What is meant by the word fault in terms of an earthquake?

Answer 1

A fault scarp is a vertical relocation of the ground along either side of a fault, usually after an earthquake, one side being higher than the other. It often marks the surface extension of a fault below. Scarps can be small or large, in some cases creating steep cliffs.

An earthquake is caused when the rocks in the earth are distorted (by the slow moment of the tectonic plates that form the continents) to the point where they break and move past one another along a crack called a fault plane. If this fault plane comes to the surface of the earth then after the earthquake, the rocks on one side may have been moved so that they are now higher than the rocks on the other side. This means that a cliff has appeared along the fault and this cliff is called a fault scarp.

Answer 2

In the science of geology, a fault is a fracture in the earth's crust.

More detail: A fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes, such as occurs on the San Andreas Fault, California.

A fault line is the surface trace of a fault, the line of intersection between the fault plane and the Earth's surface.

Since faults do not usually consist of a single, clean fracture, geologists use the term fault zone when referring to the zone of complex deformation associated with the fault plane.

The two sides of a non-vertical fault are known as the hanging wall and footwall. By definition, the hanging wall occurs above the fault plane and the footwall occurs below the fault. This terminology comes from mining: when working a tabular ore body, the miner stood with the footwall under his feet and with the hanging wall hanging above him.

Answer 3

A fault is a fracture or zone of weakness in the Earth's crust where movement occurs, leading to an earthquake. It is along these faults that rocks on either side can move past each other, generating seismic waves. The movement of faults during an earthquake is what causes the ground to shake.

Answer 4

faults are the boudary line see on a specific map. these are known as the plate boundaries. earthquakes do occur at the fault because it is where the plates move and collide with each other.

Answer 5

The fault is a fracture in the Earth along which movement has occurred.

Answer 6

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