Earthquakes
Earthquakes help
Terms
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- seismogram
- a tracing of earthquake motion created by a siesmograph
- Seismograph
- a measuring instrument for detecting and measuring the intensity and direction and duration of movements of the ground (as an earthquake)
- Focus
- point inside the Earth where an earthquake begins
- Fault
- breaking or fracture of rocks
- Epicenter
- location on the Earth's surface directly above the focus where the crust breaks during an earthquake
- Elastic Rebound
- With the sudden displacement and associated stress release of an earthquake, the rocks snap back elastically
- Intensity
- A measure of the earthquake's effects on humans and on surface features
- Fault zone
- A region of numerous, closely spaced faults.
- Moment magnitude
- A measurement of earthquake strength based on the size of the area of the fault that moves, the average distance that the fault blocks move, and the rigidity of the rocks in the fault zone.
- Richter scale
- a logarithmic scale of 1 to 10 used to express the energy released by an earthquake
- S wave
- type of siesmic wave that moves the ground up and down or side to side
- Surface waves
- seismic waves that travel along the Earth's surface
- Earthquake
- a shaking of the ground caused by the sudden release of energy in Earth's crust. The energy released as plates crush together, scrape past each other, or bend along jagged boundaries can cause great damage
- P wave
- the primary wave arrives at a given point before any other type of seismic wave, the wave also travels through solids, liquids, and gases
- Body waves
- seismic waves that travel through the Earth's interior
- Magnitude
- measurement of energy released by an earthquake; maximum motion shown on a seismograph.