Energy

The capacity or power to do work, such as the capacity to move an object (of a given mass) by the
application of force. Energy can exist in a variety of forms, such as electrical, mechanical, chemical,
thermal, or nuclear, and can be transformed from one form to another. In physics, energy is the
quantitative property that must be transferred to an object in order to perform work on, or to heat, the
object. Energy is a conserved quantity; the law of conservation of energy states that energy can be
converted in form, but not created or destroyed.

What is the energy of an earthquake?

Earthquakes release energy in several forms:

 The energy in seismic waves that cause the ground to shake

 Heat energy associated with friction on the fault slip surface
 Gravitational potential energy (the energy stored when lifting something off the ground, for
example) may change as a result of the earthquake
 Elastic potential energy, as in the recoil energy of a stretched spring

 Charles Richter was one of the first scientists to propose an equation to compute the seismic
wave energy from earthquakes. We can use his approach to compute the numbers in the
following table, where we use Megatons of TNT as the unit of energy. The atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 released the equivalent of 16 Kilotons = 0.016 Megatons of TNT,
about the energy equivalent of a magnitude 6 earthquake. The largest hydrogen bomb ever
detonated was the Tsar bomba device exploded by the Soviet Union on October 30, 1961, with
an energy equivalent of about 50 Megatons of TNT.

Earthquake Magnitude Energy Equivalent in Megatons of TNT

3 0.0000005

4 0.000015

5 0.0005

6 0.015

7 0.5

8 15.0
 9 500.0

How much energy does an earthquake release?

When an earthquake occurs, stress accumulated in solid rock is suddenly released along fault lines. The
energy released when the rocks break along the fault is converted into seismic waves that radiate from
the origin.
How much energy is involved largely depends on the magnitude of the quake: larger quakes release
much, much more energy than smaller quakes. The Richter magnitude scale was devised by Charles F.
Richter in 1935 to classify local earthquakes in southern California, but has evolved into the most
common parameter to describe the size of the quake and hence, its energy and potential of destructive
power.
It is logarithmic, meaning that an increase of 1 corresponds to a 10-fold increase in the amplitude of the
seismic waves generated, which shake the ground. It can also be used to estimate the released energy of
a quake, following the Gutenberg-Richter magnitude-energy relation:
log E = 1.5×R + 4.8
or equivalently:
E = 101.5×R + 4.8

The relationship also involves that an increase of 1 in magnitude results in an approx. 30-fold increase
in energy.

Some facts about earthquake energy:

 A single magnitude 8+ quake typically releases more energy than all other earthquakes
combined during the same year (if no other quakes of similar magnitude occur).
 Magnitude 9+ quakes occur only every few years to decades on average, but account for
significant part of the total seismic energy released during whole centuries.
 The largest recorded earthquake in history was the so-called "Great Chilean Earthquake" or
"Valdivia Earthquake" which occurred on May 22, 1960 near Valdivia, in southern Chile. It had a
magnitude of 9.5, which is also near the largest theoretically possible value. It accounts for about 30% of
the total seismic 
 The largest earthquake ever recorded in real life struck central Chile on May 22, 1960. With a
magnitude of 9.6 (some estimates say 9.5) this was a truly massive quake, more than twice as
powerful as the next largest (Alaska 1964), and 500 times more powerful than the April 2015
Nepal quake. The seismic energy released by the 1960 Chile quake was equal to about 20,000
Hiroshima atomic bombs. Thousands were killed. It also triggered a tsunami that traveled
17,000 km across the Pacific Ocean and killed hundreds in Japan.
 But I think the most striking thing about this quake is that it accounts for about 30% of the total
seismic energy released on earth during the last 100 years. To illustrate this, I calculated
 the seismic moment (a measure of the energy released by an earthquake) of all earthquakes
greater than magnitude 6 and plotted the global cumulative seismic moment over the last 100
years.

Richter magnitude (Local Magnitude ML)

Originally earthquake magnitudes were based on the amplitude of ground motion displacement as
measured by a standard seismograph. The best known of these is the Richter Magnitude which was
defined for local earthquakes in southern California.

ML = logA + 2.56logD - 1.67

Where A is the measured ground motion (in micrometres) and D is the distance from the event (in km).
This is still used for measuring the magnitude of shallow events at distances less than 600 km (today
called the Local Magnitude). For events larger than magnitude 8 this scale saturates and gives
magnitude estimates that are too small.

Body wave magnitude Mb

For earthquakes measured at distances greater than 600 km magnitude can be estimated from the
formula.

Mb = log(A/T) + σ(D,h)
Where A is the maximum amplitude (in micrometres)of the P-waves measured at period T (generally
about one second) and σ is a calibration term (in the range 6–8) that depends on distance from the
event D and depth of the event h (tables of σ are used).

Surface wave magnitude Ms

For shallow earthquakes (i.e. ones that generate surface waves) magnitudes can be estimated using the
formula.

MS = log(A/T) + 1.66logΔ + 3.3

Where A is the maximum amplitude (in micrometres) of the Rayleigh waves, T is the period (usually
about 20 seconds) and Δ is the distance (in degrees).

Moment magnitude
Earthquakes occur when the ground ruptures. Stresses build up over time (usually caused by the slow
movements of tectonic plates) and eventually a piece of the Earth's brittle crust deep under ground
breaks (the technical term is ruptures). This rupture then grows until eventually a large area has shifted
(the rupture propagates at a velocity of 2–3km/sec). The magnitude of the earthquake is related to the
size of the rupture.

How can an earthquake have a negative magnitude?

Very small events (e.g. If 2/3log(Mo)<6.0 or if logA+2.56logD<1.67 ) will have a magnitude less than
zero. In practice earthquakes this small, although quite numerous, are usually only recorded and located
in very small scale studies (e.g. studying rockbursts in underground mines).
How is energy related to magnitude?
Seismologists have determined that the energy radiated by an earthquake is a function of both the
amplitude of the waves and the duration of the earthquake. A very small earthquake is over in less than
a second while for the largest events the fault may continue to slip for more than 5 minutes.

For each unit increase in magnitude M, the amplitude increases by a factor of 10.

Empirical studies have found that: Energy is proportional to 10 (1.5M).

Consider the energy (E1) from a magnitude M and from (E2) from magnitude M+1

E2/E1 = (10(1.5M + 1.5

))/( 101.5M) 
E2/E1 = 101.5 = 32
Thus, for each unit increase in magnitude, the energy increases by a factor of 32.

For two units of magnitude, the increase is a factor of 103 or one thousand.

Seismic energy
Earthquake energy as a function of magnitude.

Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of stored
energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves.
Earthquakes are accordingly measured with a seismometer, commonly known as
a seismograph.

The magnitude of an earthquake is conventionally reported using the Richter

scale or a related Moment scale (with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being
hard to notice and magnitude 7 causing serious damage over large areas).

At the Earth's surface, earthquakes may manifest themselves by a shaking or

displacement of the ground.

Sometimes, they cause tsunamis, which may lead to loss of life and destruction
of property.

An earthquake is caused by tectonic plates getting stuck and putting a strain on

the ground.

The strain becomes so great that rocks give way by breaking and sliding along
fault planes.

Earthquakes may occur naturally or as a result of human activities.

Smaller earthquakes can also be caused by volcanic activity, landslides, mine

blasts, and nuclear experiments.
In its most generic sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic
event—whether a natural phenomenon or an event caused by humans—that
generates seismic waves.

Most naturally occurring earthquakes are related to the tectonic nature of the
Earth.

Such earthquakes are called tectonic earthquakes.

The Earth's lithosphere is a patchwork of plates in slow but constant motion

caused by the release to space of the heat in the Earth's mantle and core.

The heat causes the rock in the Earth to become flow on geological timescales,
so that the plates move slowly but surely.

Plate boundaries lock as the plates move past each other, creating frictional
stress.

When the frictional stress exceeds a critical value, called local strength, a
sudden failure occurs.

The boundary of tectonic plates along which failure occurs is called the fault
plane.

When the failure at the fault plane results in a violent displacement of the Earth's
crust, the elastic strain energy is released and seismic waves are radiated, thus
causing an earthquake.

This process of strain, stress, and failure is referred to as the Elastic-rebound

theory.

It is estimated that only 10 percent or less of an earthquake's total energy is

radiated as seismic energy.

Most of the earthquake's energy is used to power the earthquake fracture

growth and is converted into heat, or is released to friction.

The majority of tectonic earthquakes originate at depths not exceeding tens of

kilometers.

In subduction zones, where older and colder oceanic crust descends beneath
another tectonic plate, Deep focus earthquakes may occur at much greater
depths (up to seven hundred kilometers).

These are earthquakes that occur at a depth at which the subducted lithosphere
should no longer be brittle, due to the high temperature and pressure.

A possible mechanism for the generation of deep focus earthquakes is faulting

caused by olivine undergoing a phase transition into a spinel structure.

Earthquakes may also occur in volcanic regions and are caused there both by
tectonic faults and by the movement of magma in volcanoes.

Such earthquakes can be an early warning of volcanic eruptions.

A recently proposed theory suggests that some earthquakes may occur in a sort
of earthquake storm, where one earthquake will trigger a series of earthquakes
each triggered by the previous shifts on the fault lines, similar to aftershocks,
but occurring years later, and with some of the later earthquakes as damaging
as the early ones.

Such a pattern was observed in the sequence of about a dozen earthquakes that
struck the North Anatolian Fault in Turkey in the 20th century, the half dozen
large earthquakes in New Madrid in 1811-1812, and has been inferred for older
anomalous clusters of large earthquakes in the Middle East and in the Mojave
Desert.