what is the beginning of an earthquake called?
410632
the beginning of an earthquake are foreshocks. these foreshocks have P-waves, s-waves and surface waves attached to it.
397767
Seismic waves have many different names based on their different motions and behaviors.  P-waves, S-waves, Surface Waves, Love Waves and Rayleigh Waves.  All behave differently.
1037668
island girl is not totally correct. earthquakes occur when two plates fault, as in one plate goes up and the other goes down, thus making vibration and it is released in P-waves. \ncold air is denser than warm air. cold air goes under the warm air and makes it rise into the sky, this produces condensation. clouds form and inside these clouds are either condensation nuclei or rain nuclei (not sure of the name) when these nuclei finally fuse together they get heavy and form into a rain drop, there are millions of nuclei in a raindrop, so they get to heavy and they fall and depending on temperature, they can freeze and turn into snow or hail. sleet is just a liquidy kind of snow that forms on the ground. snow and water in one. i hope i answered your question and its udnerstandable.
1042660
There are pre-tremors associated with impending earthquakes in well defined regions.  However, these are seismic as well, and not associated with the atmosphere.  There is no one sign in the atmosphere, and certainly not three.
431938
As the tectonic plates move, their boundaries crush against each other and create pressure.  Eventually, the pressure will build up to a point where it overcomes the friction holding two sections of rock together.  The sections will slip. relieving the pressure and creating an earthquake as the energy that was held in the two sections is transferred into seismic waves, also known as an earthquake.
87261
The San Francisco 1906 earthquake occurred along the well-known San Andreas fault. The San Andreas fault is where two different blocks of the Earth's crust contact each other. Take a look at these websites for more information:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Andreas_Fault
31391
An earthquake is a sudden and sometimes catastrophic movement of a part of the Earth's surface. Earthquakes result from the dynamic release of elastic strain energy that radiates seismic waves. Earthquakes typically result from the movement of faults, planar zones of deformation within the Earth's upper crust. The word earthquake is also widely used to indicate the source region itself. The Earth's lithosphere is a patch work of plates in slow but constant motion (see plate tectonics). Earthquakes occur where the stress resulting from the differential motion of these plates exceeds the strength of the crust. The highest stress (and possible weakest zones) are most often found at the boundaries of the tectonic plates and hence these locations are where the majority of earthquakes occur. Events located at plate boundaries are called interplate earthquakes; the less frequent events that occur in the interior of the lithospheric plates are called intraplate earthquakes (see, for example, New Madrid Seismic Zone). Earthquakes related to plate tectonics are called tectonic earthquakes. Most earthquakes are tectonic, but they also occur in volcanic regions and as the result of a number of anthropogenic sources, such as reservoir induced seismicity, mining and the removal or injection of fluids into the crust. Seismic waves including some strong enough to be felt by humans can also be caused by explosions (chemical or nuclear), landslides, and collapse of old mine shafts, though these sources are not strictly earthquakes.\n\nThere's too much details so just click on the link,\ni hope this helps.
797755
It happens in the brittle part of the crust, which is not usually deeper than 20 km.\n\nHere's the jist:\n\nIt all comes down to stress and strain. It is not 'the plates rubbing together' as many people say; or at least that's a very simplistic view.\n\nPlate tectonics causes stress on the continents and oceans, all over the surface of the earth. In some places, the stress is very small (usually within the plates). Elsewhere, the stress is high, usually where the plates meet each other. Since each plate moves, when two come in contact, the stress each other. They can push on each other and cause compressional stress, they can pull with extensional stress, and they can slide past or shear each other with tensional stress.\n\nFaulting, causing earthquakes, comes from the fact that this stress is building up all the time, but rocks and continents are strong materials. Just like hitting a rock with a small hammer, you do put stress on it, but a small amount. It would take a sledgehammer to put enough strain (effects and accumulation of stress) to build up and cause breakage. In the earth, the area around an active fault builds up strain from the stress of plate tectonics. Most faults become locked, because of this strength, and thus can not release their strain. Away from the fault, the stress produces very small and slow movement of the rock masses as a whole. Eventually, the strain is too much and the rest of the plate has moved too far and the fault releases the strain build-up all at once in a big stress release called an earthquake. This is called the elastic rebound theory, and it explains most (but not all) movements.\n\nThis is why an earthquake's size is relative to the fault size. The bigger the fault, the bigger the strain build up, and the bigger the release in an earthquake. Subduction zones and collision zones, where large portions of plates actually can rub together as a whole, have the really big earthquakes, like the 2004 Sumatra earthquake. In other plate boundaries, the entire plate boundary does not act together, so the faults become spread out and many faults take up the strain from the tectonic stress, like with the San Andreas Fault in California (it only takes up ~3/4 of the stress between the plates).\n\nEarthquakes are really tricky things; there is still so much we need to learn. As of now, there is no way to predict them, but we can say where the danger is highest and about how long between events.
270342
That depends on the plates, and it varies.  You can't really say US gets the most because Asia has had just as bad earthquakes in different regions over time.  \n\nI found a map of the unstable plates... pretty informative ... check it out:\n\nhttp://library.thinkquest.org/21988/earthquake/earthquake.htm
452011
You mean earthquakes?  Spelling it right is probably a good starting point.
542255
Eathquakes' intensities are generally measured on the Richter Scale which is a type of logarithmic scale. This scale is not linear and every successive whole number (1,2,3,4...) is 10 times its preceding whole number.\nThus a 7.0 earthquake will be 10 times in magnitude to a 6.0 one. And 8.0 would be 100 times 6.0
1150175
Earthquakes.. never know when they are going to hit nor how strong.  I have lived through them all and at least with the other 3 I have some warning....
1062718
Earthquakes happen every day around the world.  I'm sure there is a likely hood of an earthquake happening on June 20.  If someone is really into those predictions, they will re-interpretate the prediction after the fact to mean some other location or bla bla blah.
55918
An earthquake is the shaking of the ground caused by an abrupt shift of rock along a fracture in the Earth, called a fault. Within seconds, an earthquake releases stress that has slowly accumulated within the rock, sometimes over hundreds of years. ... \nThe size of an earthquake is indicated by a number called its magnitude. Magnitude is calculated from a measurement of either the amplitude or the duration of specific types of recorded seismic waves. Magnitude is determined from measurements made from seismograms and not on reports of shaking or interpretations of building damage. ... The intensity of and earthquake is a measure of the amount of ground shaking at a particular site, and it is determined from reports of human reaction to shaking, damage done to structures, and other effects. ... \n\nEarth scientists believe that most earthquakes are caused by slow movements inside the Earth that push against the Earth's brittle, relatively thin outer layer, causing the rocks to break suddenly. This outer layer is fragmented into a number of pieces, called plates. Most earthquakes occur at the boundaries of these plates. In Washington State, the small Juan de Fuca plate off the coast of Washington, Oregon, and northern California is slowly moving eastward beneath a much larger plate that includes both the North American continent the land beneath part of the Atlantic Ocean. Plate motions in the Pacific Northwest result in shallow earthquakes widely distributed over Washington and deep earthquakes in the western parts of Washington and Oregon. The movement of the Juan de Fuca plate beneath the North America plate is in many respects similar to the movements of plates in South America, Mexico, Japan, and Alaska, where the world's largest earthquakes occur. ...
816499
You won't be warned.  The earth will just start moving.  The danger isn't the earthquake.  The dangers are the things that fall on you, the fires that burn after (assuming gas lines or electricity or some source of fire and fuel).
855026
Most earthquakes happen along the edge of the oceanic and continental plates. [Oceanic plates are under water, continental plates are above.] The earth's crust (the outer layer of the planet) is made up of a bunch of pieces, called plates. The plates get moved around by the liquid layers of magma underneath the Earth's crust. The plates are always bumping into each other, and pulling away from each other or past eachother. Earthquakes usually happen when two plates are running into each other or sliding past each other. They can also happen along faults, too though.
481699
The interactions between tectonic plates can cause earthquakes. Plate tectonics is the theory we use to explain how lithospheric or tectonic plates move. For example, two tectonic plates will build up stress (pressure) when their movement is impeded the eventual release of this stress causes an earthquake. There is more material available via Yahoo search. The second source link will help you get a good idea of the plate boundaries.