GEOS 170A1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Seismic Wave, Epicenter, Outer Core

• School: University of Arizona
• Department: Geosciences
• Course: GEOS 170A1
• Professor: Martin Pepper

Document Summary

Recap - magnitude & intensity: each # = 10x increase in ground motion, each # = 32x increase in energy released, size / distance / population / building materials / ground material (liquefaction) How does ground material affect intensity: seismic wave amplitude increases when wave moves into soft (sediment), so more damage, that is why it"s better to build your house on a solid (rock) foundation! Locate the epicenter of an earthquake: s - p interval time, use at least three seismic stations, intersection of circles = epicenter. What do eq"s tell us about earth within: no s waves in liquid is how we know outer core liquid, faster = travel through denser rocks, slower = travel through less dense rocks. Eq and damage: many things contribute to damage, size of eq / distance / population / building materials / ground material / liquefaction, landslides, flooding (broken water mains, fire, tsunamis!