earthquake
For other uses, see Earthquake (disambiguation).
"Seismic event" redirects here. For seismic migration, see Seismic migration.
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Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998
Global plate tectonic movement
Part of a series on
Earthquakes
Types
Foreshock Aftershock
Blind thrust Doublet
Interplate Intraplate
Megathrust Remotely triggered
Slow Submarine Supershear
Tsunami Earthquake swarm
Causes
Fault movement Volcanism
Induced seismicity
Characteristics
Epicenter Hypocenter
Shadow zone Seismic wave
P-wave S-wave
Measurement
Seismic scales Seismometer
Earthquake duration magnitude
Prediction
Coordinating Committee for
Earthquake Prediction
Earthquake-sensitive person
Other topics
Shear wave splitting
Adams–Williamson equation
Flinn–Engdahl regions
Earthquake engineering
Seismite Seismology
Earth Sciences Portal
Category • Related topics
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An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time.
Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismometers. The moment magnitude is the most common scale on which earthquakes larger than approximately 5 are reported for the entire globe. The more numerous earthquakes smaller than magnitude 5 reported by national seismological observatories are measured mostly on the local magnitude scale, also referred to as the Richter scale.