Earthquakes
First of all what is an earthquake? An earthquake is shaking of the ground that is continuous. Earthquakes stop when there isn't enough energy to keep them going. The energy released by the sliding fault needs to be enough to overcome the friction holding the rocks in place. Once the earthquake comes up against too much friction, it will stop.
Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanicanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world's dormant volcanoes. About 90% of the world's earthquakes and 89% of the worlds largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire.
Seismograph
When an earthquake occurs we wonder how do you get the magnitude for the earthquake? A seismograph is the device that scientists use to measure earthquakes. For it to work it has to be attached to the solid rock underneath the soil. It can track where the epicenter and focus are. But it cannot pick up earthquake signals from two different sides of the world. For example, if the seismograph was on one side of the world, and the seismograph had to read something that has gone through the outer core, it wouldn't be able to pick up the waves. Why can't it? That is because there are shadow zones in the outer core, which the waves cant go through so the seismograph wouldn't be able to pick up the signal. The goal of a seismograph is to accurately record the motion of the ground during a quake.
Richter Scale
The Richter magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles Richter of the California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the size of earthquakes.The amount of energy released increases the strength of the
earthquake. A magnitude of an earthquake of 2 is very hard to measure, because it is barely even noticeable. But an earthquake with the magnitude of 5 can be picked up easily, and can cause damage.
earthquake. A magnitude of an earthquake of 2 is very hard to measure, because it is barely even noticeable. But an earthquake with the magnitude of 5 can be picked up easily, and can cause damage.
The three types of faults
There are three major types of faults: the Normal fault, the Reverse fault and the Transform fault. Each of them happen at a different boundary and each different type of plate boundary is characterized by one of the three main types of faulting. For example the Normal fault occurs at a divergent boundary. The tectonic stresses caused by plate motions build up over time and eventually cause breaks in the crust of the Earth along which the rocks sperate and grind past one another. When this happens, earthquakes occur. To learn more about the three faults scroll down.
Normal fault line
As you might have read above, the Normal fault occurs at a divergent boundary, what happens is one plate slides down. They are normally found in places where the lithosphere is stretched or at the edge of huge slumps and slides. As one slides down they are actually moving apart from each other like in a divergent boundary.
Reverse Fault
Reverse Faults occur in convergent boundaries, one plate overlaps the other. Reverse faults are exactly the opposite of normal faults. If the hanging wall rises relative to the footwall, you have a reverse fault. But as they overlap one is being pushed up so that they are over lapping. But they are also being pushed together, that is why there is so much tension and why one is gong up instead of down.
Strike Slip Fault
The Strike Slip Fault or the transform fault causes earthquakes by slipping. This fault line occurs in Transform Boundaries, they are also very similar
to transform boundaries. The strike slip fault is the crust that moves past each other that also does have energy to make them snap in the end of the tension
(stretching or straining).
(stretching or straining).