Tectonic hazards/Earthquake on Wikiversity.Wikiversity

Earthquake tsunami wave animation.

English

Noun

earthquake ‎(plural earthquakes)

1. A shaking of the ground, caused by volcanic activity or movement around geologic faults. [from 14th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.2:

     Her alablaster brest she soft did kis, / Which all that while shee felt to pant and quake, / As it an Earth-quake were: at last she thus bespake.

   • 2006, Declan Walsh, The Guardian, 6 Oct 2006:

     Last year's earthquake crushed his house, his livelihood and very nearly his leg, he said, pointing to a plastered limb that refuses to heal.

2. (planetary geology) Such a quake specifically occurring on the planet Earth, as opposed to other celestial bodies. [from 20th c.]
   • 1988, Jürgen Oberst and Yosio Nakamura, “A seismic risk for the lunar base” in The Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, Vol. 1, p. 231-233, NASA:

     Since the response of some man-made structures to the ground motion near the epicenter is highly dependent on frequency, a significant difference in potential damage to the structures is expected between earthquakes and moonquakes.

   • 2006, Bruce A. Bolt, Earthquakes, Fifth Edition:

     The wave patterns, too, are strikingly different: The secondary (S) waves and surface waves on lunar seismograms are not generally as clearly defined and distinct as are those of earthquakes.

Synonyms

Translations

Derived terms

• earthquake-prone

Related terms

• moonquake
• seaquake
• starquake

See also

• aftershock
• earthquake engineering
• fault line
• Richter scale
• seismic
• seismograph
• seismologist
• seismology
• tremor
• tsunami