earthquake Flashcards
ring of fire
a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.
Strike-slip fault
vertical (or nearly vertical) fractures where the blocks have mostly moved horizontally.
Normal fault
a type of dip-slip fault where the hanging wall moves downwards from the footwall.
Reverse fault
Reverse fault displacements combine vertical and compressional displacements. Reverse faults typically have a wide range of dip angles.
. P-waves
A P wave is one of the two main types of elastic body waves, called seismic waves in seismology.
S-waves
the second waves to hit the seismographs.
epicenter
the part of the earth’s surface directly above the focus of an earthquake
focus
the center of interest or activity.
Richter magnitude scale
quantitative measure of an earthquake’s magnitude
explosive volcano
an explosive eruption is a volcanic eruption of the most violent type. A notable example is the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
nonexplosive volcano
generally occur when magma is thin and flows easily.
Krakatoa
Krakatoa, also transcribed Krakatau, is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung.
Yellowstone supervolcano
The Yellowstone Caldera, sometimes referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano, is a volcanic caldera and supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park in the Western United States.
. San Andreas fault
The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly 1,200 kilometers through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip.
Mid-oceanic ridge
A mid-ocean ridge is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics.
