http://www.edcenter.sdsu.edu/ssc/3d/ssc3dproject.html

"Written in Stone" Earthquake Animations

The animations below were developed by EdCenter Staff Scientist Jeff Sale for the educational video "Written in Stone" produced by San Diego State professor Pat Abbott. This project was funded by and developed for the California Seismic Safety Commission.

These animations offer visual explanations for some of the more complex processes involved in earthquake dynamics. They also include some practical mitigation procedures for securing one's home for protection during an earthquake.

Animation of Rayleigh Waves: Rayleigh Waves are the most damaging waves caused by earthquakes. This animation illustrates the reverse elliptical dynamics underlying Rayleigh Waves that cause such intense shifting during an earthquake.
How to Brace an Unsecured Cripple Wall: many houses have a cripple wall supporting them which provides a crawl space underneath the house. However, unsecured cripple walls can easily collapse during an earthquake. This animation provides a brief overview of basic methods for securing a cripple wall.
San Andreas Shifts: this animation demonstrates the relationship between earthquake magnitude and fault movement. Small earthquakes emit mainly fast-moving high-frequency waves, whereas large earthquakes not only emit high-frequency waves but also low-frequency slow-moving waves.
Chimney Failure and Bracing: this animation illustrates the collapse of an unreinforced brick masonry chimney, and proper methods for structural reinforcement.
Lake Elsinore Sequence: this animation illustrates the creation of Lake Elsinore due to fault shifting.
Signal Hill Sequence: this animation illustrates a fault bend pushing up the ground between the faults to form a hill, in this case one similar to Signal Hill in the Los Angeles region.
Seismic Propagation: this animation illustrates how seismic waves move more rapidly with lower amplitude through hard dense rock as opposed to soft sediment.
Northridge 2D Earthquake Fault Movement: this animation illustrates the "blind thrust" fault of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Landers Earthquake: this animation illustrates the multi-fault nature of the 1992 Landers earthquake and demonstrates the advanced computational simulation of the underlying seismic dynamics created by Prof. Kim Olsen of San Diego State University.
San Andreas 265-mile-wide rupture: this animation illustrates the 250-mile-wide extent of the 1906 rupture of San Andreas fault in northern california.

[EdCenter Home] [Projects] [News] [Training]
[NPACI Showroom] [People] [Resources] [Directions]