Earthquake
An earthquake is a trembling or shaking movement of the Earth's surface. Earthquakes typically
result from the movement of faults, quasi-planar zones of deformation within its uppermost layers.
The word earthquake is also widely used to indicate the source region itself. The solid earth is in
slow but constant motion (see plate tectonics) and earthquakes occur where the resulting stress
exceeds the capacity of Earth materials to support it. This condition is most often found at (and the
resulting frequent occurrence of earthquakes is used to define) the boundaries of the tectonic
plates into which the Earth's lithosphere can be divided. Events that occur at plate boundaries are
called interplate earthquakes; the less frequent events that occur in the interior of the lithospheric
plates are called intraplate earthquakes.
Characteristics
Earthquakes occur every day on Earth, but the vast majority of them are minor and cause no
damage. Large earthquakes can cause serious destruction and massive loss of life via a variety of
agents of damage including fault rupture, vibratory ground motion (i.e., shaking), inundation (e.g.,
tsunami, seiche, dam failure), various kinds of permanent ground failure (e.g. liquefaction,
landslide), and fire or hazardous materials release. In a particular earthquake, any of these agents
of damage can dominate, and historically each has caused major damage and great loss of life, but
for most earthquakes shaking is the dominant and most widespread cause of damage.
Most large earthquakes are accompanied by other, smaller ones, known as foreshocks when they
occur before the principal or mainshock and aftershocks when they occur following it. The source of
an earthquake is distributed over a significant area -- in the case of the very largest earthquakes, in
excess of a thousand kilometres -- but it is usually possible to identify a point from which the
earthquake waves appear to emanate. That point is called its "focus" and usually proves to be the
point at which fault rupture was initiated. The position of the focus is known as the "hypocenter"
and the location on the surface directly above it is the "epicenter." Earthquakes, especially those
that occur beneath sea- or ocean-covered areas, can give rise to tsunamis, either as a direct result
of the deformation of the sea bed due to the earthquake, or as a result of submarine landslips or
"slides" indirectly triggered by it.
Intensity
A class of earthquakes known as silent earthquakes are thought to be caused by very slow
slippage. They are of extremely low intensity but can last for days or weeks releasing as much
energy as large earthquakes.
In the 1930s, a California seismologist named Charles F. Richter devised a simple numerical scale
(which he called the magnitude) to describe the relative sizes of earthquakes, which has come to
be called the Richter scale. Since Richter, seismologists have developed a number of magnitude
scales. Most of the scales in use in the Western world (such as the moment magnitude scale) are
mutually consistent to a sufficient extent that the term "Richter scale" is routinely used in reporting
these numbers to the public. Other scales (and other ways of describing the size of earthquakes)
are used in some non-Western countries, and by earthquake specialists. For example, the Japanese
scale for measuring the force of earthquakes measures horizontal movement. The press sometimes
mistakenly reports such values as "Richter magnitude", and this has given rise to public confusion.
Earthquake effects are described in terms of intensity, a scale which attempts to quantify the
severity of shaking at a given location. A number of intensity scales are in use, and there is a
significant degree of consistency amongst them. The best known is the Mercalli (or Modified
Mercalli, MM) scale, but the more consistent and analytical European Macroseismic Scale (EMS) is
now increasingly widely used. In Japan the Japan Meterological Agency seismic intensity scale (JMA)
is used.
Causes
Some earthquakes are caused by the movement of magma in volcanoes, and such quakes can be
an early warning of volcanic eruptions. A rare few earthquakes have been associated with the build-
up of large masses of water behind dams, such as the Kariba Dam in Zambia, Africa, and with the
injection or extraction of fluids into the Earth's crust (e.g, at certain geothermal power plants and at
the Rocky Mountain Arsenal). Such earthquakes occur because the strength of the Earth's crust can
be modified by fluid pressure. Finally, earthquakes (in a broad sense) can also result from the
detonation of explosives. Thus scientists have been able to monitor, using the tools of seismology,
nuclear weapons tests performed by governments that were not disclosing information about these
tests along normal channels. Earthquakes such as these, that are caused by human activity, are
referred to by the term induced seismicity.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Earthquake"
Glossary:
trembling - drżący
shaking - trzęsący się
surface - powierzchnia
to result from - wynikać z
fault - uskok
uppermost - najwyższy
to indicate - wskazywać, sygnalizować
source - źródło, początek, pochodzenie
solid - stały, lity, solidny
resulting - pochodzący, wypływający, będący rezultatem
to exceed - przekraczać, przewyższać
capacity - pojemność, zdolność, możliwości
boundary - granica, obszar graniczny
tectonic plate - płyta tektoniczna
interior - wnętrze, środek
agent - czynnik
rupture - pęknięcie
vibratory ground motion - wibracyjny ruch ziemi
inundation - zalanie, zatopienie
seiche - sejsza
dam failure - uszkodzenie zapory, grobli
liquefaction - skraplanie
landslide - obsunięcie się ziemie
hazardous - niebezpieczny
release - uwolnienie, udostępnienie
foreshock - drganie poprzedzające trzęsienie ziemi
principal - glówny, podstawowy
mainshock - głowny wstrząs
aftershock - drganie wystepujące po głównym wstrząsie
in excess of - ponad
focus - ognisko, koncentracja
hypocenter - hipocentrum
epicenter - epicentrum
sea bed - dno morskie
submarine - podwodny
landslip - obsunięcie się ziemi
indirectly - nie bezpośrednio
to trigger - wywoływać, powodować
slippage - zsuwanie, obsuwanie
devised - obmyślać, wymyślać
mutually - wzajemnie, wspólnie
consistent - zgodny, logiczny
sufficient - wystarczający, dostateczny
extent - rozmiar, zakres, stopień
in terms of - z punktu widzenia, pod względem
to quantify - określać ilościowo
severity - ciężkość przypadku, przebiegu
to quake - trząść się, drżeć
build-up - rozbudowa, przyrost
injection - wtrysk
extraction - wydobycie
crust - powłoka, skorupa
geothermal power plant - elektrownia geotermalna
detonation - detonacja, wybuch, eksplozja
explosive - materiał wybuchowy
induced - wywołany
retrofit - modernizacja, unowocześnienie
