Laboratory Manual for Introductory Geology 4e

GEOTOURS EXERCISE 11
Predicting Earthquakes from Historical Seismicity
Name:
Course:
Section:
Date:
Exploring Geology Using Google Earth
1. Visit digital.wwnorton.com/geolabmanual4
2. Go to the Geotours tile to download Google Earth Pro and the accompanying
Geotours exercises file.
Expand the Geotour11 folder in Google Earth
by clicking the triangle to the left of the
folder icon. Check and double-click on the
North Anatolian Fault, Turkey folder to fly to
northern Turkey. The segments within the
folder show the traces of a series of faults that
compose the North Anatolian Fault system.
The segments are labeled and colored to
show a relatively brief historical record of
earthquake activity along the North Anatolian
Fault (based on approximate regions that
were active during each major seismic event...
gray faults have not been active during these
major events).
(a) What is the dominant general pattern
of major earthquakes along the main
portion of the North Anatolian Fault
from 1939 to 1999 (i.e., look for a temporal
sequence of earthquakes related to
direction)?
(b) What might cause this pattern?
(c) Assuming you are a geologist/geophysicist consulting with the Turkish government, where would you predict would be
the likeliest area to next experience a major earthquake in association with this fault system (based on the data shown)?
Check and double-click the c: placemarks to fly to each area location.
area
11.6 TSUNAMI!
297