How fast tectonic plates move

Seismic stations contain instruments that detect, measure, record, and transmit information about the shaking caused by an earthquake the seismic waves. Scientists rely on networks of seismic stations to determine the location and size of an earthquake. Magnitude is the most common way to describe earthquake size. It is a measure of the energy released by an earthquake.

It is the same no matter where you are and what the shaking feels like. Earthquakes with large magnitudes typically last longer and release their energy over larger areas than those with smaller magnitudes. There are many ways to determine earthquake magnitude, but the U. Magnitude is complicated, but it is important to understand that for large earthquakes, minor increases in magnitude result in huge jumps in released energy. With each whole number increase in magnitude, the energy release increases about 32 times.

And with the increase of two whole numbers, the energy release increases about 1, times. For example, a magnitude 8. The December 26, , earthquake in the Indian Ocean had a magnitude of 9. Three months later, on March 28, , a magnitude 8.

Despite the small numerical difference in magnitude just 0. You may find it easier to understand another measurement of earthquake size, its intensity. Intensity is based on the observed effects of an earthquake's shaking e. This scale features increasing levels of intensity effects and ranges from not felt to total damage. Unlike magnitude, intensity varies with location. Since intensity values are assigned after an earthquake, they do not support the real-time needs of tsunami warning centers.

Earthquakes are not unusual. According to the U. Geological Survey, there are an estimated , detectable earthquakes in the world each year. Magnitude 2. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city.

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An earthquake centred in the Zagros Mountains toppled a building in Darbandikhan, Iraq. Earth Planet. Download references. Article 10 NOV Crust forming faster?

But the result is controversial, since previous work seemed to show the opposite. Plate tectonics is driven by the formation and destruction of oceanic crust. This crust forms where plates move apart, allowing hot, light magma to rise from the mantle below and solidify.

Where plates are being pushed together, the crust can either rise up to form mountains or one plate is shoved under the other and is sucked back into the mantle.