earthquake/valcano vocabulary Flashcards
ring of fire
The Ring of Fire is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.
Strike-slip fault
fracture in the rocks of Earth’s crust in which the rock masses slip past one another parallel to the strike
Normal fault
inclined fractures where the blocks have mostly shifted vertically.
Reverse fault
caused by compressional forces and results in shortening.
P-waves
P waves travel faster than other seismic waves and hence are the first signal from an earthquake to arrive at any affected location or at a seismograph.
S-waves
seismic waves produced by an earthquake
epicenter
the point on the earth’s surface vertically above the focus of an earthquake.
focus
a point at which rays of light, heat, or other radiation meet after being refracted or reflected.
Richter magnitude scale
assigns a number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake.
explosive volcano
a relative measure of the explosiveness of volcanic eruptions.
nonexplosive volcano
These eruptions produce relatively calm flows of lava in huge amounts. … Vast areas of the Earth’s surface, including much of the sea floor and the Northwestern United States, are covered with lava form nonexplosive eruptions.
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
Mid-oceanic ridge
a continuous range of undersea volcanic mountains
