Thursday, December 8, 2011

Would anyone care to answer a 6th grade science question?

Could you put the answer in 6th grade words please?





Explain how the transfer of energy as seismic waves is related to the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes in a region.|||Frequency of earthquakes means how many earthquakes the area gets.





Magnitude means how powerful the earthquake is.





An important concept in geology (and physics) is that energy can not be created or destroyed. The energy to cause the earthquake is the radiogenic (radioactive) energy from the center of the Earth that causes the plates to move. The Earthquake releases seismic waves, which are absorbed into the Earth's crust as heat energy.





Its the same concept as throwing a pebble into a pond, and watch the ripples from the "epicenter".|||Seismic waves are like ripples in a pond. If you throw a stone into a pond, it creates a wave which carries away the energy of the stone hitting the water. If you throw in a whole bunch of stones, you get a whole bunch of ripples carrying away a whole bunch of energy. The same goes for earthquakes; more earthquakes means more ripples carrying away the energy.





The amount of energy a ripple carries depends on the size of the rock and how fast it's moving when it hits the water, so if a big rock is thrown hard, it will create a great big ripple that will carry a lot of energy, while a small rock that's gently tossed in will only create a small ripple that carries little energy.

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