Earthquake – a global pattern

Seismic events and crustal structures.

An introduction to the location and characteristics of earthquakes.

Tsunami - A contemporary view of events in Japan

Earthquake – a contemporary view of events in New Zealand

The Pacific basin is evident and the edge or “rim” defined by the location of significant seismic events “earthquakes”. A pattern is evident and coincides with the sub-crustal feature called a plate boundary. For example New Zealand parallels the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates.

Earthquakes have several characteristics and location, time, and magnitude are included. This map adds a further element “depth” or proximity to or from the surface. The following link provides detailed information .

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/

This map shows the Japanese earthquake and the range of other seismic events and their proximity to the tectonic plates. See next slide!

The global pattern of tectonic plates

Japan is located at the junction of four tectonic plate boundaries.

Steam – punk This is way cooler!

While the pattern can provide a degree of certainty about where earthquakes occur and analysis of the information some understanding of this type of natural event prediction is less exact and probability is an art-form rather than a science. Prevention is out of the question so preparedness and prior planning are the best human responses to these naturally occurring events. This map and the animation show the randomness of earthquake events and the difficulty of knowing where and when they will occur.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsanim/world/

The map shows the earths tectonic plates which have distinct boundaries and it is along these “joins” that earthquakes happen (usually). Ref google –tectonic plates

New Zealand’s place in the world?

There is no doubt that we are geographically vulnerable to earthquake events - in the firing line - and prior events such as Napier 1931 demonstrate our vulnerability to large magnitude events. There are other factors to consider and these will become apparent as you continue your studies.

http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Christchurch-1996-Quake-Doco---why-buildings-collapse/tabid/439/articleID/19091/Default.aspx

Napier earthquake – 1931 Can you describe the images and are there any similarities with the more recent earthquakes in Christchurch? September 24th – 2010 and February 12th 2011

http://www.google.co.nz/