Showing posts with label Earthquakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Earthquakes. Show all posts

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Speleoseismite


We just learned about the seismite.

Another part of earthquake science is Speleoseismite.

In caves there are things called stalagmites that grow from the floor, and stalactites growing from the ceiling.
Sometimes during earthquakes these break, or sometimes cave ceilings collapse.

These broken or tilted rock growths are the speleoseismites, and they can be used to study earthquakes that happened a long time ago.


(from: wikipedia - speleoseismite)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Milling

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Seismite


We just learned about the Mercalli Intensity Scale.

Another interesting thing about earthquakes is Seismite.

This is a type of rock formed when an earthquake causes a bunch of sedimentary layered rocks to get messed up and deformed.

Sedimentary rocks usually look like a bunch of sideways lines stacked on top of each other.
Sometimes when an earthquake happens, the lines get squished around and sometimes look like bubbled up rocks.

That squished up rock is called seismite.


(from: wikipedia - seismite)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lathe - Carriage

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Mercalli Intensity Scale


We just learned about the Richter Magnitude Scale.

Another measurement for earthquakes is the Mercalli Intensity Scale.

This is different than the waves going through the ground that are measured by the Richter scale.
The Mercalli scale is measuring the effects that the earthquake had on the surface and how much destruction it caused.
It was invented by the volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli around the year 1902.


(from: wikipedia - mercalli intensity scale)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lathe Bed

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Richter Magnitude Scale


We just learned about the Seismogram.

Another part of earthquake science is the Richter Magnitude Scale.

We learned before about how seismic waves are waves of energy that move through the earth during an earthquake.

These waves are measured using seismograms, and a man named Charles Richter came up with numbered levels to use when talking about how powerful an earthquake was.

This is kind of like the Fujita scale for tornadoes, or the Saffir Simpson scale for hurricanes.

(from: wikipedia - richter magnitude scale)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lathe - Tailstock

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Seismogram


We just learned about the Seismometer.

Another part of earthquake science is the Seismogram.

These are pictures that are made by seismographs, used to show the movement of the ground on a graph.


(from: wikipedia - seismogram)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lathe - Headstock

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Seismometer


We just learned about the Seismic Wave that moves through the earth.

The main tool for measuring earthquakes is called a Seismometer.

A simple way to think of a seismometer is like a weight hanging from a string.
When there is an earthquake, the weight will bounce up and down, and might also sway from side to side.

Most seismometers are electric now, like some of them that use magnets to hold a thing floating in the air, and when the thing gets moved around by the earthquake they measure how much it moves, and whether it moves forward, backward, side to side or up and down.

Older measuring tools were sometimes called seismographs or seismoscopes.


(from: wikipedia - seismometer)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lathe

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Seismic Wave


We just learned about the Induced Seismicity.

When earthquakes happen, the waves of energy that happen as the ground moves are called Seismic Waves.

It's kind of like looking at a wave in water, and based on the size and shape of a wave scientists can learn about the type of earthquake it is.


(from: wikipedia - seismic wave)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Coke

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Induced Seismicity


We just learned about the Volcano tectonic earthquakes.

Another thing that causes earthquakes is induced seismicity, which means things that people do that cause earthquakes.
This can be drilling into the ground, building large lakes or mining.


(from: wikipedia - induced seismicity)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Fujita Scale

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Volcano tectonic earthquakes


We just learned about the Earthquake Swarm, a lot of earthquakes happening in the same area.

Scientists spend a lot of time trying to figure out what causes earthquakes.

We already learned about the big tectonic plates on our planet that crash into each other at faults

Another cause of earthquakes is from Volcanoes and tectonic plates.

We learned a while back about the melted rock called magma that flows around like hot water under a volcano before it erupts.

Sometimes that hot magma flowing around underground can put a lot of pressure on the rocks above it, and cause it to crack, causing an earthquake.
You can think of it like water in a water balloon, when you squeeze the water balloon it will pop!


(from: wikipedia - volcanism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Charcoal

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Earthquake Swarm


We just learned about the Tsunami Earthquake that isn't very big but can trigger a tsunami.

Another type of earthquake is an Earthquake Swarm.

This is when a lot of earthquakes happen in the same area, and are clearly not just aftershocks or foreshocks from one single earthquake.

These can be hundreds or even over a thousand earthquakes in one state, spreading out over a time of days, weeks or months.
One of the ones that happened not long ago was in Nevada, with 1,000 earthquakes between February and November 2008.


(from: wikipedia - earthquake swarm)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Flux

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Tsunami Earthquake


We just learned about the Supershear Earthquake.

Another type of earthquake is a Tsunami Earthquake.

This is an earthquake that happens underwater that may not be very big, but it causes a very big tsunami.
It can be dangerous because scientists might not be able to tell a big earthquake happened, and a tsunami might come by surprise.

(from: wikipedia - tsunami earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Gangue

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Supershear Earthquake


We just learned about the Submarine Earthquake that happens underwater.

Another type of quake is a Supershear Earthquake.

A lot of earthquakes happen with the earth moving side to side, like a slinky squishing and then stretching.
Some earthquakes happen like a slinky but you lift it up and the pull it down, causing a wave to go through it.
When this wave is very fast and strong, it can rip through the ground with a lot of force, and cause a lot of damage.
This is a supershear earthquake.


(from: wikipedia - supershear earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Slag

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Submarine Earthquake


We just learned about the Slow Earthquake.

Sometimes earthquakes happen underwater, deep down at the bottom of the ocean floor.
When this happens, it is called a Submarine Earthquake.

The tectonic plates that cover the earth are also at the bottom of the ocean.
When they move and bump into each other, it causes a submarine earthquake.
This causes big waves to happen in the ocean, and can sometimes turn into a gigantic wave called a tsunami, which can cause flooding on cities that are right on the ocean.

Some of the places where these tectonic plates hit are in the very deep parts of the ocean, called "trenches".


(from: wikipedia - submarine earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Smelting

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Slow Earthquake


We just learned about the Remotely Triggered Earthquakes.

Another type of earthquake is the Slow Earthquake.

The earthquakes that we see in movies or see on TV are usually a fast earthquake that is over in just a few seconds or minutes.

Scientists have now found out that sometimes there are earthquakes that last for hours, days or even months!
These are called Slow Earthquakes, and they are very quiet or maybe not even noticed except by some special scientific tools used to measure earthquakes.


(from: wikipedia - slow earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pig Iron

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Remotely Triggered Earthquakes


We just learned about the Megathrust Earthquake, the earth's most powerful type of quake.

Another type of earthquake is the Remotely Triggered Earthquake.

Sometimes when one earthquake is large enough, it's mainshock or aftershock can cause other earthquakes.
But sometimes a bunch of earthquakes happen in one area within a few days or weeks of each other, but too far to be affected by the other earthquake's mainshock or aftershock.
This can be confusing, because if a bunch of earthquakes are happening in the same state, scientists want to know what is causing them all.

When a bunch of earthquakes happen close by but not close enough for aftershocks to cause it, these are the Remotely Triggered Earthquakes.
Many scientists think these are caused by things like magma or water flows underground, moving around and shifting the tectonic plates and causing the faults to become active and cause quakes.


(from: wikipedia - remotely triggered earthquakes)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Blast Furnace

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Megathrust Earthquake


We just learned about the Intraplate Earthquake that happens inside a tectonic plate.

Another type of earthquake is a Megathrust Earthquake.

This is when one of the tectonic plates slides under another plate, which we learned is a Dip-Slip Fault

These are the most powerful earthquakes on the planet, and can cause a lot of destruction.


(from: wikipedia - megathrust earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Wrought Iron

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Intraplate Earthquake


We just learned about the Interplate Earthquake where two plates bump into each other and cause an earthquake.

Another type of earthquake is an Intraplate Earthquake.

This is when an earthquake happens in the middle of a tectonic plate, not near the edges.
Because this isn't by a fault line or border of the plate, scientists are not really sure why these happen, and they do a lot of research to see if there is a hidden fault line somewhere they did not know about.


(from: wikipedia - intraplate earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sponge Iron

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Interplate Earthquake


We just learned about the Doublet Earthquake.

Another type of earthquake is the Interplate Earthquake.

This is an earthquake that happens where two tectonic plates meet.
These are the types of earthquakes that happen more than any other.


(from: wikipedia - chuetsu earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Bloomery

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Doublet Earthquake


We just learned about the Blind Thrust.

Another type of earthquake is the Doublet Earthquake.

We learned before that most earthquakes have a big mainshock, with a smaller beginning called a foreshock, and a smaller quake after called the aftershock.

Sometimes two big earthquakes happen at the same time very near each other.
When this happens, it's like a double quake, just like the name doublet earthquake.
So when this happens there are two foreshocks, two mainshocks and two aftershocks.
It can be very hard for seismologists to figure out which quakes came from which fault.


(from: wikipedia - doublet earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Iron Ore

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Blind Thrust


We just learned about the Thrust Fault where the earth slips in the reverse direction.

One type of earthquake is a Blind Thrust earthquake.

Usually earthquakes happen in places where there are faults that have been mapped out, so people know where they are and know what to expect.

Sometimes earthquakes happen in areas where people did not think there were any faults, so it is like a blind earthquake because no one was expecting it, and no one was looking there for an earthquake.


(from: wikipedia - blind thrust earthquake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Heat Treatment