Seismology Examination 2012, Open Book, 100 minute

Global Seismology & Seismic Waves - What is an earthquake? What causes earthquakes? - Know fault types and relevant fault terms (hanging wall, right-lateral, etc) - What is stress? What is strain? Know the units of each. How are they similar? How are they different? - Know the basic types of stress/strain. What is pressure? Where is pressure commonly observed? - Body waves vs surface waves - Compressional / Longitudinal waves - Shear / Transverse waves - P-waves, S-waves, L-waves, R-waves. Know them all and be able to describe their properties. - Geophone / Seismometer / Seismogram - Be able to describe how a seismogram works - Wavefronts and Rays. Know the differences and similarities. How are they related? - Epicenteral angle? - How did seismologists determine that the Earth is spherically layered? - How did seismologists determine that the Earth is non-uniform with depth? - Which seismic waves are fastest? Second fastest? Slowest? - Know the implications of the equations for Vs and Vp. - What are moduli? How many are needed to describe a material? - What is the Bulk modulus? Shear modulus? - Know Snells law and be able to calculate angles of refraction / incidence. - What is the critical angle? What happens if the critical angle is exceeded? - What is the ray parameter and why is it useful? - What is wave conversion? What caused it and when does it happen? - What are wave phases? Know the various seismic wave phases - What are the S-wave and P-wave shadow zones? What causes each? - What are teleseismic rays? - Attenuation. What is it and what causes it? - In general does seismic velocity increase or decrease with depth? - What is the low velocity zone? Why is it significant? Seismotectonics - Why cant geologists locate EQs? - What are S-P intervals and why are they useful? - How many seismographs are required to locate an epicenter and why? - What are some reasons for why triangulation does not give perfectly consistent locations? - How do seismologists determine hypocenter depth? - Know strike, dip, and dip direction - Know the anti-symmetric pattern of contraction/extension around a fault. - P-axis / C-axis / T-axis - Be able to determine the following things from any focal mechanism solution o Strike & Dip of the nodal planes o Sense of slip on each nodal plane (normal, reverse, left-lateral, right-lateral, oblique) o P-axis, T-axis

- What is the double couple and why does it arise? - How do we determine which nodal plane is the fault and which is the auxiliary plane? - I wont make you memorize the rake conventions, but you should be able to qualitatively describe what rake is. - To get focal mechanisms for non vertical faults, we need to know the take-off angle. How can seismologists possibly know this? - Why would certain seismometers receive waves of very low amplitude while others the same distance from the epicenter receive much higher amplitude waves?

Please make interpretation of travel time curve in this figure, determine the velocity of first and second earth layers, the critical distance xc and the thickness of the first layer.