This page provides a brief outline of, lists the main points of, gives links to figures for, and lists the assigned reading for a lecture in Dr. Bruce Railsback's GEOL 1121 class at the University of Georgia. This page is not intended as a set of lecture notes, and it cannot subsititute for a set of lecture notes. Familiarity with this page alone will not assure satisfactory grades on exams in the course.

Lecture 14 (Wednesday, February 20): Earthquakes and Seismology

Brief outline of this lecture:
Earthquake basics
Earthquake waves
Seismographs and seismograms
Locating earthquakes

Main points of this lecture:
Earthquakes are generated by motion along faults.
Elastic rebound at faults explains the origin of earthquakes.
Earthquakes consist of different kinds of waves.
Seismograms provide clues as to the distance to an earthquake and the magnitude of an earthquake.

Figures used in this lecture:
Earthquakes and elastic rebound
Earthquake Waves I
Earthquake Waves II
Seismograms
Locating Earthquakes I
Locating Earthquakes II

Reading assignments:
          pp. 67-75.
          Animations of waves (our P waves are longitudinal waves, our S waves are transverse waves, Raleigh waves are Rayeigh waves, and we don't have to worry about water waves). This takes a hearty browser and a while to load, but it's worth the wait.

Next Lecture
Email to Railsback (rlsbk@gly.uga.edu)
Railsback's main 1121 web page
Railsback's main web page
UGA Geology Department web page