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LITHOEN

Geological process

Elastic rebound

The mechanism of earthquakes: strain accumulates while a fault is locked, and is released suddenly when friction is overcome, the rock springing back and radiating the stored energy as seismic waves.

How this record is known

8
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.

8 of 8 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

EstablishedMainshocks are always followed by aftershocks; foreshocks are only recognisable in hindsight.

Mainshocks always have aftershocks — smaller earthquakes occurring afterwards in the same place — which depending on the size of the mainshock can continue for weeks, months or years; foreshocks cannot be identified as such until the larger earthquake happens.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Wald n.d. Primary authority

EstablishedSudden slip of two blocks past one another on a fault surface.

An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the Earth suddenly slip past one another; the surface on which they slip is the fault or fault plane.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Wald n.d. Primary authority

EstablishedFault area and slip determine size, and both are inferred from surface recordings.

The size of an earthquake depends on the area of the fault that slips and the amount of slip on it — neither of which can be measured directly, because faults lie kilometres below the surface.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Wald n.d. Primary authority

EstablishedStrain accumulates while the fault is locked and is released as seismic waves when friction is overcome.

While a fault is stuck and the surrounding blocks keep moving, the energy that would otherwise slide them past one another is stored; when the moving blocks overcome the friction of the jagged fault edges and it unsticks, that stored energy is released and radiates outward as seismic waves.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Wald n.d. Primary authority

EstablishedHypocentre at depth; epicentre vertically above it at the surface.

The location below the surface where an earthquake starts is the hypocentre; the point directly above it on the surface is the epicentre.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Wald n.d. Primary authority

EstablishedOne magnitude unit corresponds to a tenfold increase in measured seismogram amplitude.

Magnitude scales are logarithmic: each whole number increase represents a tenfold increase in the amplitude measured on a seismogram.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: U.S. Geological Survey n.d. Primary authority

EstablishedOne magnitude per earthquake; many intensities across the affected area.

An earthquake has a single magnitude, but the shaking it causes takes many values that vary from place to place with distance, surface material and other factors.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: U.S. Geological Survey n.d. Primary authority

EstablishedMoment magnitude has replaced the Richter scale for all but small local events.

The Richter scale is no longer commonly used except for small local earthquakes; for all others the moment magnitude scale is a more accurate measure, because amplitude-based magnitudes over- or under-estimate the size of very large earthquakes.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: U.S. Geological Survey n.d. Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-06. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.