GEOL 2207 Lecture Notes - Elastic-Rebound Theory, Epicenter, Oceanic Crust
Document Summary
Describe the global distribution of earthquakes and how often quakes of various magnitudes occur: around plate boundaries. Understand the different types of faulting at different plate boundaries, and which plate boundaries produce the largest quakes: divergent, convergent, transform. Recognize an association between seismic/volcanic events and plate margins. Recognize visual evidence of tectonic forces in rocks and landscapes (e. g. fault types, topography) Strike-slip faults: caused by shear stress, lateral movement. Describe how the earth builds, stores, and releases energy in earthquakes (elastic rebound: elastic rebound theory: elastic strain drops after an earthquake and then slowly accumulates again until the next one. Describe how the rupture propagates from the focus and why shaking and damage are not necessarily greatest at the epicenter: seismic waves radiate from the focus of an earthquake. Explain the global distribution of earthquakes (i. e. rare, large and frequent small quakes) in terms of tectonic plate interactions and the forces that drive them.
