Earthquakes

Question 1

What is an earthquake?

Answer 1

Earthquake are vibrations in the earth caused by the earths movement at plate boundaries and major fault lines (cracks in the earths surface)

Question 2

Name two ways of measuring earthquakes.

Answer 2

Richter scale

Mercalli scale

Question 3

What is a Richter scale?

Answer 3

A Richter scale is used to measure the strength of the earthquake. It is a logarithmic scale that measures so far from between 1 - 10 because no earthquake has yet exceeded that.

Question 4

What is a logarithmic scale?

Answer 4

A logarithmic scale means that an earthquake which measure 3 would be 10 times more powerful than an earthquake that measured 2 and 100 times more powerful than one that measured 1.

Question 5

What does the mercalli scale measure?

Answer 5

The mercalli scale measures the damage caused by an earthquake. It is measured on a scale between 1 and 12

Question 6

What is the epicentre?

Answer 6

The epicentre is directly above the focus

Question 7

What is the focus?

Answer 7

The focus is the point where the plates have slipped

Question 8

What are seismic waves?

Answer 8

These are the waves or vibrations that are made by the plates slipping