earthquake/volcano 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
A fault on which the two blocks slide past one another. The San Andreas Fault is an example of a right lateral fault.
Normal fault
A dip-slip fault in which the block above the fault has moved downward relative to the block below.
Reverse fault
In a reverse fault, the block above the fault moves up relative to the block below the fault.
P-waves
A P wave, or compressional wave, is a seismic body wave that shakes the ground back and forth in the same direction and the opposite direction as the direction the wave is moving.
S-waves
An S wave, or shear wave, is a seismic body wave that shakes the ground back and forth perpendicular to the direction the wave is moving.
Epicenter
The central point of an earthquake is an example of an epicenter.
Focus
The definition of a focus is the central point of attention. An example of focus is a newborn baby in a family.
Richter magnitude scale
The Richter magnitude scale, also known as the local magnitude (M) scale, assigns a number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake.
Explosive volcano
A Pelean eruption is associated with explosive outbursts that generate pyroclastic flows, dense mixtures of hot volcanic fragments and gas described in the section Lava, gas, and other hazards.
Nonexplosive volcano
Nonexplosive eruptions are the most common type of volcanic eruptions.
Krakatoa
Krakatoa is a small volcanic island in Indonesia, located about 100 miles west of Jakarta. In August 1883, the eruption of the main island of Krakatoa (or Krakatau) killed more than 36,000 people, making it one of the most devastating volcanic eruptions in human history.
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
The mid-ocean ridge is a continuous range of undersea volcanic mountains that encircles the globe almost entirely underwater.
Shield volcano
Where a volcano produces low viscosity, runny lava, it spreads far from the source and forms a volcano with gentle slopes: a shield volcano. Most shield volcanoes are formed from fluid, basaltic lava flows. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are shield volcanoes.
Cinder cone volcano
A cinder cone (or scoria cone) is a steep conical hill of loose pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic clinkers, volcanic ash, or cinder that has been built around a volcanic vent.
Composite volcano
They form when different types of eruptions deposit different materials around the sides of a volcano.
Hot spot
A hot spot is an area on Earth over a mantle plume or an area under the rocky outer layer of Earth, called the crust, where magma is hotter than surrounding magma.
Mt. Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km east of Naples and a short distance from the shore.
