Question | Answer |
Fastest-traveling waves departing from the earthquake's focus | P-waves (Primary Waves) |
Waves departing from the focus that travel slower than the p-waves | S-waves (Secondary Waves) |
P-waves are what type of waves | Longitudinal waves |
S-waves are what type of waves | Transverse |
Earthquakes waves originating from the epicenter are called | Surface waves |
Location inside the crust in which the earthquake occurs | Focus |
Location on the surface directly above the earthquake focus | Epicenter |
Minimum number of seismic stations needed to locate an earthquake | 3 |
Method used in locating earthquakes | Triangulation (intersection of 3 circles) |
Instrument measuring/marking earthquake movement | Seismometer |
Printout made by a seismometer | seismograph |
Continental Drift was proposed by him in the early 1900s | Alfred Wegener |
Continental Drift was part of the basis of this modern day theory | Plate Tectonics |
Three types of plate boundaries | Convergent, Divergent, Transform |
Converging continental plates causes | uplift/mountain building (Himalayan-India ramming into Asia) |
Diverging plates cause | rifts (Mid-Ocean Ridge; East African Rift) |
Transform boundary movements cause | earthquakes |
Converging plates of unequal density (continental plate into oceanic plate) | subduction of the oceanic plate (more dense) |
Subduction causes | volcanic mountains and trenches (Andes Mtns/Mariana's Trench) |
Mount St. Helens erupted because of | Subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate |
Mount St. Helens is in which mountain range | Cascade Mountains |
The Hawaiian Islands are formed by | A hot spot (weakness--area of volcanic eruption) in the Pacific Plate |
Longest mountain range on Earth | Mid-Ocean Ridge |
Tallest Mountain in world on LAND | Mount Everest in the Himalayan Mountains |
A crack or break in the earth's crust along which movement can occur | Fault |
Movement along a crack or break (fault) in the earth's crust | Earthquake |
Logarithmic SCALE measuring the ENERGY RELEASED by an earthquake | Richter Scale |
Scale that attempts to measure the severity of an earthquake BASED ON the DAMAGE caused by it. | Mercalli (Modified Mercalli)Scale |
Longitudinal waves have what kind of motion | push-pull; compressional
(P-waves are this type) |
Transverse waves have what kind of motion | side-to-side; shear waves
(S-waves are this type) |
Secondary waves cannot travel through which state of matter? | Solid |
type of wave that travels through all phases of matter: solid, liquid, and gas | Primary waves/Longitudinal waves |
Areas on Earth that receive no seismic waves due to bending of waves from traveling through different densities | Shadow Zones |
The San Andreas Fault is what type? | Strike-slip where one block moves horizontally (sideways)past another. |
Two types of surface waves | Raleigh waves (rippling) and Love waves (zigzag wrenching buildings side to side) |
The study of earthquakes and waves | seismology |
boundary between the crust and the mantle | Moho Discontinuity (Mohorovicic) |
Deepest solid layer of the earth | inner core |
layer around the solid inner core | outer core |
makeup and phase of matter of the inner core | mostly iron and nickel, very hot solid |
makeup and phase of matter of the outer core | mostly iron and nickel LIQUID, |
layer outside the outer core | mantle |
mantle description | largest layer, olivine-rich rock; lower part is somewhat softened rock |
Method of determining the distance from the earthquake | Difference in the time of the arrival between the P waves and S waves |
Tallest mountain from base to top (partly above water and partly the water) | Mauna Kea (in Hawaii) |
Theory proposed in the 1960a by a Princeton professor that helped bring about the theory of plate tectonics | Sea-floor Spreading |
Sea-floor Spreading was proposed by | Harry Hess |
First waves to arrive at a seismic station are which type? | P waves |
NEIC | National Earthquake Information Center |
Location of the NEIC | Denver, Colorado |
NEIC is part of which government agency | USGS (United States Geological Survey) |
nearest official seismic station to us | Memphis, TN |
Plate Tectonics includes which two theories? | Sea-floor Spreading and Continental Drift |
Moho Discontinuity is the boundary between which 2 layers? | crust and mantle |
The crust and upper solid mantle broken up into plates is the layer called this. | lithosphere |
upper, "liquid" mantle | asthenosphere |
the plates are "floating" on this | asthenosphere |
The areas on Earth that do not receive earthquake waves (seismic stations do not receive seismic waves). | shadow zones |
Four major types of faults at transform boundaries. | normal, reverse, thrust, strike-slip |
Mount McKinley is being changed to this original name given to it by the native Americans of Alaska | Mount Denali |
the most abundant element in the crust | oxygen |
the name of the core mantle boundary | Gutenberg Boundary |