monitoring earthquakes.

The impact of earthquakes on mental health and well-being.

The effects of earthquakes on agriculture and food security.

The connection between earthquakes and groundwater contamination.

The role of gender in disaster response and recovery after earthquakes.

The impact of earthquakes on tourism and local economies.

The relationship between earthquakes and landslides.

The ethics of earthquake prediction: should we try to forecast seismic events?

The connection between earthquakes and nuclear power plants.

The role of indigenous knowledge in earthquake preparedness.

The impact of earthquakes on education and schools.

The effects of earthquakes on transportation networks.

The relationship between earthquakes and fracking-induced earthquakes.

The role of insurance companies in earthquake risk assessment and management.

The impact of earthquakes on wildlife and ecosystems.

The connection between earthquakes and climate change.

The role of social media in earthquake response and recovery efforts.

The effects of earthquakes on water resources and infrastructure.

The relationship between earthquakes and mental health.

The impact of earthquakes on agriculture and food security.

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Earthquake Topics

Plate tectonics.

• 2020-2021 Alaska Peninsual Earthquake Sequence — An ArcGIS geonarrative Storymap describing the three earthquakes along the subduction zone off the south coast of Alaska in 2020 and 2021. (USGS)
• A Possible Cause of Earthquakes in the Continental Interior — Plain-language summary of a 2018 research paper. (USGS)
• About Earthquakes — basics about earthquakes (University of Washington)
• Ancient Earth Globe — View planet Earth at any time in the past 750 million years. Rotate the globe and zoom in and out. Shows how the tectonic plates have moved over time. (The Dinosaur Database)
• Birth of the Himalayas — brief description of the origin of the Himalaya Mountains (NOVA)
• BSL Outreach — Wonderful diverse collection of videos and animations, as well as links to lesson plans and educational resources. (Berkeley Seismology Lab)
• California Subduction Rocks — A photographic field trip to classic subduction-related rocks across northern California. (About Geology)
• Chile M7.0 January 12, 2010 and M8.8 February 27, 2010 Educational Slides — Details on the rupture of the two earthquakes, the shaking distribution, aftershock zone, estimated fatality numbers, and comparisons between the two. (USGS)
• Collection of 3D Geometries for Global Subduction Zones — A plain language article about subduction zone models and how they help us understand large earthquakes. (USGS)
• Continents in Collision: Pangea Ultima — Short news piece with images (NASA)
• Continents on the Move — How do we know that continents are still moving? (PBS-Nova)
• Coquimbo, Chile M8.3 Educational Slides — Educational slides for the M8.3 Coquimbo, Chile M8.3 earthquake. (USGS)
• Creep Evidence of Active Faulting — Information about creep on faults, and specifically the Hayward fault. (USGS)
• Discover Our Earth — Portal for teachers and students for learn the basics about earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, topography, and sea level changes. (USGS & DLESE)
• Downloadable Animations — Animation clips and other geo-educational items (UC Santa Barbara)
• Earth Like a Puzzle — Plate tectonics basics. (Scripps)
• Earth Science Course Notes & Graphics — Professor Steve Dutch's excellent online resources for earth sciences with great images for teaching; all the goodies are behind the "Notes" links (Univ. of Wisconsin)
• Earth Science Education Activities — a wealth of excellent hands-on activities for teaching about earthquakes, volcanoes, seismic waves, plate tectonics, earth structure, seismic waves, convection, seismometers and more! (Purdue Univ.)
• Earth Science Explorer — virtual museum (NASA)
• Earthquakes — PodCasts, presentations and fact sheets on the basics of earthquakes. (The Geological Society)
• Earthquakes 101 "Slideshow" (PDF) — PDF format of a complete PowerPoint show for the basics (USGS)
• Earthquakes by Bruce A. Bolt Online Companion — links related to subjects covered in book (W.H. Freeman & Co.)
• Earthquakes, MegaQuakes, and the Movies — discussion about facts versus fantasies (USGS)
• EarthScope Resources for Students & Teachers — Animations, online lectures, visualizations and more, mostly from IRIS. (EarthScope)
• Evidence for Plate Tectonics-Teaching Box — Collection of interrelated learn concepts that focuses on finding the evidence for plate tectonics using digital resources, education standards, and comprehensive lesson plans. (DLESE)
• Faces of the Earth — 4 videos: Building the Planet, Shaping the Planet, Assembling America, A Human World (AGI - American Geosciences Institute)
• GEODE - Google Earth for Onsite and Distance Education — Virtual tours of different earth features using Google Earth. (geode.net)
• Geology Animations, Interactive Exercises, and now... Songs! — Animations of geological processes. (Univ. of Kentucky)
• GSA Free Teacher Resources — A good resource for educators that includes lesson plans, info on state standards, awards, and reading suggestions (Geological Society of America)
• How Earthquakes Work — Description of the basics (How Stuff Works)
• IRIS Education and Public Outreach — An amazing collection of excellent education resources for all aspects of earthquakes and seismology with great images! (IRIS - Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology)
• IRIS Education Resources — A multitude of educational resources for earthquake science, from visualizations and animations, to lessons and educational software. Awesome! (IRIS - Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology)
• Jules Verne Voyager and Jules Verne Voyager, Jr. — an interactive map tool that enables students and scientists to better understand the relationships between geophysical and geological processes, structures, and measurements with high-precision GPS data. These are Javascript based tools. (UNAVCO)
• Large Plate Puzzle (PDF) — cut a large world map into puzzle pieces along plate boundaries, students discuss individually land then for the whole map after the class puts pieces together; simple but powerful, discussion Q/A included (USGS)
• M7.8 Nepal Earthquake, 2015 - A Small Push to Mt. Everest — A large shallow earthquake moves Mt. Everest 3 cm southwest. (USGS)
• Mountain Maker, Earth Shaker — Push your mouse around to move continents and change the landscape (PBS)
• Nepal Earthquake Sequence Educational Slides — (17MB PDF) (USGS)
• ParsQuake — Earthquake education in the global Persian community. (ParsQuake.org)
• Perilous Earth: Understanding Processes Behind Natural Disasters — The basics including plate tectonics and earthquakes. (San Diego State Univ.)
• Plate Tectonics — Interactive tutorial with easy-to-understand images and some multi-media. (The Geological Society - UK)
• Plate Tectonics & Our National Parks — excellent presentation with vivid graphics (USGS & U.S. National Park Service)
• Plate Tectonics Activities — Games, quiz (Quia)
• SCEC Communication, Education and Outreach — Many excellent resources for Public Education and Preparedness, K-14 Earthquake Education, and Experiential Learning and Career Advancement. Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country downloadable booklets for learning about earthquake hazards and safety recommendations in many different languages and for many different areas of the United States. (Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC))
• Sea-Floor Spreading and Subduction, How to Build a Model Illustrating — Three-dimensional, cut-and-paste paper model illustrating sea-floor spreading and subduction. (USGS)
• Seismicity of the Earth 1900?2018 Map/Poster — Poster-sized map illustrating 119 years of global seismicity in the context of global plate tectonics and the Earth?s physiography. Primarily designed for use by earth scientists, engineers, and educators, this map provides a comprehensive overview of strong (magnitude [M] 5.5 and larger) earthquakes since 1900. (USGS)
• Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure, An Introduction to — online companion to the textbook by Seth Stein and Michael Wysession with electronic versions of all images and access to homework problems and solutions; also includes errata (Blackwell Publishing)
• Shake, Rattle, and Slide — Lessons, activities, and slide shows about earthquakes, volcanoes, and glaciers. (University of Illinois Extension)
• Shaking up Earth — A review of the history of the theory of plate tectonics. (Science News)
• The "Snow Plow Theory" of Early-Arriving Tsunamis — What is a splay fault, and how can they affect tsunamis? (USGS)
• The 2023 Kahramanmara?, Turkey, Earthquake Sequence — An interactive geonarrative that explains the tectonic setting of Turkey, historical seismicity of Turkey from 1900, details on both the M 7.8 and M 7.5 earthquake sequences, kinematics of the earthquake rupture, remote sensing observations that show displacements across the active faults. (USGS)
• Theory of the Earth — online book on the science of earthquakes (Caltech)
• Theory of the Earth, The New — This is the only book on the whole landscape of deep Earth processes that ties together all the strands of the subdisciplines. This book is a complete update of Anderson�??s Theory of the Earth (1989). (Caltech)
• This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics — excellent comprehensive overview of plate tectonics with excellent graphics, online USGS general interest publication (USGS)
• This Dynamic Planet — World Map of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Impact Craters, and Plate Tectonics (USGS)
• Tohoku, Japan 2011 M9.0 Educational Slides — Educational slides for the 2011 Tohoku,Japan M9.0 Earthquake. (USGS)
• Understanding Earthquakes — Brief history of seismology to 1910, earthquake and plate tectonic quizzes, earthquake accounts by famous people, elastic rebound animation, and links to addition resources. (UC Santa Barbara)
• Understanding Quakes — description, photos, and graphics of earthquake basics and effects of earthquakes in Turkey (The Why Files)
• Volcano World's Earth Science Lessons — Lots of great earth science lessons good for all ages, slide-style with color diagrams and photographs (Oregon State University)

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html .

• First Publication: May 24, 2018
• Reviewed: August 4, 2022 -- Reviewed by the On the Cutting Edge Activity Review Process

Earthquake Basics Presentation

Description.

A similar lecture featuring the USA's Pacific Northwest region is available from the Cascadia EarthScope Earthquake and Tsunami Education Program (CEETEP)

This resource is intended for introductory-level geoscience learners from secondary up to adult in a classroom or public lecture. Learners should have some knowledge of plate tectonics (ex. Alaska Plate Tectonics & Geohazards Presentation ). Although specific examples are from Alaska, much of the content is widely applicable.

Teaching Notes

• The slides contain a variety of notes to help users know the intention of the author.
• All the animations associated with the presentation are available above in a zipped file. The smaller animations are embedded within the PowerPoint but are provided again here in case there are any issues. The larger animations should be played outside of the PowerPoint as they is a bit too large to reliably embed. The logical place to do so is indicated in the pptx notes.
• Earthquake Machine
• Human Wave: Modeling P and S Waves
• Seismic Slinky: Modeling P and S waves
• USArray Seismic Wave Visualizations
• Pasta Quake & Earthquake Magnitude
• Earthquake Hazard Maps & Liquefaction
• Build a Better Wall
• BOSS Model: Building Oscillation Seismic Simulation
• SeismicWaves Viewer & SeismicEruption Software
• How Do We Know Where an Earthquake Originated?
• Base Isolation for Earthquake Resistance

Reference Information

Author/Developer: Robert Butler (ANGLE Project)

• The resource was developed as part of the EarthScope ANGLE Educator Workshops.
• IRIS: Glossary of earthquake & tectonics terminology
• Contact ANGLE with questions or comments.

Teach Earth Science

Science Partnership of the East Bay

Introduction to Earthquakes This unit introduces the relationship of earthquake and plate tectonics. Seismology (the study of earthquakes) is introduced through a discussion of the different types of faults and methods to determine the size of an earthquake. Lastly, earthquake hazards are discussed.

Workshop Presentations

The presentation about earthquakes is divided into 2 separate discussions: The first covers the basics of earthquakes and seismology. The second presentation covers earthquake hazards and tsunamis.

Earthquake Basics - reviews the basics about earthquakes and the science of seismology.

PowerPoint Click to download the MS Powerpoint file (10.9 Mbytes)

PDF Click to view or download the presentation in PDF (5.5 Mbytes)

HT ML Cl ick to view the presentation in html format.

Online Lecture. Click here to view a streaming lecture discussing the earthquakes and seismology (~45 minutes).

Earthquake Hazards - reviews earthquake prediction, early warning system, direct and indirect earthquake hazards, and tsunamis.

PowerPoint Click to download the MS Powerpoint file (39 Mbytes)

PDF Click to view or download the presentation in PDF (28 Mbytes)

Online Lecture. Click here to view a streaming lecture discussing earthquake and tsunami hazards (~35 minutes).

Classroom Activities

How Do I Make My Own P and S waves? This simple demonstration uses a slinky to demonstrate the differences between P and S seismic waves. This activity permits students to use a model to describe phenomena. PDF

Slip Slide Activity. In this activity, students model the mechanism for earthquakes known as elastic rebound. This activity permits students to use a model to describe phenomena. PDF Word Document

Virtual Earthquake . In this online activity, students determine the epicenter (by triangulation) and Richter magnitude (using a nomogram) of an earthquake. This is a great interactive resource that explains difficult concepts. The focus of the activity is instruction (not assessment) since it requires students to reattempt analysis of data when a mistake is made.

Rate the Risk. In this activity, students examine historic data for large earthquakes (M>6.0) in the United States. On a map, they plot the earthquake occurrunces and consider how these data could be used to estimate the earthquake risk and why certain states have a higher risk of larger earthquakes in terms of tectonic environment. PDF Word Document

Calculating the Speed of Tsunamis. In this activity, students calculate the propagation rate of tsunamis as a function of water depth and the amount of time for tsunamis to travel to different shorelines. More infomation about calculating the propagation rate of tsunamis is here . This activity permits students to apply mathematical concepts (e.g. rate) to a scientific question about the propagation rates and travel times of tsunamis.

• Student Data Sheet PDF Word Document
• Teacher Answer Key PDF

Where Did Pinnacles National Park Come From? In this activity, students examine movement of the Neenach volcanic rocks in Pinnacles National Park northward along the San Andreas fault. This activity permits students to apply mathematical concepts (e.g. rate) to a scientific question about the rate of motion along the San Andreas fault and predicting future movement.

Online Media Resources

The Hayward Fault: Overdue for Disaster

The New Bay Bridge: Earthquake Makeover This video discusses the design and building of the new Bay Bridge after it was damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake. KQED Quest

Earthquake! When Plates Collide This video discussess the relationship between plate tectonics and the occurrence of earthquakes. WGBH Educational Foundation

Scary Tsunami This video looks at the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and how scientists are attempting to understand the generation of tsunamis and the development of a warning system. KQED Quest

Earthquakes: Breaking New Ground This video reviews the SAFOD experiment in Parkfield, CA that is aimed at developing a better understanding of the nature of earthquakes and the San Adndreas fault system. KQED Quest

Earthquakes: The Seismograph This video reveiws the development of the seismograph and how an earthquake may be measured and quantified. WGBH Educational Foundation

Quest Northwest: Megathrust Earthquakes This video discusses large earthquakes called megathrust earthquakes associated with subductions zones. KCTS and KQED

Earthquakes: The Prehistoric Record This video discusses evidence of past earthquakes preserved in rocks and surface features. WGBH Educational Foundation

Earthquakes: San Francisco This video reviews the historic occurrence of earthquakes in the Bayarea and predictions for the future. WGBH Educational Foundation

Earthquake Videos Be careful since some of these can be disturbing - not necessarily for student eyes.

Katmandu 2015 Earthquake. This video was recorded by a surveillance camera and shows a street scene in Katmandu during the magnitude 8 earthquake in Nepal.

Tokyo Skyscrapers Swaying. This video shows skyscrapers swaying during the magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake in 2011. The buildings are designed to accommodate ground motion during an earthquake and this video is evidence of the effectiveness of seismic engineering.

Loma Prieta Earthquake. This compilation of videos shows shaking and the results of the earthquake in San Francisco form the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

Japanese Earthquake Warning System. This YouTube video shows the Japanese early warning system. In the video, a Japanese broadcast show is interrupted by an automated alert warning and then shows a newscaster issuing the warning.

Tsunami Videos Be careful since some of these videos are disturbing - not necessarily for student eyes.

Japanese 2011 Tsunami. This video footage shows the tsunami that resulted from the magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake in Japan in 2011.

Japanese Tsunami in Emeryville. This video footage shows the tsunami that resulted from the magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake in Japan in 2011 as it entered San Francisco Bay. The video was shot in Emeryville, CA. The wave height is very small since the Golden Gate only permitted a small portion of hte energy to pass.

Japanese Tsunami in Santa Cruz. This video footage shows the tsunami that resulted from the magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake in Japan in 2011 as it entered yacht harbor in Santa Cruz, CA.

Tsunami Scene from San Andreas . OK, this is stupid but it is always amusing when they destroy the Golden Gate Bridge in disaster movies. This clip from the movie San Andreas shows a huge tsunami in San Francisco Bay. There are several things wrong with this scenario: First, the size of the tsunami (due to an earthquake) is too large. Second, tsunamis are generally formed at convergent boundaries (subduction) and the San Andreas fault system is a strike slip (tranform) fault. Strike slip faults do not generally for tsunamies. Lastly, the Golden Gate inlet to San Francisco Bay is narrow enough to prevent the passage of a significant tsunami into the bay interior.

Useful Websites

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program earthquake.usgs.gov/ This USGS site is the main entry point for information on earthquakes including realtime earthquake maps.

Realtime Global Earthquake Map http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/ This is an interactive map showing the occurrence of earthquakes. Please note that you can zoom into any location for more detail and change the map options to display different magnitude earthquakes.

United States Geological Survey (USGS) www.usgs.gov/ The USGS is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior and has primary responsibility for geological (hazards, resources, etc.) and environmental issues of national and regional importance.

The Educational Multimedia Visualization Center emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/ This website contains terrific animations illustrating tectonic plate motion. UCSB

Teachers on the Leading Edge orgs.up.edu/totle/ There are many resources and activities developed by this professional development program for middle school science teachers.

NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas

Grade 2 ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth. Some events happen very quickly; others occur very slowly, over a time period much longer than one can observe .

Grade 4 ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth. Local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal changes over time due to earh forces, such as earthquakes. The presence and location of certain fossil types indicate the order in which rock layers were formed.

ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions. The locations of mountain ranges, deep ocean trenches, ocean floor structures, earthquakes, and volcanoes occur in patterns. Most earthquakes and volcanoes occur in bands that are often along boundaries between continents and oceans. Major mountain chains form inside continents or near their edges. Maps can help locate the different land and water features areas of the Earth.

ESS3.B: Nature Hazards. A variety of hazards result from natural processes (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions). Humans cannot eliminate the hazards but can take steps to reduce their impacts.

Middle School ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions Maps of ancient land and water patterns, based on investigations of rocks and fossils, make clear how Earth's plates have moved great distances, collided, and spread apart.

ESS3.B: Natural Hazards Mapping the history of natural hazards in a region, combined with an understanding of related geologic forces can help forecast the locations and likelhoods of future events.

High School ESS3.B: Natural Hazards Natural hazards and other geologic events have shpated the course of human history; [they] have significantly altered the sizes of human populations and have driven human migrations.

Common Scientific Misconceptions

Earthquakes are rare events (media coverage of earthquakes is limited and biased to U.S. area or high death tolls)

The ground cracks opens during an earthquake to swallow people and buildings (common to Hollywood movies and popular literature like 'Clan of the Cave Bear' and Shogun', etc.).

Earth shaking is deadly (as opposed to building collapse, tsunamis, landslides, fire, etc.)

Seismic waves involve the long distance net motion of particles.

S-waves (shear waves) do not reach the other side of Earth from where earthquake originated because they cannot pass through oceans (or cannot reach islands).

Wind blowing through subterranean passages causes earthquakes (Aristotle's hypothesis, tied with older cosmology of hollow passages through earth)

Earthquakes occur from collapse of subterranean hollow spaces (tie to older cosmologies).

The biggest earthquake is a magnitude 10.

Earthquakes are controlled by meteorological events and that there is such a thing as "earthquake weather."

☺ Like this page? Want something different? Tell me what you think jeff.seitz@csueastbay.edu

Science Partnership

The Science Partnership is a collaborative project lead by the California State University, East Bay and the Alameda County Office of Education.

Who are we?

Teach Earth Science staff include CSUEB faculty and staff from ACOE.

The Science Partnership is generously supported by the California Science Project, the National Science Foundation, the California Department of Education.

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Welcome to our curated collection of the best earthquake-themed google slides themes and powerpoint templates whether you're creating a presentation for an academic conference, a school project, or just need to educate your audience about seismic activity, we've got you covered. discover now this selection and take the first step towards creating a powerful and memorable presentation about earthquakes..

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Earthquakes

Free Presentations in PowerPoint format

Understanding Earthquakes

Earthquakes and Faults

Earthquakes – Understanding Geology

Earthquakes – Preventing Disasters in Japan

Earthquakes – How Often Do They Occur?

Earthquakes and Building Safety

Earthquakes – What Causes Them?

Earthquakes and volcanoes

Earthquakes and Architecture

Earthquake Waves (salem)

See Also: Plate Tectonics , Ocean Motion , Natural Hazards

Free Online Earthquake GAMES & Kids Sites

Free Flash Presentations

For Teachers

Lots of Lessons – Earthquakes

Free Video Clips/Mini Movies

Free Online Science Games for Kids

Free Clipart for Science

143 Earthquake Essay Topics & Examples

Need a catchy title for an earthquake essay? Earthquakes can take place almost everywhere. That is why this problem is so exciting to focus on.

🏆 Best Earthquake Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

🎓 good essay topics on earthquake, 📌 catchy titles for earthquake essay, 👍 research titles about earthquake, ❓ essay questions about earthquake.

In your earthquake essay, you might want to compare and contrast various types of this natural disaster. Another option is to talk about your personal experience or discuss the causes and effects of earthquakes. In a more serious assignment like a thesis or a term paper, you can concentrate on earthquake engineering or disaster management issues. In this article, we’ve gathered best research titles about earthquake and added top earthquake essay examples for more inspiration!

• Crisis Management: Nissan Company and the 2011 Earthquake Expand on the points made in the case to identify the potential costs and benefits of these actions. The sharing of information was quite beneficial to Nissan in its response to the disaster.
• Public Awareness of Earthquake This will mean that the basement that is involved in thickening and shortening is mechanically required to produce the shape of zagros belt.
• Natural Disasters: Tornadoes, Earthquakes, and Hurricanes Hence the loss may depend on the population of the area affected and also the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster.
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• Published: 06 August 2021

Machine learning and earthquake forecasting—next steps

• Gregory C. Beroza 1 ,
• Margarita Segou 2 &
• S. Mostafa Mousavi 1  

Nature Communications volume  12 , Article number:  4761 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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A new generation of earthquake catalogs developed through supervised machine-learning illuminates earthquake activity with unprecedented detail. Application of unsupervised machine learning to analyze the more complete expression of seismicity in these catalogs may be the fastest route to improving earthquake forecasting.

The past 5 years have seen a rapidly accelerating effort in applying machine learning to seismological problems. The serial components of earthquake monitoring workflows include: detection, arrival time measurement, phase association, location, and characterization. All of these tasks have seen rapid progress due to effective implementation of machine-learning approaches. They have proven opportune targets for machine learning in seismology mainly due to the large, labeled data sets, which are often publicly available, and that were constructed through decades of dedicated work by skilled analysts. These are the essential ingredient for building complex supervised models. Progress has been realized in research mode to analyze the details of seismicity well after the earthquakes being studied have occurred, and machine-learning techniques are poised to be implemented in operational mode for real-time monitoring. We will soon have a next generation of earthquake catalogs that contain much more information. How much more? These more complete catalogs typically feature at least a factor of ten more earthquakes (Fig.  1 ) and provide a higher-resolution picture of seismically active faults.

a Real-time catalog, available at http://cnt.rm.ingv.it/ and ( b ) machine-learning catalog 16 are shown for event magnitudes above their respective magnitude of completeness 12 , 16 Mc = 2.2 and Mc = 0.5.

This next generation of earthquake catalogs will not be the single, static objects seismologists are accustomed to working with. For example, less than 2 years after the 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake sequence there already exist four next-generation catalogs, each of which were developed with different enhanced detection techniques. Now, and in the future, this will be the norm, and earthquake catalogs will be updated and improved—potentially dramatically—with time. Second-generation deep learning models 1 that are specifically designed based on earthquake signal characteristics and that mimic the manual processing by analysts, can lead to performance increases beyond those offered by earlier models that adapted neural network architectures from other fields. Those interested in using earthquake catalogs for forecasting can anticipate a shifting landscape with continuing improvements.

While these improvements are impressive, the value of the extra information they provide is less clear. What will we learn about earthquake behavior from these deeper catalogs and how might it improve the prospects for the stubbornly difficult problem of earthquake forecasting?

Short-term deterministic earthquake prediction remains elusive and is perhaps impossible; however, probabilistic earthquake forecasting is another matter. It remains the subject of focused and sustained attention and it informs earthquake hazard characterization 2 and thus both policy and earthquake risk reduction. A key assumption is that what we learn from the newly uncovered small earthquakes in AI-based catalogs, will inform earthquake forecasting for events of all magnitudes. The observed scale invariance of earthquake behavior suggests this is a reasonable expectation.

Empirical seismological relationships have played a key role in the development of earthquake forecasting. These include Omori’s law 3 that describes the temporal decay of aftershock rate, the magnitude-frequency distribution, with the b-value describing the relative numbers of small vs. large earthquakes 4 , and the Epidemic Type Aftershock Sequence (ETAS) model 5 in which earthquakes are treated as a self-exciting process governed by Omori’s law for their frequency of occurrence and Gutenberg–Richter statistics for their magnitude. These empirical laws continue to prove their utility. Just in the past few years, the time dependence of the b-value has been used to try to anticipate the likelihood of large earthquakes during an ongoing earthquake sequence 6 and the ETAS model has been improved to better anticipate future large events 7 . So it appears that there is value in applying these longstanding relationships to improved earthquake catalogs, but our opinion is that much more needs to be done.

The relationships cited above date from 127, 77, and 33 years ago. The oldest of them, Omori’s Law, was developed based on felt reports without the benefit of instrumental measurements. We suggest that a fresh approach using more powerful techniques is warranted. Earthquake catalogs are complex, high-dimensional objects and as Fig.  1 makes clear, that is even more true for the deeper catalogs that are being developed through machine learning. Their high dimensionality makes them challenging for seismologists to explore, and the conventional approaches noted above seem unlikely to be taking advantage of the wealth of new information available in the new generation of deeper catalogs. We suggest that, having first enabled the development of these catalogs, the statistical-learning techniques of data science are now poised to play an important role in uncovering new relationships within them. The obvious next step is to apply the techniques of machine learning in discovery mode 8 to discern new relationships encoded in the seismicity.

There are tantalizing indications that such an approach may lead to new insights. In double-direct-shear experiments, background signals that were thought to be uninformative random noise have instead been shown to encode information on the state of friction and the eventual time of failure of faults in a laboratory setting 9 . Well-controlled laboratory analogs to faults lack the geologic complexity of the Earth, yet, weak natural background vibrations of a similar sort, that again were thought to be random noise, have been shown to embody information that can be used to predict the onset time of slow slip events in the Cascadia subduction zone 10 . Finally, unsupervised deep learning, in which algorithms are used to discern patterns in data without the benefit of prior labels, applied to seismic waveform data uncovered precursory signals preceding the large and damaging 2017 landslide and tsunami in Greenland 11 .

These examples are compelling but come with the caveat that they are not representative of the typical fast rupture velocity earthquakes on tectonic faults that are of societal concern. For such earthquakes, however, there are also indications from state-of-the-art forecasting approaches that next-generation earthquake catalogs may contain information that will lead to progress. Physics-based forecasting models, which account for changes in the Coulomb failure stress due to antecedent earthquakes that favor the occurrence of subsequent earthquakes, have shown increasing skill such that they are competitive with, and are beginning to outperform, statistical models. Coulomb failure models benefit particularly from deeper catalogs because they include many more small magnitude earthquakes. These small earthquakes add predictive power through their secondary triggering effects tracking the evolution of the fine-scale stress field that ultimately controls earthquake nucleation in foreshock and aftershock sequences. They can also be used to define the emerging active structures that comprise fault networks and by doing so clarify the relevant components of stress that would act to trigger earthquakes 12 . Secondary triggering and background stress heterogeneity were shown to improve stress triggering models 13 but were most effective when they incorporated near‐real‐time aftershock data from the sequence as it unfolded 14 . We note that there is no reason why more complete earthquake catalogs, developed with pre-trained neural network models, cannot be created in real time as an earthquake sequence unfolds. Finally, despite the disappointing history of the search for precursors, due diligence requires that seismologists consider the pursuit of signals that might be precursory.

We conclude that it is now possible to image the activity on active fault systems with unprecedented spatial resolution. This will enable experimentation with familiar hypotheses and enable the formulation of new hypotheses. It seems certain that the underlying processes that drive earthquake occurrence are encoded in this next generation of earthquake catalogs, but we may not find them unless we put new effort into searching for them. Unsupervised learning methods 15 are particularly well-suited tool for that effort.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the NERC-NSFGEO 13 funded project The Central Apennines Earthquake Sequence under a New Microscrope (NE/R0000794/1). G.C.B. was supported by Department of Energy (Basic Energy Sciences; Award DE-SC0020445). Thanks to Dr. Simone Mancini for preparing the figure.

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Beroza, G.C., Segou, M. & Mostafa Mousavi, S. Machine learning and earthquake forecasting—next steps. Nat Commun 12 , 4761 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24952-6

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National Earthquake Resilience: Research, Implementation, and Outreach (2011)

Chapter: 5 conclusions - achieving earthquake resilience.

5 Conclusions— Achieving Earthquake Resilience

The advent of NEHRP in 1977, together with its subsequent reauthorizations, added substantial resources for research in seismology, earthquake engineering, and social sciences with the goal of increasing knowledge for understanding the causes of earthquakes and reducing their impacts. In addition, the program improved coordination among federal government agencies with responsibilities in those areas and promoted integration of research and applications. Moreover, although NEHRP covers only four federal agencies, the program provides a focus for earthquake-related activities of many other federal, state, regional, and local government agencies, and—to some extent—the private sector.

Efforts to understand the causes of earthquakes and to counter their effects certainly did not begin with NEHRP. In the United States, the landmark study of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (Lawson, 1908) furthered the elastic rebound hypothesis, whereby accumulated strain energy is released suddenly by fault slip, and demonstrated the vulnerability of structure built on soft sediments. Advances in other countries, especially Japan, also contributed new knowledge. Most importantly, developments of plate tectonics concepts in the mid-1960s established an overall framework for understanding the occurrence of earthquakes (and volcanoes) worldwide.

Nevertheless, NEHRP stimulated substantial earthquake research in the United States and, most significantly, integrated the efforts of the various earthquake-related disciplines and organizations toward the goal of reducing earthquake losses. The degree of success of these endeavors is reflected in the impressive list of accomplishments summarized in the

introduction to this report. In view of the important stimulus to earthquake mitigation activities provided by NEHRP and its substantial record of achievements, the committee endorses the 2008 NEHRP Strategic Plan and identifies 18 specific task elements required to implement that plan and materially improve national earthquake resilience.

Defining Earthquake Resilience

A critical requirement for achieving national earthquake resilience is, of course, an understanding of what constitutes earthquake resilience. In this report, we have interpreted resilience broadly so that it incorporates engineering/science (physical), social/economic (behavioral), and institutional (governing) dimensions. Resilience is also interpreted to encompass both pre- and post-disaster actions that, in combination, will enhance the robustness and the capabilities of all earthquake-vulnerable regions of our nation to function well following likely, significant earthquakes. The committee is also cognizant that it is cost-prohibitive to achieve a completely seismically resistant nation. Instead, we see our mission as helping set performance targets for improving the nation’s seismic resilience over the next 20 years and, in turn, developing a more detailed roadmap and program priorities for NEHRP. With these considerations in mind, the committee recommends that NEHRP adopt the following working definition for “national earthquake resilience”:

A disaster-resilient nation is one in which its communities, through mitigation and pre-disaster preparation, develop the adaptive capacity to maintain important community functions and recover quickly when major disasters occur.

No standard metric exists for measuring disaster resilience, and it is clear that standardized methods would be helpful for gauging improvements in resilience as a result of disaster risk reduction planning and mitigation. However, because the concept of resilience is specific to the context of the specific community and its goals, it can be expected that no single measure will be able to capture it sufficiently. No one resilience indicator can suit all purposes, and different measurement approaches may be appropriate in different contexts for assessing current levels of disaster resilience and incremental progress in developing resilience.

Elements and Costs of a Resilience Roadmap

To provide a sound basis for future activities, the NEHRP agencies—under the leadership of the National Institute of Standards and

Technology (NIST) as lead agency—developed a Strategic Plan ( Appendix A ). The plan, with three major goals and 14 objectives, constitutes a comprehensive, integrated approach to reducing earthquake losses. The committee endorses the elements of the strategic plan—the goals and objectives—and embraces the integrated, comprehensive, and collaborative approach among the NEHRP agencies reflected in the plan. The committee set out to build on the Strategic Plan by specifying focused activities that would further implementation of the plan. In the end, 18 tasks were selected, ranging from basic research to community-oriented applications, which, in our view, comprise a “roadmap” for furthering NEHRP goals and implementing the Strategic Plan. The committee recommends that these tasks be undertaken.

In estimating costs to implement the roadmap, the committee recognizes that there is a high degree of variability among the 18 tasks—some (e.g., deployment of the Advanced National Seismic System Network [ANSS], the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation [NEES] earthquake engineering simulation laboratories) are under way or are in the process of being implemented, whereas others are only at the conceptual stage. Costing each task required a thorough analysis to determine scope, implementation steps, and linkages or overlaps with other tasks. For some of the tasks, the necessary analysis had already been completed in workshops or other venues, and realistic cost estimates were available as input to the committee. For other tasks, the committee had nothing more to go on than its own expert opinion, in which case implementing the task may require some degree of additional detailed analysis. In summary, the annualized cost for the first 5 years of the roadmap for national earthquake resilience is $306.5 million/year (2009$), made up of the following tasks:

1. Physics of Earthquake Processes. Conduct additional research to advance the understanding of earthquake phenomena and generation processes and to improve the predictive capabilities of earthquake science; 5-year annualized cost of $27 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $585 million.

2. Advanced National Seismic System. Complete deployment of the remaining 75 percent of the Advanced National Seismic System; 5-year annualized cost of $66.8 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $1.3 billion. On-going operations and maintenance costs after the initial 20-year period of $50 million/year.

3. Earthquake Early Warning. Evaluation, testing, and deployment of earthquake early warning systems; 5-year annualized cost of $20.6 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $283 million.

4. National Seismic Hazard Model. Complete the national coverage

of seismic hazard maps and create urban seismic hazard maps and seismic risk maps for at-risk communities; 5-year annualized cost of $50.1 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $946.5 million.

5. Operational Earthquake Forecasting. Develop and implement operational earthquake forecasting, in coordination with state and local agencies; 5-year annualized cost of $5 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $85 million. On-going operations and maintenance costs after the initial 20-year period are unknown.

6. Earthquake Scenarios. Develop scenarios that integrate earth science, engineering, and social science information and conduct exercises so that communities can visualize earthquake and tsunami impacts and mitigate their potential effects; 5-year annualized cost of $10 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $200 million.

7. Earthquake Risk Assessments and Applications. Integrate science, engineering, and social science information in an advanced GIS-based loss estimation platform to improve earthquake risk assessments and loss estimations; 5-year annualized cost of $5 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $100 million.

8. Post-earthquake Social Science Response and Recovery Research. Document and model the mix of expected and improvised emergency response and recovery activities and outcomes to improve pre-disaster mitigation and preparedness practices at household, organizational, community, and regional levels; 5-year annualized cost of $2.3 million/year, reviewed after the initial 5-years.

9. Post-earthquake Information Management. Capture, distill, and disseminate information about the geological, structural, institutional, and socioeconomic impacts of specific earthquakes, as well as post-disaster response, and create and maintain a repository for post-earthquake reconnaissance data; 5-year annualized cost of $1 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $14.6 million. On-going operations and maintenance costs after the initial 20-year period are unknown, but are likely to be small.

10. Socioeconomic Research on Hazard Mitigation and Recovery. Support basic and applied research in the social sciences to examine individual and organizational motivations to promote resilience, the feasibility and cost of resilience actions, and the removal of barriers to successful implementation; 5-year annualized cost of $3 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $60 million.

11. Observatory Network on Community Resilience and Vulnerability. Establish an observatory network to measure, monitor, and model the disaster vulnerability and resilience of communities, with a focus on resilience and vulnerability; risk assessment, perception, and management strategies; mitigation activities; and reconstruction and recovery; 5-year

annualized cost of $2.9 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $57.3 million. On-going operations and maintenance costs after the initial 20-year period are unknown.

12. Physics-based Simulations of Earthquake Damage and Loss. Integrate knowledge gained in Tasks 1, 13, 14, and 16 to enable robust, fully coupled simulations of fault rupture, seismic wave propagation through bedrock, and soil-structure response, to compute reliable estimates of financial loss, business interruption, and casualties; 5-year annualized cost of $6 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $120 million.

13. Techniques for Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings. Develop analytical methods that predict the response of existing buildings with known levels of reliability based on integrated laboratory research and numerical simulations, and improve consensus standards for seismic evaluation and rehabilitation; 5-year annualized cost of $22.9 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $543.6 million.

14. Performance-based Earthquake Engineering for Buildings. Advance performance-based earthquake engineering knowledge and develop implementation tools to improve design practice, inform decision-makers, and revise codes and standards for buildings, lifelines, and geo-structures; 5-year annualized cost of $46.7 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $891.5 million.

15. Guidelines for Earthquake-Resilient Lifeline Systems. Conduct lifelines-focused collaborative research to better characterize infrastructure network vulnerability and resilience as the basis for the systematic review and updating of existing lifelines standards and guidelines, with targeted pilot programs and demonstration projects; 5-year annualized cost of $5 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $100 million.

16. Next Generation Sustainable Materials, Components, and Systems. Develop and deploy new high-performance materials, components, and framing systems that are green and/or adaptive; the 5-year annualized cost of $8.2 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $334.4 million.

17. Knowledge, Tools, and Technology Transfer to/from the Private Sector. Initiate a program to encourage and coordinate technology transfer across the NEHRP domain to ensure the deployment of state-of-the-art mitigation techniques across the nation, particularly in regions of moderate seismic hazard; 5-year annualized cost of $8.4 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $168 million.

18. Earthquake-Resilient Community and Regional Demonstration Projects. Support and guide community-based earthquake resiliency pilot projects to apply NEHRP-generated and other knowledge to improve awareness, reduce risk, and improve emergency preparedness and recovery capacity; 5-year annualized cost of $15.6 million/year, for a total 20-year cost of $1 billion.

Timing of Roadmap Components

The committee recommends that all the tasks identified here be initiated immediately, contingent on the availability of funds, and suggests that such an approach would represent an appropriate balance between practical activities to enhance national earthquake resilience and the research that is needed to provide a sound basis for such activities. The committee also notes that the two “observatory” elements of the roadmap, Task 2 and Task 11, will provide fundamental information to be used by numerous other tasks.

However, at a lower component level within individual tasks, there are some elements that should be implemented and/or initiated immediately whereas others will have to await the results of earlier activities. The need for sequencing individual task components is most clearly expressed in the detailed breakdowns for Tasks 13, 14, and 16, as described in Tables E.5 , E.7 , and E.9 respectively. For example, the component to develop reliable tools for collapse computations within Task 13 includes scoping studies, a workshop, and development of a work-plan in year 3 that would be followed by experimentation using NEES facilities on critical components of framing systems in years 4-7, experimentation using NEES facilities and E-Defense on multiple framing systems to collapse in years 6-10, and concurrent development of improved hysteretic models of structural components through failure in years 4-20, understanding of the triggers for collapse of framing systems in years 6-10, improved system-level collapse computations and FE codes in years 6-15, validation of improved computational procedures using NEES facilities and E-Defense in years 11-20, as well as 5-yearly syntheses of results and preparation of technical briefs.

Earthquake Resilience and Agency Coordination

It is important to recognize that the four NEHRP agencies, although comprising a critical core group for building earthquake knowledge, constitutes only part of the national research and application enterprise. For example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) part of NEHRP includes only earthquake engineering and social sciences, viewed by NSF as “directed” research, whereas highly relevant earthquake knowledge also comes from “non-directed” research programs in NSF. In the applications area, virtually every agency that builds or operates facilities contributes to the goals of NEHRP by adopting practices or codes to reduce earthquake impacts. These agencies include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Departments of Transportation, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development. Beyond the role of the federal agencies, government agencies at all levels similarly play a critical role in application of earthquake

knowledge, as does the private sector, especially in the area of building design. Altogether, the contributors to reducing earthquake losses constitute a complex enterprise that goes far beyond the scope of NEHRP. But NEHRP provides an important focus for this far-flung endeavor. The committee considers that an analysis to determine whether coordination among all organizations that contribute to NEHRP could be improved would be useful and timely.

Implementing NEHRP Knowledge

The United States had not experienced a great earthquake since 1964, when Alaska was struck by a magnitude-9.2 event. The damage in Alaska was relatively light because of the sparse population. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was the most recent truly devastating U.S. shock, as recent destructive earthquakes have been only moderate in size. Consequently, a sense has developed that the country can cope effectively with the earthquake threat and is, in fact, “resilient.” However, coping with moderate events may not be a true indicator of preparedness for a great one, as demonstrated by Hurricane Katrina. The central United States last experienced a devastating sequence of great earthquakes in 1811-1812 in the Mississippi Valley area centered on New Madrid, MO. The East Coast was shocked in 1886 by an earthquake near magnitude-7 at Charleston, SC. These events are now far from the consciousness of the public, and little has been done to prepare for similar events in these regions in the future. The committee believes that efforts should be expanded to anticipate the effects and disruptions that could be caused by a great U.S. earthquake, especially an event in the central or eastern United States where little preparation has been undertaken.

Most critical decisions that reduce earthquake vulnerability and manage earthquake risk are made in the private sector by individuals and companies. The information provided by NEHRP, if made available in an understandable format, and accompanied by diffusion processes, can greatly assist citizens in their decision-making. For example, maps of active faults, unstable ground, and historic seismicity can influence where people choose to live, and maps of relative ground shaking can guide building design.

NEHRP will have accomplished its fundamental purpose—an earthquake-resilient nation—when those responsible for earthquake risk and for managing the consequences of earthquake events use the knowledge and services created by NEHRP and other related endeavors to make our communities more earthquake resilient. Resiliency requires awareness of earthquake risk, knowing what to do in response to that risk, and doing it. But providing information is not enough to achieve resilience—the

diffusion of NEHRP knowledge and implementation of that knowledge are necessary corollaries. Successfully diffusing NEHRP knowledge into communities and among the earthquake professionals, state and local government officials, building owners, lifeline operators, and others who have the responsibility for how buildings, systems, and institutions respond to and recover from earthquakes, will require a dedicated and strategic effort. This diffusion role reflects the limited authority that resides with federal agencies in addressing the earthquake threat. Local and state governments have responsibility for public safety and welfare, including powers to regulate land use to avoid hazards, enforce building codes, provide warnings to threatened communities, and respond to an event. The goals and objectives of NEHRP are aimed at supporting and facilitating measures to improve resilience through private owners and businesses, and supporting local and state agencies in carrying out their duties. Although implementing NEHRP knowledge must move ahead expeditiously, it is also essential that the frontiers of knowledge be advanced in concert, requiring that improving understanding of the earthquake threat, reducing risk, and developing the processes to motivate implementation actions, should all be continuing endeavors.

The United States will certainly be subject to damaging earthquakes in the future. Some of these earthquakes will occur in highly populated and vulnerable areas. Coping with moderate earthquakes is not a reliable indicator of preparedness for a major earthquake in a populated area. The recent, disastrous, magnitude-9 earthquake that struck northern Japan demonstrates the threat that earthquakes pose. Moreover, the cascading nature of impacts-the earthquake causing a tsunami, cutting electrical power supplies, and stopping the pumps needed to cool nuclear reactors-demonstrates the potential complexity of an earthquake disaster. Such compound disasters can strike any earthquake-prone populated area. National Earthquake Resilience presents a roadmap for increasing our national resilience to earthquakes.

The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) is the multi-agency program mandated by Congress to undertake activities to reduce the effects of future earthquakes in the United States. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-the lead NEHRP agency-commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to develop a roadmap for earthquake hazard and risk reduction in the United States that would be based on the goals and objectives for achieving national earthquake resilience described in the 2008 NEHRP Strategic Plan. National Earthquake Resilience does this by assessing the activities and costs that would be required for the nation to achieve earthquake resilience in 20 years.

National Earthquake Resilience interprets resilience broadly to incorporate engineering/science (physical), social/economic (behavioral), and institutional (governing) dimensions. Resilience encompasses both pre-disaster preparedness activities and post-disaster response. In combination, these will enhance the robustness of communities in all earthquake-vulnerable regions of our nation so that they can function adequately following damaging earthquakes. While National Earthquake Resilience is written primarily for the NEHRP, it also speaks to a broader audience of policy makers, earth scientists, and emergency managers.

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Earthquake focus and epicenter

Mar 16, 2012

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Earthquake focus and epicenter. What is an earthquake. Earthquakes and faults Movements that produce earthquakes are usually associated with large fractures in Earth’s crust called faults Most of the motion along faults can be explained by the plate tectonics theory.

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Presentation Transcript

What is an earthquake • Earthquakes and faults • Movements that produce earthquakes are usually associated with large fractures in Earth’s crust called faults • Most of the motion along faults can be explained by the plate tectonics theory

Displacement produced by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

Seismology • The study of earthquake waves, seis-mology, dates back almost 2000 years to the Chinese • Seismographs, instruments that record seismic waves • Records the movement of Earth in relation to a stationary mass on a rotating drum or magnetic tape

A seismograph designed to record vertical ground motion

Seismology • Seismographs • More than one type of seismograph is needed to record both vertical and horizontal ground motion • Records obtained are called seismograms • Types of seismic waves • Surface waves • Travel along outer part of Earth

A seismogram records wave amplitude vs. time

Seismology • Types of seismic waves • Surface waves • Complex motion • Cause greatest destruction • Waves exhibit greatest amplitude and slowest velocity • Waves have the greatest periods (time in-terval between crests)

Seismology • Types of seismic waves • Body waves • Travel through Earth’s interior • Two types based on mode of travel • Primary (P) waves • Push-pull (compress and expand) motion, changing the volume of the intervening material • Travel through solids, liquids, and gases

Seismology • Types of seismic waves • Body waves • Primary (P) waves • Generally, in any solid material, P waves travel about 1.7 times faster than S waves • Secondary (S) waves • Shake" motion at right angles to their direction of travel • Travel only through solids

Primary (P) waves

Seismology • Types of seismic waves • Body waves • Secondary (S) waves • Slower velocity than P waves • Slightly greater amplitude than P waves

Secondary (S) waves

Locating the source of earthquakes • Terms • Focus - the place within Earth where earthquake waves originate • Epicenter – location on the surface directly above the focus • Epicenter is located using the difference in velocities of P and S waves

Locating the source of earthquakes • Locating the epicenter of an earthquake • Three station recordings are needed to locate an epicenter • Each station determines the time interval between the arrival of the first P wave and the first S wave at their location • A travel-time graph is used to determine each station’s distance to the epicenter

A time-travel graph is used to find the distance to the epicenter

Locating the source of earthquakes • Locating the epicenter of an earthquake • A circle with a radius equal to the distance to the epicenter is drawn around each station • The point where all three circles intersect is the earthquake epicenter

The epicenter is located using three or more seismograph

Locating the source of earthquakes • Earthquake belts • About 95 percent of the energy released by earthquakes originates in a few rela-tively narrow zones that wind around the globe • Major earthquake zones include the Circum-Pacific belt, Mediterranean Sea region to the Himalayan complex, and the oceanic ridge system

Distribution of magnitude 5 or greater earthquakes, 1980 - 1990

Locating the source of earthquakes • Earthquake depths • Earthquakes originate at depths ranging from 5 to nearly 700 kilometers • Earthquake foci arbitrarily classified asshallow (surface to 70 kilometers), intermediate (between 70 and 300 kilometers), and deep (over 300 kilometers)

Locating the source of earthquakes • Earthquake depths • Definite patterns exist • Shallow focus occur along the oceanic ridge system • Almost all deep-focus earthquakes occur in the circum-Pacific belt, particularly in regions situated landward of deep-ocean trenches

Relationship of earthquake depth to subduction zones

Measuring the size of earthquakes • Two measurements that describe the size of an earthquake are • Intensity – a measure of the degree of earthquake shaking at a given locale based on the amount of damage • Magnitude – estimates the amount of energy released at the source of the earthquake

Measuring the size of earthquakes • Intensity scales • Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale was developed using California buildings as its standard • The drawback of intensity scales is that destruction may not be a true measure of the earthquakes actual severity

Measuring the size of earthquakes • Magnitude scales • Richter magnitude - concept introduced by Charles Richter in 1935 • Richter scale • Based on the amplitude of the largest seismic wave recorded • Accounts for the decrease in wave amplitude with increased distance

Measuring the size of earthquakes • Magnitude scales • Richter scale • Largest magnitude recorded on a Wood-Anderson seismograph was 8.9 • Magnitudes less than 2.0 are not felt by humans • Each unit of Richter magnitude increase corresponds to a tenfold increase in wave amplitude and a 32-fold energy increase

Measuring the size of earthquakes • Magnitudes scales • Other magnitude scales • Several “Richter-like” magnitude scales have been developed • Moment magnitude was developed because none of the “Richter-like” magnitude scales adequately estimates the size of very large earthquakes • Derived from the amount of displacement that occurs along a fault

Earthquake destruction • Amount of structural damage attribu-table to earthquake vibrations depends on • Intensity and duration of the vibrations • Nature of the material upon which the structure rests • Design of the structure

Earthquake destruction • Destruction from seismic vibrations • Ground shaking • Regions within 20 to 50 kilometers of the epicenter will experience about the same intensity of ground shaking • However, destruction varies considerably mainly due to the nature of the ground on which the structures are built

Damage caused by the 1964 Anchorage, Alaska earthquake

Earthquake destruction • Destruction from seismic vibrations • Liquefactionof the ground • Unconsolidated materials saturated with water turn into a mobile fluid • Seiches • The rhythmic sloshing of water in lakes, reservoirs, and enclosed basins • Waves can weaken reservoir walls and cause destruction

Earthquake destruction • Tsunamis, or seismic sea waves • Destructive waves that are often inappropriately called “tidal waves” • Result from vertical displacement along a fault located on the ocean floor or a large undersea landslide triggered by an earth-quake

Earthquake destruction • Tsunamis, or seismic sea waves • In the open ocean height is usually less than 1 meter • In shallower coastal waters the water piles up to heights that occasionally exceed 30 meters • Can be very destructive • Landslides and ground subsidence

Formation of a tsunami

The composition and mechanical layers of Earth

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The surface of the Earth is made up of tectonic plates that lie beneath both the land and oceans of our planet. The movements of these plates can build mountains or cause volcanoes to erupt. The clash of these plates can also cause violent earthquakes, where Earth’s surface shakes. Earthquakes are more common in some parts of the world than others, because some places, like California, sit on top of the meeting point, or fault, of two plates. When those plates scrape against each other and cause an earthquake, the results can be deadly and devastating.

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Earthquake Essay for Students and Children

500+ Words Essay on Earthquake

Simply speaking, Earthquake means the shaking of the Earth’s surface. It is a sudden trembling of the surface of the Earth. Earthquakes certainly are a terrible natural disaster. Furthermore, Earthquakes can cause huge damage to life and property. Some Earthquakes are weak in nature and probably go unnoticed. In contrast, some Earthquakes are major and violent. The major Earthquakes are almost always devastating in nature. Most noteworthy, the occurrence of an Earthquake is quite unpredictable. This is what makes them so dangerous.

Types of Earthquake

Tectonic Earthquake: The Earth’s crust comprises of the slab of rocks of uneven shapes. These slab of rocks are tectonic plates. Furthermore, there is energy stored here. This energy causes tectonic plates to push away from each other or towards each other. As time passes, the energy and movement build up pressure between two plates.

Therefore, this enormous pressure causes the fault line to form. Also, the center point of this disturbance is the focus of the Earthquake. Consequently, waves of energy travel from focus to the surface. This results in shaking of the surface.

Volcanic Earthquake: This Earthquake is related to volcanic activity. Above all, the magnitude of such Earthquakes is weak. These Earthquakes are of two types. The first type is Volcano-tectonic earthquake. Here tremors occur due to injection or withdrawal of Magma. In contrast, the second type is Long-period earthquake. Here Earthquake occurs due to the pressure changes among the Earth’s layers.

Collapse Earthquake: These Earthquakes occur in the caverns and mines. Furthermore, these Earthquakes are of weak magnitude. Undergrounds blasts are probably the cause of collapsing of mines. Above all, this collapsing of mines causes seismic waves. Consequently, these seismic waves cause an Earthquake.

Explosive Earthquake: These Earthquakes almost always occur due to the testing of nuclear weapons. When a nuclear weapon detonates, a big blast occurs. This results in the release of a huge amount of energy. This probably results in Earthquakes.

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Effects of Earthquakes

First of all, the shaking of the ground is the most notable effect of the Earthquake. Furthermore, ground rupture also occurs along with shaking. This results in severe damage to infrastructure facilities. The severity of the Earthquake depends upon the magnitude and distance from the epicenter. Also, the local geographical conditions play a role in determining the severity. Ground rupture refers to the visible breaking of the Earth’s surface.

Another significant effect of Earthquake is landslides. Landslides occur due to slope instability. This slope instability happens because of Earthquake.

Earthquakes can cause soil liquefaction. This happens when water-saturated granular material loses its strength. Therefore, it transforms from solid to a liquid. Consequently, rigid structures sink into the liquefied deposits.

Earthquakes can result in fires. This happens because Earthquake damages the electric power and gas lines. Above all, it becomes extremely difficult to stop a fire once it begins.

Earthquakes can also create the infamous Tsunamis. Tsunamis are long-wavelength sea waves. These sea waves are caused by the sudden or abrupt movement of large volumes of water. This is because of an Earthquake in the ocean. Above all, Tsunamis can travel at a speed of 600-800 kilometers per hour. These tsunamis can cause massive destruction when they hit the sea coast.

In conclusion, an Earthquake is a great and terrifying phenomenon of Earth. It shows the frailty of humans against nature. It is a tremendous occurrence that certainly shocks everyone. Above all, Earthquake lasts only for a few seconds but can cause unimaginable damage.

FAQs on Earthquake

Q1 Why does an explosive Earthquake occurs?

A1 An explosive Earthquake occurs due to the testing of nuclear weapons.

Q2 Why do landslides occur because of Earthquake?

A2 Landslides happen due to slope instability. Most noteworthy, this slope instability is caused by an Earthquake.

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What Should I Do Before, During, and After an Earthquake?

What to do before an earthquake.

• Make sure you have a fire extinguisher, first aid kit, a battery-powered radio, a flashlight, and extra batteries at home.
• Learn first aid.
• Learn how to turn off the gas, water, and electricity.
• Make up a plan of where to meet your family after an earthquake.
• Don't leave heavy objects on shelves (they'll fall during a quake).
• Anchor heavy furniture, cupboards, and appliances to the walls or floor.
• Learn the earthquake plan at your school or workplace.

What to Do During an Earthquake

• Stay calm! If you're indoors, stay inside. If you're outside, stay outside.
• If you're indoors, stand against a wall near the center of the building, stand in a doorway, or crawl under heavy furniture (a desk or table). Stay away from windows and outside doors.
• If you're outdoors, stay in the open away from power lines or anything that might fall. Stay away from buildings (stuff might fall off the building or the building could fall on you).
• Don't use matches, candles, or any flame. Broken gas lines and fire don't mix.
• If you're in a car, stop the car and stay inside the car until the earthquake stops.
• Don't use elevators (they may shut down).

What to Do After an Earthquake

• Check yourself and others for injuries. Provide first aid for anyone who needs it.
• Check water, gas, and electric lines for damage. If any are damaged, shut off the valves. Check for the smell of gas. If you smell it, open all the windows and doors, leave immediately, and report it to the authorities (use someone else's phone).
• Turn on the radio. Don't use the phone unless it's an emergency.
• Stay out of damaged buildings.
• Be careful around broken glass and debris. Wear boots or sturdy shoes to keep from cutting your feet.
• Be careful of chimneys (they may fall on you).
• Stay away from beaches. Tsunamis and seiches sometimes hit after the ground has stopped shaking.
• Stay away from damaged areas.
• If you're at school or work, follow the emergency plan or the instructions of the person in charge. Expect aftershocks.