earthquake question - Democratic Underground

starmaker

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Sun May-07-06 02:27 PM
Original message

earthquake question

Is there an explaination why so many quakes esp those 5.0 and above
are located 10.0 kilometers deep. I've been watching quake info daily for a while
and it seems wierd-

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goclark

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Sun May-07-06 02:31 PM
Response to Original message

1. Are you talking about California

There has not been any earthquake of note in Los Angeles since 2000 that I know of ~ usually it is more often. :scared:

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starmaker

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Sun May-07-06 02:39 PM
Response to Reply #1

4. Worldwide

USGS listing of M5+ earthquakes is what i look at
earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php

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mike_c

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Sun May-07-06 02:33 PM
Response to Original message

2. I'm not a geologist so I'm just guessing...

...but my guess is that movement is more constrained at greater depth, requiring that greater resistance be overcome before energy can be dissipated by movement.

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RobertSeattle

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Sun May-07-06 02:35 PM
Response to Original message

3. You could probably find lots of info at the USGS

That is, until it gets privatized and bought by Halliburton :P

Here's a list of the recent earthquakes - other links at this page have lots of EQ info

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

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valerief

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Sun May-07-06 02:41 PM
Response to Original message

5. Yeah, the most recent ones are pretty shallow.

http://gldss7.cr.usgs.gov/neis/qed/qed.html

Depth
Distance below sea level in kilometers.
33 km is used as a default depth for earthquakes determined to be shallow, but whose depth is not satisfactorily determined by the data. Default depths of 5 or 10 km are usually used in mid-continental areas and on mid-ocean ridges since earthquakes in these areas are usually shallower than 33 km.

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bananas

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Sun May-07-06 02:56 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. yes - 33, 10, and 5 km are defaults when they don't have a good estimate

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starmaker

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Sun May-07-06 04:42 PM
Response to Reply #6

8. thanks

curiosity satisfied

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northzax

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Sun May-07-06 04:10 PM
Response to Original message

7. the center of a quake is defined

as the first place to slip on the fault. and since there are very few faults directly at the surface of the planet (San Andreas is one of those) the quakes happen 10-25 km below the surface most often. the 10 km is just a range estimate, not an exact number.

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