Question

求一篇关于地震的英语文章介绍地震的,最好难度适中,比高中难,比专业书简单,文章尽量长一些.好的加分!

Answer 1

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The moment magnitude of an earthquake is conventionally reported, or the related and mostly obsolete Richter magnitude, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7 causing serious damage over large areas. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified Mercalli scale.At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by a shaking and sometimes displacement of the ground. When a large earthquake epicenter is located offshore, the seabed sometimes suffers sufficient displacement to cause a tsunami. The shaking in earthquakes can also trigger landslides and occasionally volcanic activity.In its most generic sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event—whether a natural phenomenon or an event caused by humans—that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, huge amounts of gas migration, mainly methane deep within the earth, but also by volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear experiments.The 2008 Sichuan earthquake (Chinese: 四川大地震), or Great Sichuan Earthquake which measured at 8.0 Ms[5] and 8.3 Mw[6] according to PRC's China Seismological Bureau, and 7.9 Mw according to USGS, occurred at 14:28:01.42 CST (06:28:01.42 UTC) on 12 May 2008 in Sichuan province of China. It was also known as the Wenchuan earthquake (Chinese: 汶川大地震), after the earthquake's epicenter in Wenchuan County in Sichuan province. The epicenter was 80 kilometres (50 mi) west-northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, with a depth of 19 kilometres (12 mi).[2] The earthquake was felt as far away as Beijing (1,500 km away) and Shanghai (1,700 km away), where office buildings swayed with the tremor.[7] The earthquake was also felt in nearby countries.Official figures (as of May 30, 12:00 CST) state that 68,858 are confirmed dead, including 68,007 in Sichuan province, and 366,586 injured, with 18,618 listed as missing.[4] The earthquake left about 4.8 million people homeless,[8] though the number could be as high as 11 million.[9] It was the deadliest and strongest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed at least 240,000 people. Approximately 15 million people lived in the affected area.The earthquake was followed by two major aftershocks, which led to the collapse of 420,000 more buildings.[10] On May 25, a major aftershock of 6.0 Mw hit northeast of the original earthquake's epicenter, in Qingchuan County, causing eight deaths, 927 injuries, and billions of dollars in damage.