Earthquake is a natural phenomena of suddenly energy releasing inner the earth and propagating into every direction of the

earth in seismic waves. The seismic waves are body and surface waves.

Traveling through the interior of the earth, body waves arrive before the surface waves emitted by an earthquake. These waves are of a higher frequency than surface waves. The first kind of body wave is the P wave or primary wave. This is the fastest kind of seismic wave, and, consequently, the first to 'arrive' at a seismic station. The P wave can move through solid rock and fluids, like water or the liquid layers of the earth. It pushes and pulls the rock it moves through just like sound waves push and pull the air. P waves are also known as compression waves, because of the pushing and pulling they do. Subjected to a P wave, particles move in the same direction that the wave is moving in, which is the direction that the energy is traveling in, and is sometimes called the 'direction of wave propagation.

S waves The second type of body wave is the S wave or secondary wave, which is the second wave you feel in an earthquake. An S wave is slower than a P wave and can only move through solid rock, not through any liquid medium. It is this property of S waves that led seismologists to conclude that the Earth's outer core is a liquid. S waves move rock particles up and down, or side-to-side--perpendicular to the direction that the wave is traveling in (the direction of wave propagation).

Love Waves The first kind of surface wave is called a Love wave, named after A.E.H. Love, a British mathematician who worked out the mathematical model for this kind of wave in 1911. It's the fastest surface wave and moves the ground from sideto-side. Confined to the surface of the crust, Love waves produce entirely horizontal motion

Rayleigh Waves The other kind of surface wave is the Rayleigh wave, named for John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, who mathematically predicted the existence of this kind of wave in 1885. A Rayleigh wave rolls along the ground just like a wave rolls across a lake or an ocean. Because it rolls, it moves the ground up and down, and side-to-side in the same direction that the wave is moving. Most of the shaking felt from an earthquake is due to the Rayleigh wave, which can be much larger than the other waves.

Earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves that make the ground shake. When two blocks of rock or two plates are rubbing against each other, they stick a little. They don't just slide smoothly; the rocks catch on each other. The rocks are still pushing against each other, but not moving. After a while, the rocks break because of all the pressure that's built up. When the rocks break, the earthquake occurs. During the earthquake and afterward, the plates or blocks of rock start moving, and they continue to move until they get stuck again. The spot underground where the rock breaks is called the focus of the earthquake. The place right above the focus (on top of the ground) is called the epicenter of the earthquake.

Faults are cracks in the earth where sections of a plate (or two plates) are moving in different directions. Faults are caused by all that bumping and sliding the plates do. They are more common near the edges of the plates.

Normal faults are the cracks where one block of rock is sliding downward and away from another block of rock. These faults usually occur in areas where a plate is very slowly splitting apart or where two plates are pulling away from each other. A normal fault is defined by the hanging wall moving down relative to the footwall, which is moving up. Reverse faults are cracks formed where one plate is pushing into another plate. They also occur where a plate is folding up because it's being compressed by another plate pushing against it. At these faults, one block of rock is sliding underneath another block or one block is being pushed up over the other. A reverse fault is defined by the hanging wall moving up relative to the footwall, which is moving down. Strike-slip faults are the cracks between two plates that are sliding past each other. You can find these kinds of faults in California. The San Andreas fault is a strike-slip fault. It's the most famous California fault and has caused a lot of powerful earthquakes.

Normal Fault

Reverse Fault

Strike-Slip Fault

The rocks could be fault if the forces of friction have passed the elasticity of rocks. The elasticity depends of stress and strain level. According to Hooke law, stress and strain are linear. When the stress has the maximum level the rocks can received, it will be brittle and deformated. The forces then released became a earthquake. And when the earthquake ended and the stress depleted, the rocks will be ductiled to its origin. It is the reason why the earthquake can be happen again.

An asperity (is an area on a fault that is stuck or locked. In the Earth, tectonic earthquakes are caused by slip along a fault plane, where two rock bodies are in rigid contact. The friction along the fault plane is not uniform in strength, so overall movement involves slip on one or more asperities, or stuck patches where the friction is highest. Most of the energy that is released by earthquakes comes from the patches that become unstuck.

Total fault offset accumulates through time in an uneven fashion, primarily by movement on first one, and then another section of the fault. The portions of the fault that produce great earthquakes can remain locked and quiet for one hundred or more years, while the strain is building up; then, in great lurches, the strain is released, producing a great earthquake.

P wave : 1. Is a longitudinal wave 2. Have a velocity about 6-7 km/s 3. Can pass through solid and liquid material 4. Has a high frequency 5. Its particle motion has the same direction with the direction of wave propagation.

S wave : 1. Is the transversal wave 2. Has velocity 3-5 km/s 3. Can pass the solid medium but in liquid is not. 4. The particle motion is perpendicular with the wave propagation (moving updown)