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Fault-Plane Solutions of Earthquakes

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Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

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Definition

Earthquakes are caused by ruptures (faults) in solid rock with instantaneous movement, during which seismic body waves are emanated by elastic rebound. By evaluation of the seismic waves, the focus (location) of the earthquake, the spatial orientation of the fault plane, and the mode of movement can be determined. The result is called “fault-plane solution.”

Fault-Plane Solution

The orientation of planes of movement at plate boundaries or within any block of solid rock can be deduced from earthquake data. In the case of an earthquake triggered at a fault plane, the two blocks move by creating an instantaneous offset up to several meters. This results in the generation of the two types of seismic body waves. Primary (P-) waves oscillate in the longitudinal direction of propagation. They are faster than secondary (S-) waves that oscillate transversally. If all of the seismic data from a given earthquake collected around the Earth are put into a diagram, four quadrants and the...

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Bibliography

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Prof., Dr. Wolfgang Frisch

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  1. Prof., Dr. Wolfgang Frisch
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Frisch .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. Leibiniz Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and Lit c/o Helmholtz-Center for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Jörn Thiede

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Frisch, W. (2013). Fault-Plane Solutions of Earthquakes. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_109-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_109-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6644-0

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