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Earthquakes
Gary Girty GEO100-PLANET EARTH SDSU
18
Geology
Undergraduate 1
07/07/2010

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Term
Earthquake
Definition
Vibration or shaking of the land's surface.
Commonly cause by development of a new fault or slip of an old fault.
Term
Site of Origin
Definition
Focus or hypocenter
Term
Epicenter
Definition
The vertical projection of the focus onto the land surface.
Term
Seismeic Waves
Definition
Body (Travel across interior)
Surface (Travel across surface, elastically distort the material they pass through)
Term
Body Waves
Definition
P and S waves.
Term
Direction of wave propagation
Definition
The direction in which a wave travels.
Term
P waves
Definition
Sound, acoustical, compression, or primary waves.
Faster than S waves
Produce contractions and expansions.
Can travel through solids, liquids and gases.
Term
S waves
Definition
Sheer/secondary waves.
Slower than P waves and produce sharing motion.
Raleigh/Love waves.
Cannot travel through liquids/gases.
Term
Raleigh Waves
Definition
Die out with depth.
Have a form of a wind blown ocean wave.
Term
Love waves
Definition
Horizontal snake-like motion
Term
Seismic Recording Stations
Definition
P waves are first to arrive.
Term
Seismograph
Definition
Device used to record arrival.
Term
Seismogram
Definition
Tracing of the vibrations they produce.
Term
P and S interval.
Definition
The difference in arrival time between P and S waves.
Used to locate the epicenter.
Term
Logarithmic Scale
Definition
Richter/moment magnitudes.
Measure values lined between 1-9.
Term
Richter magnitude
Definition
Based on largest scaled magnitude.
Term
Moment
Definition
Most commonly used.
Based on the sheer strength of material in which fault occured, the ammount of offset among the fault, how much of the area in the fault plain was involved
Term
Modified Mercalli Scale
Definition
Measure of the effects of an earthquake in people and structures.
1-6 people
6-12 structures
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