Fault Lines: Understanding the Power of Earthquakes

Fault Lines: Understanding the Power of Earthquakes — page 7
The fields of meteorology and seismology are not all that different In both scientists observe our planet’s processes and apply what we’ve learned in the past to make conclusions about what’s going to happen in the future In meteorology we study current conditions like temperature pressure and cloud cover to figure out how they are going to change in a few days In seismology seismology we study the waves that earthquakes send out to understand the stresses that are building up below us and what areas might be at risk for earthquakes in the future And as you’ll see in my job as a meteorologist and science reporter I get to do both explain the weather every day and explain earthquakes whenever there is a major one somewhere on earth In Fault Lines Understanding the Power of Earthquakes I’m going to tell you a little bit about what goes on beneath our feet and how we can prepare for earthquakes wher ever we happen to live You’ll see that seismologists are like detectives examining data from earthquakes to understand what’s going on inside our planet It’s not nearly as quiet down there as you might think from the movement of the tectonic plates under our feet to the shifting weather systems above our head our planet is always in motion nasa Whether it's creating forecasts tracking storms or analyzing the data after an earthquake my days as a science reporter are never dull cBc 8