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A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. [1] It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction zone. [2] A transform fault is a special case of a strike-slip fault that also forms a plate boundary.
Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the boundaries between the plates, such as the megathrust faults of subduction zones or transform faults. [1] Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes.
The moment tensor solution is displayed graphically using a so-called beachball diagram. The pattern of energy radiated during an earthquake with a single direction of motion on a single fault plane may be modelled as a double couple, which is described mathematically as a special case of a second order tensor (similar to those for stress and strain) known as the moment tensor.
The San Andreas Fault has had some notable earthquakes in historic times: 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake: About 350 kilometers (220 mi) were ruptured in central and southern California. Though it is known as the Fort Tejon earthquake, the epicenter is thought to have been located far to the north, just south of Parkfield. Two deaths were reported.
Strike-slip tectonics or wrench tectonics is a type of tectonics that is dominated by lateral (horizontal) movements within the Earth's crust (and lithosphere).Where a zone of strike-slip tectonics forms the boundary between two tectonic plates, this is known as a transform or conservative plate boundary.
The earthquakes are caused by slip along the thrust fault that forms the contact between the two plates. These interplate earthquakes are the planet's most powerful, with moment magnitudes (M w) that can exceed 9.0. [1] [2] Since 1900, all earthquakes of magnitude 9.0 or greater have been megathrust earthquakes. [3]
When these are drawn onto the diagram containing the velocity triangle these lines must be able to meet at a single point, for the triple junction to exist stably. These lines necessarily are parallel to the plate boundaries as to remain on the plate boundaries the observer must either move along the plate boundary or remain stationary on it.
The 1949 earthquake was larger than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, causing nearly a 500 kilometer-long segment of the Queen Charlotte Fault to break. The 1958 earthquake had a magnitude of 7.8 and led to a major landslide in Lituya Bay, Alaska. This resulted in a 1,720-foot (524-meter) tsunami that crashed into a mountainside, the largest ...