A teleseism is a tremor caused by an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

that is very far away (from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

τῆλε) from where it is recorded. According to the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

, the term ''teleseismic'' refers to earthquakes that occur more than 1000 km from the measurement site. Small teleseismic events register only on sensitive

seismometer A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground noises and shaking such as caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The outpu ...

s in low background noise locations. In general, seismic waves from earthquakes of

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

5.0 and up can be recorded almost anywhere in the world with modern seismic instrumentation.

References

Seismology

External links

The Global CMT Project

Earthquake Glossary

Magnitude 6.5 Tajikistan Earthquake recorded in basement at Guyot Hall
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