A tidal wave is a shallow water wave caused by the gravitational interactions between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Although both are sea waves, a tsunami and a tidal wave are two different unrelated phenomenona.They also occur at great depth, about halfway between the surface and the center of the moon. It appears they are related to the tidal stresses associated with the varying distance between the Earth and Moon. Moonquakes (“earthquakes” on the moon) do occur, but they happen less frequently and have smaller magnitudes than earthquakes on the Earth.The first “pendulum seismoscope” to measure the shaking of the ground during an earthquake was developed in 1751, and it wasn’t until 1855 that faults were recognized as the source of earthquakes.It is a rare example of an active continental rift zone, where a continental plate is attempting to split into two plates which are moving away from one another. The East African Rift System is a 50-60 km (31-37 miles) wide zone of active volcanics and faulting that extends north-south in eastern Africa for more than 3000 km (1864 miles) from Ethiopia in the north to Zambezi in the south.Measurements have been made by numerous academic and government organizations, including the Plate Boundary Observatory and the USGS. (Public domain.) Relief map of the western United States with the background velocity field (relative to a fixed North American plate) determined from two decades of GPS observations.
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January 2023
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