The Mega-Earthquakes of Chile: Seismology and the Sounds of the Earth Michael Wysession Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Washington University, St. Louis, MO Puerto Montt, Chile, November 6, 2013
Global Map of Earthquakes!
Japanese Folklore: Earthquakes caused by giant Namazu.!
Following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake (All Saint s Day), the Spanish Inquisition burned people at the stake to atone for the city s sins.!
Earthquakes Occur Along Faults: (e.g., the San Andreas Fault )!
Locations of the Major Tectonic Plates!
Plate Tectonics, The Basic Idea:!
Location of May 22, 1960, Valdivia Earthquake! Magnitude 9.5!!
Location of May 22, 1960, Valdivia Earthquake! Magnitude 9.5!! Where are you right now?!
Location of May 22, 1960, Valdivia Earthquake! Magnitude 9.5!! Where are you right now?!
Location of May 22, 1960, Valdivia Earthquake epicenter (We sailed directly over it yesterday!)!
Energy Release of Various Kinds of Events:!
Number of earthquakes per year, at different magnitudes!
Release of Seismic Energy, 1905-2005!
Earthquakes are responsible for about 15,000 30,000 deaths per year globally (on average), but not in the US!
Tsunami from the 1960 Chile Earthquake!
Tsunami from the 1960 Chile Earthquake!
The tsunami from the 1960 Chilean earthquake pours into Onagawa, Japan.!
Damage from the 1960 Chilean tsunami in Kamaishi, Japan.!
Tsunami from an Earthquake in Chile!
Damage from the 1960 Chile tsunami Hilo, Hawaii!
Tsunamis are very dispersive!
Tsunami from the 2004 Sumatra Earthquake:! NY Times!
SUMATRA EARTHQUAKE: DECEMBER 26, 2004!
Sumatra-Andaman Dec 26, 2004 EQ & Tsunami
Banda Aceh:! Before.!!!
Banda Aceh:! Before.!!!! and After..!
COMPLEX PLATE BOUNDARY ZONE IN ASIA!! Northward motion of India deforms all of the region!! Creates many LARGE EARTHQUAKES! Pakistan EQ, 2005! Sichuan EQ, 2008! Sumatra EQ, 2004!
(Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program)
Magnitude 9.0 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN Friday, March 11, 2011 at 05:46:23 UTC Japan is one of the most seismically active places in the world. It sits at the intersection of 4 tectonic plates. Japan Trench
Magnitude 9.0 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN Friday, March 11, 2011 at 05:46:23 UTC The earthquake rupture was unusually long: > 3 minutes (Miaki Ishii, Harvard Univ)
Magnitude 9.0 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN Friday, March 11, 2011 at 05:46:23 UTC A magnitude 9.0 earthquake was not expected based on historical seismicity (Chuck Ammon, Penn State)
Magnitude 9.0 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN Friday, March 11, 2011 at 05:46:23 UTC The tsunami was greater than 15 m (50 ft) in places along the Japan coast. Sendai. New York Times Miyagi prefecture. AP The tsunami was responsible for most of the damage and most of the lives lost (>10,000)
Magnitude 9.0 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN Friday, March 11, 2011 at 05:46:23 UTC The tsunami was felt 45 ft high when it hit the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant The 19-ft seawall was insufficient
Fires from 1906 San Francisco earthquake (also Tokyo, 1923)
Southern California Earthquakes!
[Satake et al., 1996]!
Episodic Tremor and Slip (ETS) along the Cascadia Fault Tremor event in January, 2007, corresponding with slow slip of a few cm. Events repeat every 14 months (Courtesy of K. Creager)
http://tunk.ess.washington.edu/map_display
Which will be deadlier: the big one along the San Andreas or beneath the Pacific Northwest?!
The 7th largest earthquake of the past century
Though the M7.0 Haiti EQ was ~500x smaller than the M8.8 Chile EQ, it killed >200,000 more people. Why?
The directivity of the the M9.4 1964 Alaska earthquake saved lives!!
Computer Modeling of a Rupture along the San Andreas.! (Southern California Earthquake Center)
Are Earthquakes Increasing?
Are Earthquakes Increasing? 9.6 Great (M > 8) Earthquakes Since 1900 Chile 1960 9.4 Alaska 1964 Magnitude 9.2 9 8.8 8.6 8.4 Ecuador 1906 Russia 1952 Alaska 1965 Sumatra 2004 Japan 2011 Chile 2010 8.2 8 7.8 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020
Can Earthquakes Be Predicted? Only one earthquake was ever successfully predicted: 1975 Haicheng (Liaoning Province), China
Can Earthquakes Be Predicted? Only one earthquake was ever successfully predicted: 1975 Haicheng (Liaoning Province), China (Changes in soil helium levels before 1989 California Loma Prieta earthquake)
Earthquake Prediction: Animal Behavior?
USGS Forecast in early 80 s: A Parkfield Earthquake in 1987
On Sep. 28, 2004, the Parkfield EQ finally happened!! (though not in predicted place, and 17 years late!) Was it a successful prediction???
Seismic Imaging Has Allowed Us to Explore the Interior of Our Planet.! Courtesy of A. Dziewonski!
Seismic Imaging Reveals the Most Likely Places to Find Oil and Natural Gas.!
Drum head vibrations
Earth Normal Mode Oscillations
For Large Earthquakes, Seismic Waves Circle the Earth for Months to Years, Making it Ring Like a Gong.!! Courtesy of J. Tromp!
For Large Earthquakes, Seismic Waves Circle the Earth for Months to Years, Making it Ring Like a Gong.!! Courtesy of J. Tromp!
For Large Earthquakes, Seismic Waves Circle the Earth for Months to Years, Making it Ring Like a Gong.!! (Earth s Lowest Note, With a Period of ~54 Minutes, is an E, Twenty Octaves Below Middle E on a Piano.)! Courtesy of J. Tromp!
EarthScope Seismic Wave Visualization for the 2011 Japan Earthquake (www.iris.edu)!
Yellowstone Hotspot Lowry et al., 2000 Obrebski et al., 2010
Yellowstone Hotspot
Nevada Mantle Drip
Evidence for Large Amounts of Water in the Lower Mantle
Courtesy of IRIS!
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Earthquakes from Fracking
Fracking : Wastewater injected into the Ozark aquifer of Arkansas leaked into a deeper unknown fault (rectangle). à Heightened water pressure in the fault allowed earthquakes (gray and orange circles) à More than 1200 EQs! They stopped when the fracking was stopped Nov. 5, 2011 caused a M5.6 earthquake in Oklahoma!
Mapping Methane Gas Hydrates in Ocean Sediments
Four-Dimensional Imaging of Carbon Sequestration Ex/ CO 2 injection (8 Mton) at the Sleipner field in the Norwegian North Sea
Cryoseismology: Greenland earthquakes associated with outflow of major continental glaciers
Seismic Imaging of Ocean Structure: Imaging fine-scale (5m resolution) features of ocean layers, revealing thermohaline circulation eddies
Planetary Seismology: Buzz Aldrin deploying a seismometer on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission; seismometers are planned for future missions to both Mars and the Moon