Introduction to Earthquakes

EASA-193, Saint Louis University, Fall 2007

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Date	Topic	External Links Colors: White=actual, aqua=tentative	Readings
08/27	Hazard – Tangshan Earthquake movie
08/29	Seismograms - timing
08/31	Seismographs
09/05	Intensity
09/07	Intensity Maps	Do assignment 1
09/10	Physical Units	Meter and second - history
09/12	International Units	SI Units
09/14	P-S waves - slinkies
09/17	Seismic Velocities	Do Assignment 2, Also short quiz Sept 26
09/19	Wave propagation – Snell's Law	If your PC supports Java, you may be interested in some of the following applets that illustrate Snell's Law: Snell's law - note velocity = c/n where c is speed of light http://lectureonline.cl.msu.edu/~mmp/kap25/Snell/app.htm Snell's Law Elastic Waves Various applets from Germany Anthony Lomax applets Sismo des Ecoles - French school site Ray tracing in the crust
09/21	Wave propagation – waves in the earth	Seismic Rays in the earth
09/24	Quiz 1 – Bolt Chapters 1, 2, 8 (Intensity of Shaking only), Assignment 1, Report writing
09/26	Quiz 1 T/F Multiple Choice, some essay	Lectures through 09/17 Bolt Chapter 1 Bolt pp 159-163 (Intensity) Bolt Appendix C Lecture 2 link at bottom of this page
09/28	Wave propagation - phase names
10/01	more phase names Density in the Earth	Density of the earth Jeff Barkers fun with units (pretzels and bags of beer) Density of Earth's layers Internal Structure of Earth Density of some rocks Interior of Earth Bolt Capter 5
10/03	More phase names	IASPEI Seismic Phase Names
10/05	Logarithms and numbers, Richter local magnitude	Logarithms
10/08	Tsunami movie	NOTE THERE IS AN ASSIGNMENT BASED ON THIS Assignment 5 (below) due October 17
10/10	Volcanoes Sebastiano D'Amico	Bolt Chapter 8 Assignment 3 due
10/12	mb, MS, moment magnitude	Earthquake Magnitude Magnitude Assignment 4 due
10/15	focal mechanisms, beach balls and Hawaii	Fault planes Faults and focal mechanisms
10/17	Earthquake patterns and focal mechanisms
10/19		Assignments will be returned at the beginning of class
10/22		Fall break
10/24	Quiz 2 - Bolt Chapter 5,8 Lectures 9/19 - 10/10 Online lectures 4,5,6
10/26	Earthquake patterns and focal mechanisms	Lectures 7 and 8 below
10/29	Focal mechanism Elastic Rebound	Lecture 9 below
10/31	Plate Tectonics Overview	Lecture 10 below Link to Visualizations
11/03	Diversion Scientific Method Magnetism	Scientific Method: Scientific Method -University of Rochester The scientific method has four steps 1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena. 2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation. 3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations. 4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments. Wikipedia 1. Use your experience - consider the problem and try to make sense of it. Look for previous explanations; if this is a new problem to you, then do 2. Conjecture an explanation - when nothing else is yet known, try to state your explanation, to someone else, or to your notebook. 3. Deduce a prediction from that explanation- if 2 were true, then state a consequence of that explanation. 4. Test - look for the opposite of that consequence in order to disprove 2. It is a logical error to seek 3 directly as proof of 2. This error is called affirming the consequent. This model underlies the scientific revolution. One thousand years ago, Alhacen demonstrated the importance of steps 1 and 4. Galileo (1638) also showed the importance of step 4 (also called Experiment) in Two New Sciences. One possible sequence in this model would be 1, 2, 3, 4. If the outcome of 4 holds, and 3 is not yet disproven, you may continue with 3, 4, 1, and so forth; but if the outcome of 4 shows 3 to be false, you will have go back to 2 and try to invent a new 2, deduce a new 3, look for 4, and so forth. Note that 2 can never be shown to be absolutely true by scientific method[7]; only that 2 can be shown to be absolutely false by scientific method. (This is what Einstein meant when he said "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.") Science Buddies Magnetism: Evidence for Plate Tectonics
11/05	Magnetism	Earth's Magnetic Field
11/07	Polar Wander/Vine Matthews	Vine Matthews Apparent Polar Wandering
11/09	Mid-ocean ridges,Online Lecture 7, 8	Tuzo's Puzzle Plate Tectonic Animation UCSB Animations WebDoGS Plate Tectonic Reconstruction Plate Tectonics - Wikipedia Plate Tectonic Reconstructions at UTIG YouTube Video
11/12	Online Lecture 8,9
11/14	Online Lecture  13-15
11/16	Online Lecture 16 - 18
11/19	Online Lecture 16-18
11/21	Travel
11/23	Thanksgiving
11/26	Online lecture 13
11/28	Guest Lecturer Dr. Harley Benz	Director, National Earthquake Information Center, USGS, Golden, Colorado neic_slu.ppt (Dr. Benz's Powerpoint presentation) neic_slu.pdf (Dr. Benz's presentation as a PDF)
11/30	Quiz 3 Bolt Chapters: 7, 9, 10, 11, 12	The scientific method, and a question on Dr. Benz's presentation will also be included
12/03
12/05
12/07
12/10		LAST CLASS
12/10-12/16		Final Assignment Due
12/20		Final Grades Due

Comments or questions?? Send email to rbh@eas.slu.edu
Latest revision: September 18, 2007