Earthquake
Earthquake: shaking of the Earth's crust, a violent shaking of the Earth's crust that may cause destruction to buildings and installations and results from the sudden release of tectonic stress along a fault line or volcanic activityTsunami: (late 19th century. From Japanese 'harbour wave') large ocean wave, a large destructive ocean wave caused by an underwater earthquake or some other movement of the earth's surface Volcano:Êopening in Earth's crust, a naturally occurring opening in the surface of the Earth through which molten, gaseous, and solid material is ejected Seismic: relating to earthquakes, relating to or caused by an earthquake or earth tremor Seismology: science of earthquakes Tectonic plates: segment of the Earth's crust, a segment of the Earth's crust that moves relative to other plates and is characterized by volcanic and seismic activity around its margins Epicentre: the exact location on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake or underground nuclear explosion Richter scale:Êscale for measuring earthquakes, a scale from 1 to 10 used to measure the severity of earthquakes according to the amount of energy released, with a higher number indicating stronger tremors. Each increment of the scale is a 32-fold increase over the previous one. (After US seismologist Charles Francis Richter (19001985), who devised it mid 20th C.)
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