Types of earthquake

This is a list of different types of earthquake.

A

• Aftershock, a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large earthquake, in the same area of the main shock

B

• Blind thrust earthquake, an earthquake which occurs along a thrust fault that does not show signs on the Earth's surface.

C

• Cryoseism, a seismic event that may be caused by a sudden cracking action in frozen soil or rock saturated with water or ice

D

• Deep-focus earthquake, also called a plutonic earthquake, an earthquake with a hypocenter depth exceeding 300 kilometres (190 mi)

E

• Earthquake swarm, events where a local area experiences sequences of many earthquakes striking in a relatively short period of time

F

• Foreshock, an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic event (the mainshock) and is related to it in both time and space

H

• Harmonic tremor, a sustained release of seismic and infrasonic energy typically associated with the underground movement of magma, the venting of volcanic gases from magma, or both

I

• Induced seismicity, typically minor earthquakes and tremors that are caused by human activity that alters the stresses and strains on the Earth's crust
• Interplate earthquake, an earthquake that occurs at the boundary between two tectonic plates
• Intraplate earthquake, an earthquake that occurs within the interior of a tectonic plate

M

• Megathrust earthquake, an earthquake occurring at subduction zones at destructive convergent plate boundaries, where one tectonic plate is forced underneath another

R

• Remotely triggered earthquakes, a result of the effects of large earthquakes at considerable distance, outside of the immediate aftershock zones

S

• Slow earthquake, a discontinuous, earthquake-like event that releases energy over a period of hours to months, rather than the seconds to minutes characteristic of a typical earthquake
• Submarine earthquake, an earthquake that occurs underwater at the bottom of a body of water, especially an ocean
• Supershear earthquake, an earthquake in which the propagation of the rupture along the fault surface occurs at speeds in excess of the seismic shear wave (S-wave) velocity, causing an effect analogous to a sonic boom
• Strike-slip earthquake, an earthquake where two tectonic plates sliding past each other get caught, build tension, then slide free, creating an earthquake.

T

• Tsunami earthquake, an earthquake that triggers a tsunami of a magnitude that is very much larger than the magnitude of the earthquake as measured by shorter-period seismic waves

V

• Volcano tectonic earthquake, an earthquake induced by the movement (injection or withdrawal) of magma