The area of the Earth's surface that lies directly above an earthquake's focal point or seismic focus is known as the epicenter.
It is where the seismic waves from the earthquake are first detected on the surface.
Because it is the point from which the position of the earthquake is known, the epicenter is a crucial concept in seismology and earthquake analysis.
Differential settlement describes the unequal or uneven sinking or subsidence of different structural elements or areas of a building's foundation.
It happens when a structure's various components settle at various speeds as a result of differences in the ground's soil or other factors.
Due to the unequal movement, this sort of settlement frequently results in structural issues and damage to the building, which can lead to stress, cracking, and distortion.
Typically lasting between one to nine seconds, a microseism is a sort of ground motion or vibration in the Earth that is not directly brought on by an earthquake.
Microseisms are frequently linked to both natural and man-made factors, including wind, atmospheric pressure fluctuations, ocean waves, and human activity.
Wet or waterlogged soils lose volume during the geological process of hydrocompaction, also known as wet soil collapse or hydroconsolidation, and then they compact under the weight of the objects or buildings on top of them.
Water is forced out of the soil pores, which causes the soil particles to compact and become closer together.
The soil thus gets denser and more solid.
The impacts and impact of an earthquake at a particular site are gauged by intensity.
It rates the intensity of shaking, structural damage, and other observable impacts brought on by the seismic event.
Scales like the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale, which classifies the reported impacts based on human observations, structural damage, and other environmental indicators, are frequently used to measure intensity.
In order to evaluate the stability of a slope or structure, the Factor of Safety is a measurement used in geotechnical engineering and slope stability studies.
It entails contrasting the driving factors that frequently lead to the failure of a slope with the resisting forces that keep the slope in place, such as gravity and external loads (such as shear strength and cohesion).
A ratio that shows how much stronger the opposing forces are relative to the driving forces is known as the factor of safety.
A measure of an earthquake's power or energy release is its magnitude.
It offers a quantitative assessment of the magnitude of the earthquake and is frequently employed to evaluate the relative potency of other earthquakes.
The Richter scale, also known as the local magnitude scale, the body wave magnitude, the surface wave magnitude, and the moment magnitude are among the various magnitude scales that are employed (Mw).
