Earthquakes / volcanoes Flashcards
Ring of Fire
Major volcanic events that have occurred within the Ring of Fire since 1800 included the eruptions of Mount Tambora in 1815
S-waves
A seismic wave that causes particles of rock to move in a side-to-side direction.
Strike-slip fault
blocks of crust slide horizontally past each other
Normal Fault
blocks of crust are pulled away from each other slide along normal faults
Reverse fault
Blocks of crust that are pushed together slide along reverse faults
Epicenter
The point of the Earth’s surface the Earthquake’s focus
Focus
The point along a fault at which the first motion of an earthquake occurs
Richter magnitude scale
Measures the strength of an earthquake
explosive volcano
the eruption, clouds of hot debris, ash, and gas rapidly shoot out of a volcano
non-explosive volcano
Can occur on land and in the sea, also the most common type of explosion. Produces relatively calm flows of lava
mid-ocean ridge
a long undersea mountain chain that forms along the floor of the major oceans
Krakatoa
In August 1883, the eruption of the main island of Krakatoa (or Krakatau) killed more than 36,000 people
Yellowstone supervolcano
The Island Park Caldera supereruption, 2.1 million years ago, produced the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff,
hot spot
a volcanically active area of Earth’s surface far from a tectonic plate boundary
shield volcanoes
built of layers of lava released from repeated nonexplosive eruptions. The lava is very runny, forming not steep but enormous.
cinder cone volcanoes
Made up of pyroclastic material usually produced from moderately explosive eruptions. These are small but steep
composite volcanoes
Form from explosive eruptions of pyroclastic material, followed by quieter flows of lava. These two things alternate between layers of the volcano
Mt. Vesuvius
Its most famous eruption took place in the year 79 A.D. when the volcano buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii under a thick carpet of volcanic ash
San Andres Fault
An example of an earthquake zone
