How a fault releases energy.
What happens when a stuck fault slips?
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What happens when a stuck fault slips?
Build at least 0.1 m illustrative strain before releasing the fault.
Moving plates can strain rocks while a fault remains stuck. Sudden slip releases some of that stored elastic energy as seismic waves. Compressional P waves travel faster than shear S waves, so they arrive first at a distant station.
Spring-block analogy: stiffness 1,000 N/m and illustrative slip threshold 0.1 m. P speed 6 km/s, S speed 3.5 km/s. These teach elastic release and wave ordering, not magnitude, real fault recurrence or earthquake prediction.
Store strain, trigger slip and compare P- and S-wave arrival.
Release stored strain and compare wave arrivals.