- 4 factors that can affect how much damage an earthquake doses: 1) population of the area 2) the time it occurs 3) the kind of rock & soil in the area 4) the kind of buildings in the area(are they earthquake resistant?)
- aftershocks: samller quakes produced after a major quake caused by rock shifting to new positons
- earthquake: a shaking of the ground caused by the sudden movement of part of the earth's crust
- effects of earthquakes: 1) avalanches(landslides) 2)shaking 3)recue work to remove trapped victims 4) fires 5)tsunamis
- epicenter: the point on the earth's surface directly above the focus of an earhtquake (the distance away)
- fault: a break or crack in the earth's surace where rocks move
- focus: the underground point of origin of an earthquake where the rocks break and move (depth)
- magnitude: the amt. of energy released by the quake (the strength of it)
- Richter scale: the scale used to measure the strength or magnitude of an earthquake (uses numbers from 1-10)
- San Andreas fault: a hige crack that runs through most of California that separates the North American and Pacific plates
- seismic waves: waves of energy that are released during an earthquake
- seismograph: an instrument that detects and measures seismic waves of an earthquake