is it possible to create an earthquake model

Sherenon

Well i am researching on seismology and tectonic plates. My project hypothesis is related to reducing the magnitude of P-S-L waves that are generated when tectonic plates collide,create subduction zones etc.
for the project i have a choice of submitting a theoretical or real model.my query is that ... is it possible to generate spl waves in a controlled model as they are generated in real.

Pennington ma

Hi Sherenon, so have you found anything for your project and how is it going on?

Sherenon

theoretically its proved that we can reduce the pressure between plates,the real problem is the method by which we inject the aqueous solution and the conditions in which it may be possible to actually reduce the pressure of the plates in the real world.However since its a high-school project we will mostly stick to the theories and model.


As for the earth quake model creating these waves in a room is out of the question.but i can stimulate the effects they would have on the surface of the earth by some methods. we will post the project abstract soon and keep u updated on progress

davenn

actually its a little more than theory :) it has been played with in the field. pumping liquid into faults/fault zones has been proven to increase the number of smaller events thus summising that pumping enough liquid in over a period of time would produce enough smaller events to decrease the risk of a larger event.

The real worry/problem is.... pumping fluid into a large fault such as the San Andreas fault in California, that you may well trigger the huge event that was not far from occurring anyway on that section of the fault.

A mining/drilling term call "fracking", rock fracturing by the pumping in of fluids to release hydrocarbons etc from many small pockets into a single larger reservoir (sp?) is often accompanied by many many small quakes. this has bee occurring recently a bit nth of Little Rock, AR, USA.

I have seen experiments done by the USGS and assoc institutions using large sheets of materials pressed together then stressed till they slid along their contact plane. The resulting vibrations recorded on geophones well resembled the P and S waves of an actual quake. The lower freq Love and Raleigh waves assoc with large, near surface quakes may be a bit more difficult to create in the lab. I may have been done, I'm personally not aware of it.

Dave

Sherenon

Are there any research papers or more detailed information about this process on the internet or anywhere else which can be used as reference for my project..
thankyou

davenn

I dont know, quite possibly. you will have to do some searching. Note the first 5 words in my previous post.... "I have seen experiments done ...."
I actually watched the experiments some 15 - 20 years ago.

cheers
Dave

davenn

hmmm in my email, I got a post from the forum, by a poster ... Avena... but their post isnt showing in the forum thread. Maybe a good thing is was a little rude and demanding ;)

I wonder if it was removed by the mod's ?

Dave