An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves.
Elastic Rebound. Fault Zone. As tectonic plates are slowly moving, their edges are locked in place, causing bending of the crust along the plate edges.
The hypocenter refers to the site of an earthquake or a nuclear explosion. In the former, it is a synonym of the focus; in the latter, of ground zero.
The epicenter or epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or underground explosion originates.
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies.
Seismometers are instruments that measure motions of the ground, including those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other seismic sources.
The Richter magnitude scale was developed to assign a single number to quantify the energy that is released during an earthquake. The scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale.
The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale is commonly used in the United States by seismologists seeking information on the severity of earthquake effects.
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, generally an ocean or a large lake.
A seismic gap is a segment of an active fault known to produce significant earthquakes, that has not slipped in an unusually long time when compared with other segments along the same structure.