The History of Major Earthquakes Around World
by Lillian Bonar
Essay: The History of Major Earthquakes Around World
Pages: 11
Rating: 3 stars
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The term earthquake comes from the Greek term for “shaking.” An earthquake is a visible rip across the Earth’s
surface due to a release of energy and stored stress in the Earth’s crust and causes seismic waves. Earthquakes
have been around since the time of the earliest civilizations. Earthquakes used to be compared to the “unrest of
spiritual beings.” Specifically, Aristotle and the Ancient Greeks stated that earthquakes were the result of the
“underground winds”. The earliest earthquakes were recorded by seismometers which calculate the waves
generated by each earthquake. The original seismometer was the Wood – Anderson seismometer. When an
earthquake would occur a structure would dangle and reflect light on an image. The image “drawn” by the light
reflected the amount of seismic waves caused by the earthquake. The second seismometer came in the 1930’s
from Charles Richter who used a logarithm to determine the seismic waves. The current magnitude scale that
appears in the media came in the 1960’s from Keitti Aki. This model takes the overall seismic movement through
scientific analysis. These models have helped scientists and geologists further develop the impact of earthquakes
throughout history and some of these methods are still used today (Hough 1).
The first study of earthquakes came in the 18th century after five earthquakes in England and a massive
earthquake in Portugal. The idea of plate tectonics did not come for another half century ultimately providing a
deeper explanation of earthquakes. Gaining further insight to the current explanation of earthquakes that are truly
caused by the stress along active plate boundaries where tectonic plates converge or slide past each other
relieving stored stress along the fault lin...