All about earthquakes

created by Sadie Heinrich and John Walker

Alfred Wegeners theory

• Alfred Wegners theory of continental drift assumed was one called Pangaea.

The three major tectonic plates

• They are the north American plate, the Juan de Fuca plate and the pacific plate

Why does California get a lot of earthquakes and not Florida?

• California lays on the junction of the down pacific plate and the north America plate (the san Andreas fault.) As these plates slip past each other the movement triggers earthquakes. Florida is situated virtually in the middle of the north America plate and is the for seismically

The most destructive earthquake in history

• The most destructive earthquake in history is the Hua County earthquake. This earthquake occurred on the morning of January 23 1556. it was in china when it happened. It effected more then 97 counties. These counties where Shensi, Henan, Gansu, Hexei, Shandong, Hube,Huna, Jiangsu and Anhui. The magnitude was 8. the amount of people dead was 830,000 people.

The three type of plate boundaries

• The three types are the convergent plate boundary, divergent boundary, and the transform boundary. Convergent boundaries are plates that move towards each other. Divergent plate boundaries are plates that move away from each other. Transform boundaries are plates that are going up and down.

What are tsunamis and what causes them?

• Tsunamis are very high and very wide waves. Caused by a fast displacement of water. For example a huge volcano eruption. They usually travel about 500-600 miles per hour.

How much more energy is released by a 7.2 then a 6.2 earthquake?

• A 7.2 earthquake has to times more ground movement, but a 7.2 earthquake has 32 times more energy.

What applications does seismology have besides measuring the

magnitude• Scientist can also

map the density of the rock.

Where did most of the earthquakes happen last week?

• Most of the earthquakes happened in the Carribean area.

Can scientist predict earthquakes?

• Scientist have tried lots of different ways of predicting earthquakes, but none have been successful. They have pretty good idea of where an earthquake is most likely to hit, but they still cant tell when it will happen.

How do scientist actually know where an earthquake occurred?

• When a earthquake happens it sends waves through the ground at a certain speed. The waves will eventually ripple out and hit meters that detect it. Scientist take the times and figure out the possible range that the earthquake could have come from.