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Earthquakes o.o
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by
 
on 2011-03-19 00:12:27 |
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Well guys, I'm just wondering. How much does each value on the Richter scale measure up to live examples? Like, will each progression of 0.1 cause tremendous damage? Is it possible to have an earthquake above 10.0 ? If its possible, what would happen to the earth? And, what IF the Earth does get split, and we manage to survive somehow, what would it be like? ^.^ please leave your interesting comments below! 
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by
on 2011-03-19 00:20:57 |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale 
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by
on 2011-03-19 03:45:37 |
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Oh, thanks.. wow, a value of 2 is a factor of a thousand. And.. 22.78 is approximately a starquake... !
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by
on 2011-03-19 03:50:33 |
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Earthquake can change a lot of things, but according to the theory, cannot split the earth into two. what makes earthquake is the shake of the earth crust, which means the earth crusts can moves. they can moves because they are on magma (something liquid, just like things you slide over the oil), and they moves constantly, everytime, even right now. It'll shake when it bump into another crust, or something else (like a volcano eruption).  |
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by
on 2011-03-19 04:52:25 |
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Oh... though it could cause cracks on the Earth's surface, it can't actually split it? Hmm..
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by
on 2011-03-19 08:09:11 |
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Nope, earthquakes can't split the Earth. Earthquakes give out two major waves, P-waves and S-waves, from the focus of the earthquake (The focus is like the epicenter of an earthquake, but the epicenter is the point on land where the earthquake originated, while the focus is the place inside the earth where the earthquake originated). P-Waves can travel through anything, but S-waves cannot travel through liquid. Oceans are made up of liquid (Obviously), and the outer core of the Earth is also a liquid, so S-waves (Which also happen to be more damaging than P-waves most, if not all of the time) couldn't reach around all of the Earth even if they managed to travel very far. Plus there are "blind spots" where the waves of an earthquake can't reach (Although they're confusing to explain, so I'll just leave out an explanation on that). Also, you have to take into account the different types of plate boundaries. The three major plate boundaries are Divergent, Transform, and Convergent. Convergent is where two plates collide, and the denser of the two plates sinks under the other. Transform is where two plates are sliding past each other, and Divergent is where two plates are moving away from each other, creating new surface on the Earth. The only plate boundary out of the three that could really "split" the earth is a Divergent plate boundary, but even then it couldn't go all the way to the core of the Earth and split it. I know this is a bit lengthy, but I hoped it helped explain things. Also, I think that most of this information is correct, but if some of it is wrong then feel free to correct me.  |
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by
on 2011-03-19 08:43:17 (edited 2011-03-19 08:43:42)
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ooh, its not that long for a person looking for information. Haha, thanks! :D It did taught me a few things.
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by angel_of_stone
on 2011-03-19 21:34:38
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@ Toyumi P and S waves are the first waves to arrive, however it is the L and R waves that that arrive later that do the most damage. P and S waves are body waves, this means they move through the subsurface. L and R waves are surface waves which means they move across the ground surface. Primary (P) waves are compressional waves (like sound) and they travel very fast. If people are paying attention to the instruments, the arrival of P waves can give precious few seconds to prepare for an earthquake. Shear (Secondary or S) waves are quick, but not as fast as P waves. S waves oscillate perpendicular to their direction of travel and cause a little bit of shaking but not much damage. Love (Lateral or L) waves shake the surface from side to side. They cause horizontal shearing stress on surface structures and cause a lot of damage. They would be the type of waves that would knock your feet out from under you. Rayleigh (Rolling or R) waves shake the surface up and down. They cause vertical compression and tensile stresses on surface structures and cause a lot of damage. They would be the type of waves that would bounce you up and down. Also, even though the media still reports in Richter measurements the more widely used scale in the scientific community is the Moment Magnitude scale. It gives a more quantitative measurement of the energy produced by an earthquake. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_magnitude_scale
"But as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means that anything can happen at anytime and for no reason." -Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth
"I don't have any opinions anymore. All I know is that no one is better than anyone else, and everyone is the best at everything." -Seymour Skinner "...if I got trapped by an evil wizard then I did enough cool s**t in my life to be content with it ending. " -Wolf |
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by
on 2011-03-20 00:02:19 |
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Wow, two more waves. So is it the P and S that generates the L and R waves?
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by angel_of_stone
on 2011-03-20 10:10:08
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No, they are just different types of waves. The P and S waves move through the rock that makes up the plate. I suppose you could say they are the result of the initial snap of the plates giving way, they originate at the focus of the earthquake. Since they move through a solid medium, they travel very fast. The grinding of the plates as they move after that initial snap is what causes the L and R waves. Imagine you had some legos built into a block. If you applied pressure on the sides of the block in opposite directions it would be pretty solid. But if you keep applying pressure the block will eventually break in a sharp, snapping fashion. This is what causes the P and S Waves. ....................I#####I(--Pressure.........I#####I............................. ....................I#####I...........................I#####I..*SNAP*............... ....................I#####I..............................I#####I.......................... ..Pressure--)I#####I..............................I#####I.......................... After that snap, if you continued to move the two halves, the grinding of the bumpy bits of the legos would cause the block to rumble around. In an earthquake, this grinding and rumbling causes the surface to bounce up, down, and around. These are the L and R waves. I hope that explains it a little better.
"But as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means that anything can happen at anytime and for no reason." -Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth
"I don't have any opinions anymore. All I know is that no one is better than anyone else, and everyone is the best at everything." -Seymour Skinner "...if I got trapped by an evil wizard then I did enough cool s**t in my life to be content with it ending. " -Wolf |
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Re: Earthquakes o.o
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by
on 2011-03-20 11:11:12 |
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Oh! I get it! So the snap causes P and S waves while the moving of the plates generates the L and R waves! Thanks (:
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