ESS103H1 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Lava Dome, Plate Tectonics, Global Positioning System
Document Summary
The place where three tectonic plates, and three plate-tectonic boundaries, meet. trough - an elongate depression of the land or seafloor. P-s interval - the time interval between the arrivals of the p wave and the s wave. Earthquakes are not distributed uniformly across the planet. Most are concentrated in discrete belts, such as one that runs along the western coasts of north and south america. Most earthquakes in the oceans occur along the winding crests of mid-ocean ridges. Where the ridges curve or zigzag, so do the patterns of earthquakes. Ocean trenches and associated island arcs have numerous earthquakes. In fact, many of the world"s largest and most deadly earthquakes occur near ocean trenches. Earthquakes are sparse in some continental interiors but are abundant in others, like the middle east, china, and tibet. Large areas of the seafloor, especially the abyssal plains, have few earthquakes.
