Earthquakes

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Term Paper Title	Earthquakes
# of Words	2122
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	8.49

Earthquakes

I chose to research earthquakes and the prediction of earthquakes because I was curious as to how they work. In this paper, I
will discus the history of earthquakes, the kinds and locations of earthquakes, earthquake effects, intensity scales, prediction,
and my own predictions.

An earthquake can be defined as vibrations produced in the earth's crust. Tectonic plates have friction between them which
builds up as it tries to push away and suddenly ruptures and then rebounds. The vibrations can range from barely noticeable to
a disastrous, and destructive act of nature. Six kinds of shock waves are generated in the process. Two are classified as body
waves, that is, they travel through the inside of the earth and the other four are surface waves. The waves are further classified
by the kinds of motions they incur to rock particles. Primary or compressional waves, known as P waves, send particles
moving back and forth in the same direction as the waves are traveling, as secondary or transverse shear waves, known as S
waves, create vibrations perpendicular to their direction of travel. P waves always travel at faster speeds than S waves, so
whenever an earthquake occurs, P waves are the first to arrive and to be recorded at geophysical research stations worldwide.

During ancient times very little was know about. Some of the ancient Greek philosophers connected earthquakes to
underground winds, where others blamed them on fires in the depths of the earth. Around AD 130 the Chinese scholar Chang
Heng, believing that waves must ripple through the earth from the source of an earthquake, created a bronze object to record
the directions of such waves. Eight balls were carefully balanced in the mouths of eight dragons placed around the outside of
the object. When a passing earthquake occurred the wave would cause one or more of the balls to drop.

Earthquake waves were observed in this and other ways for centuries, but more scientific theories as to the causes of quakes
were not proposed until modern times. One such concept was recreated and advanced in 1859 by an Irish engineer, Robert
Mallet.

Perhaps recalling on his knowledge of the strength and behavior of construction materials, Robert Mallet proposed that
earthquakes occurred "either by sudden flexure and constraint of the elastic materials forming a portion of the earth's crust or
by their giving way and becoming fractured." Later, in the 1870s, an English geologist, John Milne created a device...

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