The Science of Earthquakes

From beginning to end an earthquake is deadly, from collapsed structures to cracks in the earth.

But nothing is more fascinating then the scientific aspect to them. For instance here are some things I found out.

• Not all earthquakes are felt by people.

• The majority of earthquakes occur in the lithosphere of an area that lenthens 100km downward from the Earth's crust.

• Earthquake vibrations come from an area in the lithosphere called the focus

• Earthquake tremors move at 2.5 miles a second traveling in waves

• Earthquake shock waves can travel right through the Earth itself, these waves can also create tsunamis

• Earthquake tremors bend were the Earth's composition changes

• Two scales can be used to measure earthquakes; the Richter scale and the Mercalli scale. The Mercalli scale measures the power of an earthquake. The Richer scale measures the seismic force of an earthquake, you can measure this with a seismometer.

• Earthquakes are ranked 1-10, each rank higher is 30 times more deadly than the one below.

• Earthquakes are caused when two of the Earth's "Continental Plates" slide by each other creating stress, as stress levels rise the ground will shake. This is when the stress is realeasing from the the epicenter creating a wide crack in the ground, as a reminder of a tragic incident.

• The Haiti earthquake was measured with the Richter scale; a magnitude of 7.0.

After reading this article I hope you'll agree that not all earthquakes are as deadly as they seem.

Thank you

sources: The Usborne Encyclopedia of Planet Earth, DISASTER! Catastrophes That Shook the World