Your questions

and (some)
answers
Q: What causes earthquakes?
A: After yesterdays stations, you should be
able to explain this in your own words.

Write down your explanation in your notebook. (2 minutes)

When you are done, share with your partner. (1 minute)

Then we will share as a class. (2 minutes)
mantle
convection
Wave propagation,
Conservation of energy
Q: What was the largest earthquake
ever?
A: That depends what you mean
by largest.
If you mean the greatest amount of energy
recorded in an earthquake, the answer is the
1960 earthquake in Chile, South America. It
registered at 9.5 on the Richter scale.

The damage reached as far as Hawai`i, the
Philippines, California, and Japan. However,
only about 1,655 people perished.

This picture shows the path of the resulting
tsunami. A tsunami is a shear wave (S-wave, or
transverse wave) moving through the ocean.
Q: What was the largest earthquake
ever?
A: That depends what you mean
by largest.
If you mean the most number of people killed in
an earthquake, the answer is the earthquake in
Shaanxi, China, in 1556.

Primary sources estimated around 830,000
casualties. However, analyses of the geologic
record suggest that the magnitude of this
earthquake was only about 8.0.

Why do you think this less-powerful earthquake
killed so many more people?
Q: How are earthquakes measured?
A: With seismometers.
Q: How are earthquakes measured?
A: Before 1932, there was no objective (quantitative) scale for rating
earthquakes. Ratings were based on subjective (qualitative) observations.
Q: How are earthquakes measured?
A: Charles Richter, a seismologist
living in California, developed the
Richter magnitude scale in the
1930s. It is a logarithmic scale, like
the pH scale for acids and bases.

A magnitude of 1.0 really means 10
1

or 10 micrometers on the
seismograph. A magnitude of 2.0
means 10
2
or 100 micrometers. A
magnitude of 3.0 means 10
3
or
1,000 micrometers (1 millimeter).
Each whole number magnitude is
ten times as powerful as the
previous number.
Q: How often do earthquakes occur?
A: Again, that depends. Large
earthquakes are relatively rare
the larger the earthquake, the
less likely it is to happen.

Small earthquakes (magnitude
2.0) occur everyday, but they are
generally too small for humans to
feel and they do not damage
buildings.

This relationship is called a power
law.
Q: How often do earthquakes occur?
A: Power laws describe
earthquake frequency. They
also describe the frequency of
all kinds of other natural
phenomena, from the internet
to city populations and more.

Scientists are not really sure
what makes power laws such a
common occurrence in the
natural world.
Normal distribution,
or Bell curve
Power law distribution
magnitude magnitude (or rank)
f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

What kinds of things do you think might have a normal
distribution, with most values clustered around the mean,
and about equal numbers of low and high values?

What kinds of things do you think might have a power law
distribution, with most values very low, and extremely high
values occurring very rarely?
Normal distribution,
or Bell curve
Power law distribution
magnitude
magnitude (or rank)
f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

Examples:
Heights of people
Weights of people
Heights and weights of almost any organism
Speed of traffic
Standardized test scores (and most grades)
Others?


Examples:
Income of people
Size of cities
Frequency of words
Sales of bestselling books
Sizes of earthquakes
Stock market fluctuations
Others?



Q: Are earthquakes preventable?
A: What do you think? You now know what causes earthquakes.
Could humans control these processes?

Write down your answer in your notebook. (2 minutes)

When you are done, share with your partner. (1 minute)

Then we will share as a class. (2 minutes)