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An earthquake is the shaking of the surface of Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes may also be referred to as quakes, tremors, or temblors. The word tremor is also used for non-earthquake seismic rumbling . In its most general sense, an earthquake is any seismic event ...
Earthquakes occur when tectonic plates suddenly break free, so they start moving quickly. The first point of an earthquake's rupture is called its hypocenter or focus. The epicenter is the point at ground level directly above the hypocenter. People who study earthquakes are called seismologists.
The figure of 230,000 dead is based on a historical conflation of this earthquake with earthquakes in November 1137 on the Jazira plain and the 1139 Ganja earthquakein the Azerbaijani city of Ganja. The first mention of a 230,000 death toll was by Ibn Taghribirdi in the fifteenth century. [177] 7. 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Jul 11, 2024 · earthquake, any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves through Earth ’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.”. Earthquakes occur most often along geologic ...
Historical earthquakes is a list of significant earthquakes known to have occurred prior to the early 20th century. As the events listed here occurred before routine instrumental recordings — later followed by seismotomography imaging technique and detections using space satellites from outer space — they rely mainly on the analysis of written sources, observations of shaking objects and ...
5.0–5.9. 731. 4.0–4.9. 6,447. ← 2023. This is a list of earthquakes in 2024. Only earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above are included, unless they result in significant damage and/or casualties. All dates are listed according to UTC time. The maximum intensities are based on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.
Oct 19, 2023 · Hundreds of earthquakes occur on Earth everyday. Most of them are small, barely detectable by most people. But occasionally there is a much more significant quake. On average, a major earthquake—one with a magnitude of 7.0-7.9—strikes somewhere on the planet more than once a month. A great earthquake—with a magnitude of 8.0 or higher—occurs about once a year.
Submarine earthquake, an earthquake that occurs underwater at the bottom of a body of water, especially an ocean. [17] Supershear earthquake, an earthquake in which the propagation of the rupture along the fault surface occurs at speeds in excess of the seismic shear wave (S-wave) velocity, causing an effect analogous to a sonic boom. [18]
Earthquake epicenters occur mostly along tectonic plate boundaries, and especially on the Pacific Ring of Fire. An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth, resulting from the sudden release of energy in the Earth 's lithosphere that creates seismic waves.
6.9. 1989 - October 17. Loma Prieta ( Santa Cruz) California, United States. 63. 7.1. The Loma Prieta earthquake caused the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland, California, and damage to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. Largest quake on the San Andreas Fault since the 1906 San Francisco quake. 1990 - June 20.
