A | B |
stress | A force that acts on rock to change its shape or volume. |
tension | Stress that stretches rock so that it becomes thinner in the middle. |
compression | Stress that squeezes rock until it folds or breaks. |
shearing | Stress that pushes masses of rock in opposite directions, in a sideways movement. |
normal fault | A type of fault where the hanging wall slides downward; caused by tension in the crust. |
hanging wall | The block of rock that forms the upper half of a fault. |
footwall | The block of rock that forms the lower half of a fault. |
reverse fault | A type of fault where the hanging wall slides upward; caused by compression in the crust. |
strike-slip fault | A type of fault in which the rocks on either side move past each other sideways with little up or down motion. |
anticline | An upward fold in rock formed by compression of Earth's crust. |
syncline | A downward fold in rock formed by compression of Earth's crust. |
plateau | A large area of flat land elevated high above sea level. |
earthquake | The shaking that results from the movement of rock beneath Earth's surface. |
focus | The point beneath Earth's surface where rock breaks under stress and causes an earthquake. |
epicenter | The point on Earth's surface directly above an earthquake's focus. |
P wave | A type of seismic wave that compresses and expands the ground. |
S wave | A type of seismic wave that moves the ground up and down or side to side. |
surface wave | A type os seismic wave that forms when P waves and S waves reach Earth's surface. |
Mercalli scale | A scale that rates earthquakes according to their intensity and how much damage they cause at a particular place. |
magnitude | The measurement of an earthquake's strength based on seismic waves and movement along faults. |
Richter scale | A scale that rates an earthquake's magnitude based on the size of its seismic waves. |
seismograph | A device that records ground movements caused by seismic waves as they move through Earth. |
moment magnitude scale | A scale that rates earthquakes by estimating the total energy released by an earthquake. |
seismogram | The record of an earthquake's seismic waves produced by a seismograph. |
friction | The force that opposes the motion of one surface as it moves across another surface. |
liquefaction | The process by which an earthquake's violent movement suddenly turns loose soil into liquid mud. |
aftershock | An earthquake that occurs after a larger earthquake in the same area. |
tsunami | A large wave produced by an earthquake on the ocean floor. |
base-isolated building | A building mounted on bearings designed to absorb the energy of an earthquake. |