Earthquakes and Faults

1. Quarter 2 - Module 1: Earthquakes and Faults
Earthquake - is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from the sudden release of
energy in the Earth’s lithosphere
Faults
- are thin zones of crushed blocks of rocks
- often in centimeters to thousands of kilometers long
- surfaces can be vertical or horizontal
3 kinds of Faults:
1. Strike-slip faults
- are rocks sliding past one another on a horizontal plane, with little to no vertical movement.
Examples to these are the San Andreas Fault and the Anatolian Fault.
2. Normal Faults
- are two blocks of crust layer pulling apart, extending the crust into a valley thus, creating a
space
- has the upper side or hanging wall appears to have moved downward with respect to the
footwall
- examples are Basin and Range Province in North America and the East African Rift Zone
3. Reverse Faults
- are also known as thrust faults, the slide one block of crust on top of another
- are normally found in collision zones where tectonic plates push up mountain ranges, for
example, the Himalayas and Rocky Mountains