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Causes of earthquake essay
Causes and effects of earthquakes
Earthquakes occur because of _____.
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An earthquake is the shaking of the surface of the earth. Earthquakes can also be called quakes, tremors, or temblors. The strength of an earthquake can range from being barely felt to being violent enough to take down entire cities.
An earthquake is caused by two tectonic plates suddenly slip past each other and cause the shaking of the ground. The spot at which the two plates slip past each other is called a fault or fault plate. The area below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter. The spot directly above the hypocenter, and on the surface, is called the epicenter. An earthquake can also have foreshocks. Foreshocks are smaller earthquakes that are in the same place as the larger earthquake which follows
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The crust and the upper mantle are composed of many pieces, almost like a puzzle, these pieces are called tectonic plates. The tectonic plates are constantly moving; sliding past and bumping into one another. The movement of the tectonic plates is caused by the motion. There are oceanic and continental plates. Most earthquakes that arise are along the tectonic plate boundaries.
Another place where earthquakes can develop is on faults. Faults are cracks in the earth where a section of a plate (or plates) are moving in different directions. There are three different types of faults; normal, reverse and strike slip-faults. In normal faults, a block of rock is moving downward and away from another rock block. In reverse faults, one block of rock is being pushed up while another is being pushed down. Strike-slip faults are cracks between two plates is sliding past each other.
The hypocenter, where the earthquake starts, sends out shock waves that may be powerful enough to alter the surface of the earth by creating cliffs and opening up large cracks in the ground. Earthquakes can also cause lots of damage. They can collapse buildings and other manmade structures, break power, water and gas lines, cause landslides, snow avalanches tsunamis and cause volcanoes to
Earthquakes, by Webster’s dictionary definition, are, “a shaking or trembling of the earth that is volcanic or tectonic in origin.” World Book Encyclopedia reports scientists believe that more than 8,000 earthquakes occur each day without causing damage. A little more than 1,000 each year are strong enough to be felt. Earthquakes occur in the general sense, anywhere on land. Other earthquakes go by different names, such as volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, large tidal wave storms that occur underwater, primarily in the Pacific Ocean.
Earthquakes play a major role into understanding the composition and materials that exist within the Earth (Merali and Skinner, 2009, p.252). Earthquakes are the main source of insight into the inner workings of the earth, due to the nature of the seismic waves they produce. P and S waves are reflected and refracted at different boundaries within the earth, and this enables seismologists to make inferences about the internal composition and structural of planet Earth. (Merali and Skinner, 2009, p.252).
Earthquakes are frequent but most of the time aren’t very big on the Richter Scale. Statistics and research show that there are earthquakes happening constantly, but most of the time are impossible to feel unless they are above a 3 on the Richter Scale (see source7).
An earthquake is the shaking of the ground caused by sudden release of energy inside the earth's crust. It's the breaking and moving of tectonic plates along a fault line. Earthquakes can range in size from weak where we don't feel them to extremely violent where they actually thow people around and destroy cities. They may be a result of geological faults or other activites such as volcanoes, landslides, mine blasts and nuclear tests. An earthquake is not always naturally caused.
Earthquakes are best described as a shaking or vibration of the ground caused by breaking of rock. Sometimes they are very strong and other times you would hardly notice them. This shaking occurs when stress that builds up in the crust is suddenly released as the crust breaks free and/or slides against the other pieces of crust. Earthquakes may also be thought of as the breaking of a popsicle stick by applying pressure to both ends at the same time. Should you try this experiment , you will feel the pressure build up as you apply more force until the stick snaps. When the stick snaps you will feel an instant of pain at your fingers as the stress reduces and energy waves move throughout the stick. When the earth's crust is placed under similar types of stress, binding as the stress builds, it will also snap and release the energy into the surrounding rocks, 'ooch'. Thinking about earthquakes will become more clear if you try another experiment.
Convection currents occur because the density of a fluid is related to its temperature. Hot rocks lower in the mantle are less dense than the cooler rocks above. The hot rocks rise and the cooler rocks sink because of gravity. Convection currents are thought to be the driving mechanism of plate movement. Convection currents cause convergent and divergent movements. When the rising part of the convection current rises it causes the upper mantle to move upward and in a lateral direction. This causes the mantle to split and new material to rise creating new ocean crust. The downward motion of the convection current pulls the mantle crust downward at convergent boundaries. When part of the mantle crust is uplifted the weight of the lifted part, pushes the sinking mantle down, causing motion in the tectonic plates.
The earthquake was caused by a strike-slip fault. A strike-slip fault is when the rupture is almost nearly vertical movement. During an earthquake, they slide past each other.
Tectonic Activity The continents of the world are all separated by different tectonic plates which when collide is called Tectonic Activity. There are different forms of tectonic activity and different processes and landforms, which are involved during and as a result of the collisions. As and when these collisions are going to take place we can't determine because current technology hasn't allowed us to dig as far into the earth to the point of pressures which causes the plates to collide. These pressures are believed to be eruptions of liquid magma deep inside the earth.
The earth’s surface and the mantle make up the composition of the tectonic plates. This layer, called the lithosphere, rests on top of the asthenosphere, a layer of molten rock. The asthenosphere is constantly moving and flowing due to the extreme pressures...
This is because all of them move the crust in different ways. Weather it be a few tenths of degrees or multiple degrees, the plates are always moving. Sometimes when these plates collide, things like volcanoes can come to form. The boundaries can make things like: folded mountain ranges, volcanoes, earthquakes, trenches, mid ocean ridges, and rift valleys. Convergent boundaries are when the plates collide into each other.
Volcanoes can cause damage by spewing lava, but earthquakes before the eruption can also cause damage. These earthquakes open fissures and let magma out to the surface. When the magma exits these fissures, streams of lava up to hundreds of feet can shoot into the air. The picture below shows the lava erupting from the fissures created by the earthquakes in...
They are the earth’s crust; they move very slowly every year. As the tectonic plates slide over each other they cause earthquakes. Earthquakes produce various damaging effects this includes damage to structures of buildings, bridges and other standing formations which then...
Earthquakes are vibrations felt at the surface of the earth which are caused by disturbances of the energy in the earth's interior. These vibrations are known as seismic waves. (Skinner Robinson McVerry 1) There are different type sof seisimc waves such as Primary (P) waves, whcih travel the fastest, Secondary (S) waves which cause the earth to vibrate vertically, Surface (L) waves. P and S waves are "affected by changes in the density and the rigidity of the materials through which they pass." (Columbia Encyclopedia) Earthquakes vary in their intensity and duration. Often times they are strong enough to cause massive destriction. Tall buildings often suffer as a result of these natural disasters. In recent years this has become a larger and larger threat with both the number of large buildings, and their number of occupants increasing. In an effort to try to minimize the damage caused by earthquakes many some engineers focus primarily on designing and constructing earthquake resistant buildings. Earthquake engineers have gathered much of their information from analyzing past earthquakes, and learning which buildings can and can't withstand the tremors. The goals of these engineers is to design buildings that can withstand moderate earthquakes and obtain minimal damage, and that the buildings will not collapse lowering the probability of human deaths.
The basic science is pretty straightforward. The earth lurches from time to time because its outer shell is broken into huge, solid plates floating on a layer of molten rock that has the consistency of Silly Putty. These tectonic plates are constantly jostling each other, like rafts crowded into a...
Earthquakes belong to the class of most disastrous natural hazards. They result in unexpected and tremendous earth movements. These movements results from dissemination of an enormous amount of intense energy in form of seismic waves which are detected by use of seismograms. The impact of earthquakes leaves behind several landmarks including: destruction of property, extensive disruption of services like sewer and water lines, loss of life, and causes instability in both economic and social components of the affected nation (Webcache 2).