What is a tsunami and an earthquake?

What is a tsunami and an earthquake?

Earthquake and Tsunamis 


Definition:

•     An earthquake is the shaking of the earth that occurs after pieces of the crust of the Earth suddenly shift.  The term earthquake describes the sudden slip on a fault and includes the ground shaking and radiating seismic energy that is caused by the slip.  Volcanic activity, or other geologic processes, may cause stress changes in the earth that can also result in an earthquake.   Earthquakes can occur anywhere in the world although some areas of the globe are more likely to experience an earthquake than others.  Earthquakes occur in all types of weather, in all climate zones, in all seasons of the year, and at any time of day making it impossible to predict with any certainty when an earthquake is likely to occur.   The best seismologists (scientists who study earthquakes) can do is to look at the historical record of earthquake activity for any geographical area and use this data to calculate the probability of an earthquake occurring in the future.  Earthquake prediction is still in the future. 

•     A tsunami is a series of sea waves that can be caused by earthquakes or landslides at or beneath the sea floor.  The displacement of the sea floor that occurs during certain large submarine earthquakes and landslides causes displacement of large volumes of the sea water above it producing large, fast moving waves.  When a coast line experiences a tsunami it can be due to an earthquake near the coast or due to a quake occurring in a distant part of the ocean.  Coastal areas may experience little or no damage from an earthquake but can be devastated by the resulting tsunami.

http://seps.mgd-colo.peak.org/earthquakes_and_tsunamis.htm

            GLOSSARY 

•       Crust: is the sheathing  covers the mantle and is the earth's hard outer shell, the surface on which we are living.

•       Seismograph: Earthquakes generate seismic waves which can be detected which a sensitive instrument called a seismograph

•  Seismic: subject to or caused by an earthquake or earth vibration

•  Landslides: A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments. ..

•  Shaking: the act of causing something to move up and down (or back and forth) with quick movements.

•       Geologic:  is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. // a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks