earthquake

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. tremor, seism, quake, shock. See violence.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. quake, tremor, temblor, tremblor, trembler, earthquake shock, shock, fault, slip, movement of the earth's surface, movement of the earth's crust, earth tremor, microseism, seismic upheaval, aftershock; an earthquake registering one, two, etc., points on the Richter scale; secondary tremor, tertiary tremor, volcanic quake, shake*, wiggler*.

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

tremor, temblor, quake, seism, *earthshake, shock, convulsion, upheaval, cataclysm, *wake-up call.

WORD FIND

• center of: epicenter

• continental dynamics causing: plate tectonics

• following tremor: aftershock

• fracture in rock strata, origination of quake: fault

• ground waves causing initial roar: primary waves, compressional waves

• ground waves causing side-to-side shaking: Love waves

• magnitude scale: Richter scale, Mercalli intensity scale

• pertaining to: seismic

• preceding tremor: foreshock

• recorder of earth’s vibrations: seismograph

• sea wave caused by: tsunami

• study of: seismology

see volcano

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun A shaking of the earth: quake, seism, temblor, tremblor, tremor. Informal: shake. See MOVE, REPETITION.