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1983 Guinea Earthquake
On December 22, 1983 an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 struck northern Guinea, killing around 300 people, and injuring 1,500. Around 200 people went missing. An earthquake of this magnitude was unusual for this region of West Africa, which was previously believed by most seismologists to be Aseismic creep, aseismic. The earthquake destroyed 5,000 houses. It had an intensity of IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale, although United States Geological Survey, USGS reported it as VIII (Severe). The earthquake caused cracks in the ground, and an entire cavern to collapse. Geology The earthquake occurred on the edge of the Paleozoic Bové Basin, near the western margin of the Precambrian West African Craton and close to the southern end of the late Proterozoic to Variscan orogeny, Hercynian Mauritanide Belt. See also *List of earthquakes in 1983 *Geology of Guinea References Further reading * {{Earthquakes in Africa Natural disasters in Guinea Earthquakes in Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fault (geology)
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the boundaries between the plates, such as the megathrust faults of subduction zones or transform faults. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. Faults may also displace slowly, by aseismic creep. A ''fault plane'' is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A ''fault trace'' or ''fault line'' is a place where the fault can be seen or mapped on the surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on geologic maps to represent a fault. A ''fault zone'' is a cluster of parallel faults. However, the term is also used for the zone of crushed rock along a single fault. Prolonged motion along closely spaced faults can blur the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
