Robert Butler explaining how to use the measured arrival times of P and S waves to determine the distance to an earthquake using standard travel-time curves.
Video lecture describing thickness, layering, and brittle nature of lithospheric plates. Continental lithosphere and oceanic lithosphere are compared.
Video lecture on using foam faults to demonstrate faults and a deck of cards to demonstrate folds and fabrics. Different types of faults are: normal (extensional) faults; thrust (compressional) faults; and strike-slip (shearing) faults.
John Lahr (USGS seismologist emeritus) demonstrates that elasticity of rocks by squeezing a slit core of rock.
A hard-boiled egg is used as a scale model for the zones of the Earth. The shell is to the egg as the lithosphere is to the Earth.
Actual video of an earthquake occurring on the San Andreas Fault near Parkfield, California. Watch the trees shake and the birds fly when the earthquake shakes the ground!
John Lahr (US Geological Survey Emeritus) describes the two-block “Earthquake Machine” model. Connecting two blocks together begins to model interactions between adjacent patches on a fault. The two-block model demonstrates how motion on one area of a fault can increase stress on an adjacent area, bringing it closer to failure in an earthquake.
John Lahr (US Geological Survey Emeritus) describes the single-block Earthquake Machine model. This simple physical model demonstrates the “earthquake cycle”, the slow accumulation of elastic energy in rocks adjacent to a fault followed by rapid release of elastic energy during an earthquake.
Demonstration of brittle fracture by bending and breaking a yard stick.
Video lecture on how temperature controls mechanical behavior of materials, including rocks. A Big Hunk candy bar is used as a model. The cold candy bar is brittle while the warm candy bar is ductile or plastic.