Introduction to Earthquakes

Instructor
Robert B. Herrmann
Otto W. Nuttli Professor of Geophysics
rbh@eas.slu.edu (email)
www.eas.slu.edu/People/RBHerrmann(web)
203 O'Neil Hall (office) 3642 Lindell Boulevard
(314) 977-3120 (voice)
(314) 977-3117 (fax)

Teaching Assistant

Sebastiano D'Amico (email)

Meeting Times
Lectures: MWF 10:00-10:50, Ritter Hall 119
Office Hours (RBHerrmann): MWF 09-10, or by appointment


Textbook
Earthquakes, 5th edition, by Bruce Bolt

Syllabus

Class Web Page for Fall 2008 (this page)
www.eas.slu.edu/People/RBHerrmann/Courses/EASA193S09/

Student Educational Services

Academic honesty and disability considerations 
Arts and Sciences Policy

Topics

1. Intro to earthquakes

2. Earth history

3. Plate tectonics

4. Faults and faulting

5. Earthquakes revisited

6. Seismic waves, seismograms, seismometers

7. Earth structure in detail

8. Societal questions

Grading

• Assignments and Quizes equally weighted

• A : 90-100
  B+: 85-89
  B :75-84
  C+: 65-74
  C : 50-64
  D :40-49
  F : 0-39

• Grade Distribution at Midterm

• Raw Grades at Midterm

Etiquette

• Feel free to ask questions during lectures

• Do not socialize or otherwise disrupt the class

• No cell phones/PDA's or wireless

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Recent Earthquakes - USGS

Notable 2005 Earthquakes

• 2005 10 08 - Pakistan - M 7.6 Fatalities 86,000

  • Wikipedia Entry

Notable 2006 Earthquakes

• USGS Significant 2006 Earthquakes

• 2006/03/31 Iran

Notable 2007 Earthquakes

• 2007 08 15 - Near the Coast of Central Peru - M 8.0 Fatalities 519

  • Wikipedia Entry

• 2007 07 16 - Near the west coast of Honshu, Japan - M 6.6 Fatalities 9

  • Wikipedia Entry

Notable 2008 Earthquakes

• Mw=5.7 Sichuan-Yunnan earthquake August 30, 2008 - casualties

Notable 2009 Earthquakes

• Earthquakes 2009

Date

Topic

External Links Colors: White=actual, aqua=tentative

Readings

Assignments

01/12/09

Introduction

01/14/09

Units

01/16/09

Class Exercise

Measurements and error - writeup required Wednesday January 21

HW1
Due Wed January 21

01/19/09

No Class

Martin Luther King Birthday

01/21/09

Class Exercise

Measurements and Error

01/21/09

Physical Units

SI Units

01/23/09

Class Exercise

01/26/09

Numbers

SI Units

01/28/09

Snow - no morning class

01/30/09

Density

Seismogram Example and questions

02/02/09

Intensity

Bolt Chapter 8, Appendix C

HW2
Due Monday, Feb 9

02/04/09

Intensity map - in class exercise

HW3
Due Feb 13

02/06/09

Earthquake Center Tour

02/09/09

Tsunami Movie and assignment HW4

02/11/09

Tangshan Earthuake and assignment

HW4
Due Feb 20

02/13/09

QUIZ 1

Units
Bolt Chapter 1
Bolt Chapter 8 - Intensity of Shaking (first section)
Appendix C

QUIZ

02/16/2009

Seismograph

Sensor, Transducer, amplifier, recorder, clock

Bolt Chapter 5

02/18/2009

Seismic Waves

P and S waves

02/20/2009

Seismograms

Reading P and S times - in class exercise

02/23/2009

Some equations

02/25/2009

P, S waves through the Earth P, PP, PPP, PKP, SKS etc

02/27/2009

03/02/2009

03/04/2009

Lectures since 02/06
Bolt Chapters 5, 6, 8

QUIZ

03/06/2009

Earthquake source mechanism

3/9 - 3/13

SPRING BREAK

3/16

Earthquake Size

Bolt Chapter 8

3/18

Earthquake Size

Ms mb and Mw - effect of the instrument filter, largest magnitude

3/20

Largest magnitude

Earthquake locations - power point

Plate Tectonics Overview
HTML

3/23

Scientific Method

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

Kids Research Rack

History of scientific method - wikipedia

• 1 Early methodology

• 2 Aristotelian science and empiricism

• 3 Emergence of inductive experimental method

  • 3.1 Ibn al-Haytham

  • 3.2 Al-Biruni

  • 3.3 Avicenna

  • 3.4 Robert Grosseteste

  • 3.5 Roger Bacon

• 4 Early modern methodologists

  • 4.1 Galileo Galilei

  • 4.2 Francis Bacon's eliminative induction

  • 4.3 Descartes' Aristotelian ambitions

  • 4.4 Newton's rules of reasoning

• 5 Integrating deductive and inductive method

  • 5.1 Popper and Kuhn

• 6 Mention of the topic

• 7 Current issues

• 8 Science and pseudoscience

• 9 See also

• 10 Notes and references

Timeline of the history of the scientific method - wikipedia

Writing Scientific papers

How to write a scientific paper

How to write a paper in Scientific Journal Style and Format

03/25

Plate Tectonics

Powerpoint
Link to Visualizations

Continents
Oceans
HTML

03/27

Plate Tectonics

In class exercise on magnetism

Earth's Magnetic Field
Vine Matthews
Apparent Polar Wandering


What is polar wandering?
What was the contribution of Vine-Matthews?

Plate Motions
HTML

03/30

Plate Tectonics

mid-ocean Ridges (Question are there any ridges on land?)

Mid-Ocean ridges
HTML

04/01

Plate Tectonics

mid-ocean ridges - Tuzo Wilson's puzzle (in class exercise)

Tuzo's Puzzle
Plate Tectonic Animation
UCSB Animations
WebDoGS Plate Tectonic Reconstruction
Plate Tectonics - Wikipedia
Plate Tectonic Reconstructions at UTIG
YouTube Video

HW5 Due April 6

04/03

Plate Tectonics

Transform faults

04/06

Plate Tectonics

Transform faults

04/08

04/10

NO CLASS

04/13

NO CLASS

04/15

Quiz - Material since 3/16
Bolt Chapters 7, 9, 11, 12 Powerpoints 7-18 Scientific Method

QUIZ 3

04/17

Earthquake Hazard

neic_slu.ppt (Dr. Benz's Powerpoint presentation)
neic_slu.pdf (Dr. Benz's presentation as a PDF)

04/20

Introduction to final assignment

04/22

04/24

Outline due for Final Assignment

04/27

04/29

05/01

Final Assignment due

05/04

Last class - Evaluation

FINAL ASSIGNMENT

Final Assignment:

The focus this year will be on earthquake damage
Prepare a 20 minute PowerPoint presentation (about 20 slides) by following up on one of the following questions, which emphasize the effect of a damaging earthquake on infrastructure.

Consider the May, 2008 Sichuan, Cinha earthquake or the April 6, 2009 L'Aquila, Italy earthquake

• What is the effect on schools?

• What is the effect of the earthquake on medical care?

• How must aid be managed?

You must submit a one page outline of your topic and possible slide organization to Dr. Herrmann by Friday April 24, 2009. This is a gradable part of the assignment.

Snd Email to Dr. Herrmann at   rbh@eas.slu.edu to have questions answered.

The power point must be submitted in a Powerpoint 97/2000, not a Powerpoint 2007 format

The presentation must be organized as follows:

1. Title slide
2. Summary slide indicating the topics/issues
3. The presentation
4. Conclusion slide reviewing the issues and presenting a summary or recommendations

All slides must be annotated in the notes section.  This is the place that you can provide supporting text and, more importantly, citations for slides and ideas that you used. This requirement serves several purposes.

1. It helps define the issues presented,
2. It makes it possible for another individual to give your presentation,
3. If forms the basis for a written policy paper that further develops your ideas

The grading will be based on following these requirements for the presentation.

If you do not have PowerPoint on your computer, you can download for free  (www.openoffice.org)  - when you start it up you wish to create a 'new presentation'

4. Earthquake Size ()

PPT (15Mb)

PDF (15Mb)

HTML

Bolt Chapter

See Above

. Seismic waves ()

PPT (15Mb)

PDF (15Mb)

HTML

6. Seismic waves and Earth structure ()

PPT (15Mb)

PDF (15Mb)

HTML

7. Faults and faulting ()

HTML

Bolt Chapters 3, 4, 7, 11 recent earthquakes

8. Source Mechanisms ()

HTML

9. Elastic Rebound ()

HTML

10. Plate Tectonics Overview

HTML

11. Continents versus Oceans

HTML

12. Plate motions

HTML

13. Ridges

HTML

14. Transform Faults

HTML

15. Subduction Zones

HTML

16. Exceptions to Plate Tectonics

HTML

17. Earth History

HTML

18. Earth Dynamics

HTML

Useful Links!

• SLU Earthquake Center

• NEIC's List of Recent Earthquakes

• Seismosurfing the Internet

• Understanding Earthquakes

• Bird's New Plate Tectonics Model

• Tanya Atwater's Site, Lots of Cool Animations

• Javascript program to calculate great circle distance using latitude and longitude points on the earth

Help Sheets and Study Guides

• Help with units