Chapter 8: Earthquakes Vocabulary – Flashcards
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seismology
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The study of earthquakes
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deformation
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The bending, tilting, and breaking of the Earth's crust; the change in the shape of rock in response to stress
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Elastic rebound
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the sudden return of elastically deformed rock to its undeformed shape
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Seismic wave
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A wave of energy that travels through the Earth, away from an earthquake in all directions
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P wave ( pressure wave/ primary wave)
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A seismic wave that causes particles of rock to move in a back-and-forth direction
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S wave (shear wave/secondary wave)
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a seismic wave that causes particles of rock to move in a side-to-side direction
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earthquake
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Shaking of the ground
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seismologists
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Scientists who study earthquakes
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Tectonic plates
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Giant pieces of the Earth's thin, outermost layer that move around on top of a layer of plastic rock
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fault
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A break in the Earth's crust along which blocks of the crust slide relative to one another
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Plastic deformation
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Deformation that does not lead to earthquakes
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Elastic deformation
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Deformation that leads to earthquakes
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Body waves
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Waves that travel through the Earth's interior
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Surface waves
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Waves that travel along the Earth's surface
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seismograph
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An instrument that records vibrations in the ground and determines the location and strength of an earthquake
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seismogram
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A tracing of earthquake motion that is created by a seismograph
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epicenter
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The point on Earth's surface directly above an earthquake's starting point, or focus
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focus
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The point along a fault at which the first motion of an earthquake occurs
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S-P time method
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Method in which scientists collect several seismograms of the same earthquake graph them, match them up, and find the earthquake's epicenter
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Richter magnitude scale (Richter scale)
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1-10 scale used to measure an earthquake's magnitude or strength
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magnitude
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A measure of the strength of an earthquake
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intensity
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A measure of the degree to which an earthquake is felt by the people and the amount of damage caused by the earthquake
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Gap hypothesis
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Hypothesis that states that sections of active faults that have had relatively few earthquakes are likely to be the sites of strong earthquakes in the future
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Seismic gaps
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An area along a fault where relatively few earthquakes have occurred recently but where strong earthquakes have occurred in the past
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Earthquake hazard
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A measurement of how likely an area is to have damaging earthquakes in the future
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retrofitting
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Process of making older structures more earthquake resistant
