Structure of the Earth:

Mantle
The Earth is made Outer core
up of 3 main layers: Inner core
-Core
-Mantle
-Crust Crust

•The interior of the Earth is divided into layers based on

chemical and physical properties.
•The Earth has an outer silica-rich, solid crust, a highly viscous
mantle, and a core comprising a liquid outer core that is much
less viscous than the mantle, and a solid inner core.
 Earthquakes & Seismology
• An earthquake may be defined
as a wave-like motion generated
by forces in constant turmoil
under the surface layer of the
earth (the lithosphere),
travelling through the earth’s
crust.
• It may also be defined as the
vibration, sometimes violent, of
the earth’s surface as a result of
a release of energy in the earth’s
crust.
• This release of energy can be caused by sudden
dislocations of segments of the crust, volcanic
eruptions, or even explosions created by humans.
• Dislocations of crust segments, however, lead to the
most destructive earthquakes.
• In the process of dislocation, vibrations called
seismic waves are generated.
• These waves travel outwards from the source of the
earthquake at varying speeds, causing the earth to
ring like a bell or tuning fork.
• During an earthquake, enormous amount of energy
releases.
• The size and severity of an earthquake is estimated
by two important parameters—intensity and
magnitude.
 The magnitude is a measure of the amount of
energy released, while the intensity is the apparent
effect experienced at a specific location.
Plate Tectonics
• The Earth is made up of 3 main layers (core, mantle,
crust)
• On the surface of the Earth are tectonic plates that
slowly move around the globe
• Plates are made of crust and upper mantle
(lithosphere)
• There are 2 types of plate
• There are 3 types of plate boundaries
• Volcanoes and Earthquakes are closely linked to the
margins of the tectonic plates
Plate Tectonics:
• The Earth’s crust is divided into 12 major plates
which are moved in various directions.
• This plate motion causes them to collide, pull apart,
or scrape against each other.
• Each type of interaction causes a characteristic set
of Earth structures or “tectonic” features.
• The word, tectonic, refers to the deformation of the
crust as a consequence of plate interaction.
World Plates
 What are tectonic plates made of?
• Plates are made of rigid lithosphere.
The lithosphere is
made up of the
crust and the upper
part of the mantle.
 Plate Movement
• “Plates” of lithosphere are moved around by the
underlying hot mantle convection cells
Causes of Earthquakes
• Earthquakes are vibrations or
oscillations of the ground
surface caused by a transient
disturbance of the elastic or
gravitational equilibrium of
the rocks at or beneath the
surface of the earth.
• The disturbance and the
consequent movements give
rise to elastic impulses or
waves.
• The earth’s crust ruptures due to the formation of a
fault and the bent rock snaps back to regain its
original shape, releasing the stored energy in the
form of rebounding and violent vibrations (elastic
waves).
• These vibrations shake the ground; the maximum
shaking effect is felt along the fault.
• Most earthquakes occur along the boundaries of
the tectonic plates and are called interplate
earthquakes (Great Assam earthquake, 1950).
• The others occurring within the plates themselves,
away from the plate boundaries (Latur earthquake,
1993), are called intraplate earthquakes.
• In both types, slips are generated during the
earthquake at the fault along both horizontal and
vertical directions, known as dip slip [Fig. 1.4(a)],
and the lateral direction, known as strike slip [Fig.
1.4(b)].
Fault Types
Fault surfaces are surfaces along which rocks move under,
over, or past each other. Rocks may get “stuck” along the
fault surface, causing a build-up of strain energy, and resulting
in an earthquake, when the rocks break free of each other.
There are 3 types of stress that can affect rocks, resulting in 3
different types of faults:

1. Tension pulls rocks

apart resulting in
normal faults
2. Compression
squeezes rock
together resulting in
reverse faults

3. Shear stress
causes rocks to
slide past each
other resulting
in strike-slip
faults
• Natural earthquakes are classified as tectonic
(relative movement of plates), plutonic (deep-
seated changes), or volcanic, on the basis of the
source of the stresses that cause the movement.
Nature and Occurrence of Earthquakes:
• When there is a sudden localized disturbance in
rocks, waves similar to those caused by a stone
thrown into a pool spread out through the earth.
An earthquake generates a similar disturbance.
• The maximum effect of an earthquake is felt near its
source, diminishing with distance from the source
(earthquakes shake the ground even hundreds of
kilometres away).
• The vibrations felt in the bedrock are called shocks.
Some earthquakes are preceded by smaller
foreshocks and larger earthquakes are always
followed by aftershocks.
• The point of generation of an earthquake is known as the
focus, centre, or hypocentre.
• The point on the earth’s surface directly above the focus is
known as epicentre.
• The depth of the focus from the epicentre is known as the
focal depth.
• The distance from the epicentre to any point of interest is
known as the focal distance or epicentral distance (Fig. 1.7).
• Seismic destruction propagates from the focus through a
limited region of the surrounding earth’s body, which is
called the focal region.
• The line joining locations experiencing equal earthquake
intensity is known as the isoseismal line and the line joining
locations at which the shock arrives simultaneously is
known as the homoseismal line.
• The location of an earthquake’s focus is important
because it indicates the depth at which rupture and
movement occur.
• Although movement of material within the earth
occurs throughout the mantle and core, earthquakes
are concentrated in the upper 700 km only.
• Shallow-focus earthquakes are most frequent and
originate from up to a depth of 70 km from the
surface of the earth.
• Intermediate-focus earthquakes occur between 70
and 300 km.
• Earthquakes having a focal depth of more than 300
km are classified as deep-focus earthquakes.
Energy release:
• The maximum energy released by an earthquake
progressively tends to become smaller as the focal
depth increases.
• Also, seismic energy from a source deeper than 70
km gets largely dissipated by the time it reaches the
surface.
• Therefore, the main consideration in the design of
earthquake-resistant structures is shallow-focus
earthquakes.
• The focus of an earthquake is calculated from the
time that elapses between the arrival of three
major types of seismic waves.
Seismic Waves:
• The large strain energy released during an
earthquake travels in the form of seismic waves in
all directions (Fig. 1.8), with accompanying
reflections from earth’s surface as well as
reflections and refractions as they traverse the
earth’s interior (Fig. 1.9 ).
• These waves can be classified as body waves
travelling through the interior of the earth—
consisting of P-waves (primary, longitudinal, or
compressional waves) and S-waves (secondary,
transverse, or shear waves), and surface waves
resulting from interaction between body waves and
surface layers of earth—consisting of L-waves (love
waves) and Rayleigh waves (Fig.1.10).
• Body waves travel through the interior of elastic
media and surface waves are bound to free surfaces
as shown in Fig. 1.8.
• In P-waves, the material particles oscillate back and
forth in the direction of propagation of the wave and
cause alternate compression (push) and tension
(rarefaction of material; pull) of the medium as
shown in Fig. 1.10(a).
• These waves cause a momentary volume change in
the material through which they pass without any
concomitant momentary shape change in the
material.
• Since geological materials are stiffer in volumetric
compression, the P-waves are the fastest, followed in
sequence by S-waves, L-waves, and Rayleigh waves.
• P-waves can pass through solids and fluids.
• The material particles in S-waves oscillate at right
angles to the direction of propagation of the wave
[Fig. 1.10(b)], and cause shearing deformations as
they travel through a material.
• S-waves do not change the instantaneous volume of
the material through which they pass. However, the
instantaneous shape of the material gets distorted.
• S-waves do not travel through liquids as fluids have
no shearing stiffness.
• In association with the effects of L-waves, S-waves
cause maximum damage to structures by rocking
the surface in both horizontal and vertical
directions.
• L-waves cause surface motion similar to that caused
by S-waves, but with no vertical component [Fig.
1.10(c)].
• Rayleigh waves make a material particle oscillate in
an elliptical path in the vertical plane (with
horizontal motion along the direction of energy
transmission) as shown in Fig. 1.10(d).
Strong Ground motion:
• The earth vibrates
continuously at periods
ranging from milliseconds to
days and the amplitudes may
vary from nanometres to
metres.
• The motion that affects living
beings and their environment
is of interest for engineers
and is termed as strong
ground motion.
Characteristics of Ground Motion
• The motion of the ground can be described in terms of
displacement, velocity or acceleration.
• The variation of ground acceleration with time, recorded
at a point on the ground during an earthquake, is called
an accelerogram(Fig. 1.14).
• The ground velocity and displacement can be obtained
by direct integration of an accelerogram.
• Typical ground motion records are called time histories—
the acceleration, velocity and displacement time
histories.
• For structural engineering purposes, acceleration gives
the best measure of an earthquake’s intensity.
• From Fig. 1.14 it can be seen that during a short
initial period, the intensity of ground acceleration
increases to strong shaking, followed by a strong
acceleration phase, which is followed by a gradual
decreasing motion.
• The ground velocity is directly related to the energy
transmitted to the structures and the intensity of
damage caused. The ground displacement may be
of interest for the design of underground structures.
• Horizontal motions are of most importance for
earthquake engineering.

• Shaking often strongest on horizontal component:

– Earthquakes radiate larger S waves than P waves
– Decreasing seismic velocities near Earth’s surface
produce refraction of the incoming waves toward the
vertical, so that the ground motion for S waves is
primarily in the horizontal direction
• Buildings generally are weakest for horizontal shaking.
Measures of ground-motion for engineering
purposes

• PGA (peak ground acceleration)

• PGV (peak ground velocity)
• Response spectral acceleration (elastic,
inelastic) at periods of engineering interest
• Intensity (Can be related to PGA and PGV.)
Peak ground acceleration (PGA)
• The peak ground acceleration (PGA), also termed peak
horizontal acceleration (PHA), is the most commonly
used measure of the intensity of shaking at a site.
• For instance, a PGA value of 0.6g (0.6 times the
acceleration due to gravity) suggests that the
movement of the ground can cause a maximum
horizontal force on a rigid structure equal to 60% of its
weight.
• All points in a rigid structure move with the ground by
the same amount and, hence, experience the same
PGA.
• Ground motions with high peak accelerations are
usually the most damaging except for short-
duration stray pulses with large amplitude, where
little time is available for the system to respond to
such excitation.
• Usually, strong ground motions carry significant
energy associated with shaking of frequencies in the
range 0.03–30 Hz (i.e., cycles/s).
Seismic Zoning and maps of India:
• It is not possible to predict with any certainty when
and where earthquakes will occur, how strong they
will be, and what characteristics the ground
motions will have.
• Therefore, an engineer must estimate the ground
shaking judiciously.
• A simple method is to use a seismic zone map,
wherein the area is subdivided into regions, each
associated with a known or assigned seismic
probability or risk, to serve as a useful basis for the
implementation of code provisions on earthquake-
resistant design.
• Seismic zoning is accomplished with the help of
isoseismal maps.
• An isoseismal is a contour bounding areas of equal
intensity and different isoseismal when plotted for a
particular earthquake constitute an isoseismal map.
• The present seismic zoning map used in India shows
the country divided into four zones (II, III, IV, and V) of
approximately equal seismic probability, depending
upon the local hazard.
• Each of these zones is described in terms of the value
of its peak ground acceleration, also known as the
design ground acceleration.
• The seismic zone map of India has been revised from
five to four zones.
• Zone I from the code has been removed with the
consensus between geologists and seismologists
that no zone lies below Zone II in India.
• It is based on the past earthquake data and
geological information of the region.
• Associated with each zone is a factor which enters
into the expression for determining the total base
shear and is known as zone factor.
Seismographs
• A seismograph is an instrument used to measure
the vibration of the earth. Seismographs are used to
measure relatively weak ground motions. The
records produced are called seismograms.
• Strong ground motions are measured by
accelerographs.
• The principle of the seismograph is that ground
motion is measured by the vibration record of a
simple pendulum hanging from a steady point.
• A schematic diagram of a typical seismograph is
shown in Fig. 1.13.
• It has three components: the sensor
—consisting of the pendulum mass,
string, magnet, and support; the
recorder—consisting of the drum,
pen, and chart paper; and the timer
—the motor that rotates the drum
at constant speed.
• When the supporting frame is
shaken by earthquake waves, the
intertia of the mass causes it to lag
behind the motion of the frame.
• This relative motion can be
recorded as a wiggly line by pen and
ink on paper wrapped around a
rotating drum. The earthquake
records so obtained are called
seismograms.
• One such instrument is required in each of the two
orthogonal horizontal directions.
• Of course, for measuring vertical oscillations, the
string pendulum (Fig. 1.13) is replaced with a spring
pendulum oscillating about a fulcrum.
• Some instruments do not have a timer device (i.e.,
the drum holding the chart paper does not rotate).
Such instruments provide only the maximum extent
(or scope) of motion during an earthquake; for this
reason they are called seismoscopes.