Earthquake Vocabulary

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Earthquake Vocabulary
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StressStress

• A force that acts on rock to change its shape or
  volume.

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Tension

• Stress that stretches rock so that it becomes
  thinner in the middle

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Compression

• Stress that squeezes rock until it folds or breaks

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Shearing

• Stress that pushes masses of rock in opposite
  directions in a sideways movement

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Normal Faults

• A type of fault where the hanging wall slides
  downward caused by tension in the crust

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Reverse Faults

• Type of fault where the hanging wall slides
  upward caused by compression in the crust

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Strike-Slip Fault

• A type of fault in which rocks on either side
  move past each other sideways with little up or
  down motion

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Anticline

• An upward fold in rock formed by compression of
  Earths crust

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Syncline

• A downward fold in rock formed by compression in
  Earths crust

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Plateau

• A large area of flat land elevated high above sea
  level

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Epicenter

• The point on Earths surface directly above an
  earthquakes focus

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P Wave

• A type of seismic wave that compresses and
  expands the ground

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S Wave

• A type of seismic wave that moves the ground up
  and down or side to side

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Surface Waves

• A type of seismic wave that forms when P waves
  and S waves reach Earths surface

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Magnitude

• The measurement of an earthquakes strength based
  in seismic waves and movement along fault

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Seismograph

• A device that records ground movements caused by
  seismic waves as they move through Earth.

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Richter Scale

• A scale that rates an earthquakes magnitude
  based on the size of its seismic waves

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Aftershock

• An earthquake that occurs after a larger
  earthquake in the same area

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Tsunami

• A large wave produced by an earthquake on the
  ocean floor

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Liquefaction

• The process by which an earthquakes violent
  movement suddenly turns loose soil into liquid mud