Earthquakes
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Earthquakes
An earthquake is the sudden, sometimes violent movement of the earth's surface from the release of energy in the earth's crust. This paper will explain how earthquakes are formed and to get a better understanding of what makes them happen.
An earthquake occurs when two tectonic plates, which is the making on the Earth’s crust, collide or rub with each other, which causes a tremendous amount of force that is released that spreads in a wave. An earthquake gets stuck and puts a strain on the ground. The strain becomes so great that rocks give way and fault lines occur. Underneath the earths crust, there is pressure from all the energy and magma contained that it is trying to find a way out through an open fissure or ridge and that pressure being released causes movement of the tectonic plates; therefore, the earth moves with shakes and quakes.
The magnitude of most earthquakes is measured on the Richter scale. The Richter magnitude is calculated from the amplitude of the largest seismic wave recorded for the earthquake, no matter what type of wave was the strongest. ( Kious) The Richter magnitudes are based on a logarithmic scale (base 10).( Kious) What this means is that for each whole number you go up on the Richter scale, the amplitude of the ground motion recorded by a seismograph goes up ten times. ( Kious) Using this scale, a magnitude 5 earthquake would result in ten times the level of ground shaking as a magnitude 4 earthquake. ( Kious)
Seismologists have discovered that there are several kinds of vibrations, or waves, created during an earthquake. These waves radiate in all directions from the epicenter, the focus or place of origin of the quake. As the waves pass through the earth they curve with a curvature opposite to that of the earth's surface, and seismograph stations miles away receive and register the waves. There are two main types of body waves that an earthquake creates. Body waves are divided into primary or P waves and secondary or S waves....
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