What is an earthquake?
Earthquake occurs everywhere around the world. According to the USGS website, the data of earthquake that has magnitude more than 2.5 are tracked. Click here to learn more about USGS.
What is an Earthquake?
An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter.
Sometimes an earthquake has foreshocks. These are smaller earthquakes that happen in the same place as the larger earthquake that follows. Scientists can’t tell that an earthquake is a foreshock until the larger earthquake happens. The largest, main earthquake is called the mainshock. Mainshocks always have aftershocks that follow. These are smaller earthquakes that occur afterwards in the same place as the mainshock. Depending on the size of the mainshock, aftershocks can continue for weeks, months, and even years after the mainshock! (Source: The Science of Earthquake-Click here)
To simplify of what has been already simple, the Earthquake is a movement of the earth that we can feel it. The mainshock shakes building, causing giant vibration and the big one can bring the weak structure to the ground.
What can cause the earthquake?
In another word is what can cause the earth to move? Explaining by the scientist, the earth is like a round bun that inside still hot and liquid. Outer surface is some hard and some soft. The Tectonic Plate as said, still can move, when it bump into the other edge of nearby tectonic plate, it causes the quake. The movement of the plates that cause earthquake can be recorded by the instrument called ” seismographs”.
Size of Earthquake
The size of earthquake or “Magnitude” is depend on how hard the plate collide to each other and also depending on where you are at the time of the quake. If you are near the “Epicenter” then you will experience serious shock.