{"id":13281,"key":"Earthquakes","title":"Earthquakes","latest":{"id":1206947,"timestamp":"2025-11-27T21:11:28Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"[[File:Sismo 1985 Ciudad de México 35.jpg|thumb|Earthquake in México 1985]]\n\n'''Earthquakes''' are an abrupt disturbance within the Earth's structure that generate seismic waves. Many earthquakes occur without being noticed by human beings but many are \"felt quakes\", as the passage of the seismic waves are felt above ground in the form of shaking, ruptures and movement of both the natural and built environments.\n\nEarthquakes are often referred to as quakes, tremors or temblors.<ref name=\"WP\">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake</ref>\n\nEarthquakes can be minor through to very destructive. This is measured on a scale, to assist with understanding the kind of damage that may occur or have occurred from a particular size of earthquake. The moment magnitude scale is used for earthquakes over 5 reported globally.<ref name=\"WP\" /> The Richter scale is used to report local magnitude earthquakes smaller than magnitude 5.<ref name=\"WP\" /> The scales are similar in numbers, so that quakes of 3 or under are considered \"weak\", while quakes over 7 are considered strong and able to cause serious damage, dependent on their depth.<ref name=\"WP\" />\n\nThe Mercalli scale measures the intensity of the shaking.<ref name=\"WP\" />\n\nShallow earthquakes tend to cause greater damage to the built environment but this is dependent on other factors, such as the location, the ground surface, the geological makeup of an area, the strengths and weaknesses of the built environment, and so forth.<ref name=\"WP\" />\n\n== Earthquake proofing for buildings ==\n\n{{Excerpt|Earthquake proofing for buildings}}\n\n== See also ==\n\n[[File:Japanquake.png|thumb]]\n\n* [[:Category:Earthquake safety]]\n\n== Sources and citations ==\n\n<references />\n\n{{Page data\n| license = CC-BY-SA-3.0\n| keywords = Natural disaster gallery\n}}\n\n[[Category:Emergency management]]\n[[Category:Natural disasters]]"}