Everyone wants to know more about earthquakes! Take an in-depth tour and learn more about what an earthquake is and how one happens. At the end of your tour, please print out and complete the activity sheet to be turned in to your teacher.
During your journey, please explore the pages completely, you will need the information to do your activity sheet. Before you begin your journey, please review the Vocabulary Page to help you understand "earthquake" terms. To navigate through this webquest, at the end of each page you can click on the arrow to continue or "HOME" to end your journey.
What Is an Earthquake?
An earthquake
is the sudden shifting of the earth below the surface. When the shifting
occurs, it creates vibrations called seismic waves. These waves travel
away from the focus of the earthquake in all
directions through the earth.
When the waves reach the earth's surface, they can be strong enough to
cause buildings to collapse, and sometimes they are so small that no one
feels them.
Seismic waves can be compared to a drop of water hitting a surface, perhaps a body of water. The drop disturbs the flat surface and creates waves that travel outward in all directions from the disturbance. These waves travel on the surface of the water, just like seismic waves travel along the surface of the earth, causing an earthquake.
How do earthquakes happen....
