superquake

noun

superquake

noun

Etymology From super- + quake.

1

Geography, Geology, Natural sciences, Seismology Rare An extremely destructive, large-scale quake, often an earthquake of such magnitude; megaseism; megaquake

  • In January 1973, Newsweek magazine reported an earthquake somewhere in the world , and added: "It was not a superquake as earth tremors go."1978, Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, Volumes 11-12, A. Ross Eckler, page 104:
  • Others have suggested that, since this creeping section separates the two segments that have produced great earthquakes, that it is unlikely a "superquake" that ruptured all three sections could occur at one time.1984, Guidebook for the San Andreas Fault, Cajon Pass to Wrightwood, Volume 55, Pacific Section, American Association of Petroleum Geologist, page 9:
1 more example
  • This "superquake" may have been the largest in a series of earthquakes, thus marking the end of what's known as a supercycle: a sequence of several large earthquakes.2015 May 6, Astrid Tomczak-Plewka, “Supercycles in subduction zones”, in phys.org:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.