Earthquakes
An Earthquake is the shaking of the ground that is caused by the sudden release of energy stored in rocks. The stress of moving tectonic plates can cause the rock to bend or stretch. When the pressure is to great the rock breaks suddenly causing an earthquake. Scientists that are called seismologists use a special machine called a seismography to measure earthquakes. There is three types of faults a Normal fault, a Reverse fault, and a Strike Slip fault.
Normal Fault
A Normal fault is tension in the force that causes stretching. In places where the plates are moving apart, the tension can pull rocks apart and create a normal fault. In a normal fault rock above the fault moves downward. Normal fault lines occurs at a divergent boundaries.
Reverse Fault
A Reverse fault is the compression that is the force and stress that squeezes and can cause rocks to bend and break. Reverse fault lines occur at convergent boundaries.
Strike slip fault
A strike slip fault is plates moving sideways past each other. As the plates try to move the forces build up until the rocks break and an earthquake is created. A Strike Slip fault occurs at transform boundaries.
Richter Scale
The Richter scale describes the magnitude of an earthquake. The scale starts at zero and can go as high as necessary. The amount of energy released increases greatly as all the numbers increase.
Seismographs:
Seismographs are another way to measure earthquakes. Everybody wonders what seismographs do, well seismographs record the motion of the ground when there is an earthquake.
Seismographs are another way to measure earthquakes. Everybody wonders what seismographs do, well seismographs record the motion of the ground when there is an earthquake.