WHAT IS EPICENTER

FIGURE 1: EPICENTER

The epicenter, epicentre or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth’s

surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an
underground explosion originates.

A fault scarp is a small step or offset on the ground surface where one side of a
fault has moved vertically with respect to the other. It is the topographic expression of
faulting attributed to the displacement of the land surface by movement along faults.

A fault trace describes the intersection of a geological fault with the Earth’s
surface, which leaves a visible disturbance on the surface, usually looking like a crack in
the surface with jagged rock structures protruding outward. The term also applies to a
line plotted on a geological map to represent a fault.

A fault plane is the plane that represents the fracture surface a fault.
 The focus is the place inside Earth’s crust where an earthquake originates. The
point on the Earth’s surface directly above the focus is the epicenter.
Rocks suddenly breaking apart creates an earthquake when energy stored in
the rocks creates seismic waves that travel away from the focus of the earthquake in all
directions. The focus is always the place where the rocks first broke apart creating an
earthquake.

The epicenter is directly above the focus

The earthquake’s epicenter is the point on the Earth’s surface directly above
focus of the earthquake The epicenter is the geographical location of the earthquake
reported on television stations and written reports about earthquakes.

FIGURE 2: EPICENTER
EPICENTER FACTS
Epicenter of an earthquake
The point where the rocks actually break is the earthquake focus. Large
subduction zone earthquakes can break along a fault for hundreds of kilometer. The
epicenter of these earthquakes is directly above where the earthquake actually started
along the fault line.

Destruction at the epicenter

The amount of destruction at the epicenter of an earthquake is directly affected
by its size and the depth where the rocks rupture. The epicenter of an earthquake is the
same whether the rocks ruptured at 50 kilometers, 100 kilometers or even 300
kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface.

Studying epicenters
Seismologists use seismographs to study the earthquake epicenter. Using these
epicenters they can discover the location of unknown faults and crustal plate
boundaries.