| Term | Definition |
|---|
| stress | a force that acts on rock to change its shape or volume |
| tension | stress that stretches rock so that it becomes thinner in the middle |
| compression | squeezes rock until it folds or breaks |
| shearing | stress that pushes masses of rock in opposite directions, in a sideways movement |
| normal fault | a type of fault where the hanging wall slides downward; caused by tension in the crust |
| hanging wall | the block of rock that forms the upper half of a fault |
| footwall | The block of rock that forms the lower half of a fault. |
| reverse fault | a type of fault where the hanging wall slides upward; caused by compression in the crust |
| strike-slip fault | A type of fault in which ricks on either side move past each other sideways with little up or down motion. |
| anticline | an upward fold in rock formed by compression of Earth's crust |
| syncline | a downward fold in rock formed by compression in earth's crust |
| plateau | a large area of flat land elevated high above sea level |
| earthquake | the shaking that results from the movement of rock beneath Earth's surface |
| focus | The point beneath Earth's surface where rock breaks under stress and causes an earthquake |
| epicenter | the point on Earth's surface directly above an earthquake's focus |
| P wave | A type of seismic wave that compresses and expands the ground. |
| surface wave | a type of seismic wave that forms when P waves and S waves reach Earth's surface |
| Mercalli scale | a scale that rates earthquakes according to their intensity and how much damage they cause at a particular place |
| magnitude | The measurement of an Earthquake's strength based on seismic waves and movement along faults |
| Richter scale | a scale that rates an earthquake's magnitude based on the size of its seismic waves |
| seismograph | a device that records ground movements caused by seismic waves as they move through Earth |
| moment magnitude scale | a scale that rates earthquakes by estimating the total energy released by an earthquake |
| seismogram | the record of an earthquake's seismic waves produced by a seismograph |
| friction | the force that opposes the motion of one surface as it moves across another surface |
| liquefaction | The process by which an earthquake's violent movement suddenly turns loose soil into liquid mud |
| aftershock | an earthquake that occurs after a larger earthquake in the same area |
| tsunami | a large wave produced by an earthquake on the ocean floor |
| base-isolated buidling | A building mounted on bearings designed to absorb the energy of an earthquake |
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