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Aquake is the result when the surface of aplanet,moon orstar begins to shake, usually as the consequence of a sudden release of energy transmitted asseismic waves, and potentially with great violence.The types of quakes include earthquake, moonquake, marsquake, venusquake, sunquake, starquake, and mercuryquake. They can also all be referred to generically as earthquakes.
An earthquake is aphenomenon that results from the sudden release of stored energy in theEarth'scrust that createsseismic waves. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes may manifest themselves by a shaking or displacement of the ground and sometimes causetsunamis, which may lead to loss of life and destruction of property. An earthquake is caused by tectonic plates (sections of the Earth's crust) getting stuck and putting a strain on the ground. The strain becomes so great that rocks give way and fault lines occur.
A moonquake is the lunar equivalent of an earthquake (i.e., a quake on theMoon) although moonquakes are caused in different ways. They were first discovered by theApolloastronauts. The largest moonquakes are much weaker than the largest earthquakes, though their shaking can last for up to an hour, due to fewer attenuating factors to damp seismic vibrations.[1]
Information about moonquakes comes fromseismometers placed on the Moonfrom 1969 through 1972. The instruments placed by the Apollo 12, 14, 15 and 16 missions functioned perfectly until they were switched off in 1977.
There are at least four kinds of moonquake:
The first three kinds of moonquakes mentioned above tend to be mild; however, shallow moonquakes can register up to mB=5.5 on thebody-wave magnitude scale.[7] Between 1972 and 1977, 28 shallow moonquakes were observed. Deep moonquakes tend to occur within isolated kilometer-scale patches, sometimes referred to as nests or clusters.[8]
 | This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: to reflect InSight seismometer results. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2024) |
Amarsquake is a quake that occurs on the planetMars. A 2012 study suggests that marsquakes may occur every million years.[9] This suggestion is related to evidence found then ofMars's tectonic boundaries.[10]NASA'sInSight lander, which was active between early 2019 and late 2022, recorded over 1,300 individual seismic events. Of these, many were marsquakes resembled terrestrial earthquakes, and several events were confirmed to be meteorite impacts.[11][contradictory]
A venusquake is a quake that occurs on the planetVenus.
A venusquake may have caused a new scarp and alandslide to form. An image of the landslides was taken in November 1990 during the first flight around Venus by theMagellan spacecraft. Another image was taken on July 23, 1991 as theMagellan revolved around Venus for the second time. Each image was 24 kilometres (15 mi) across and 38 kilometres (24 mi) long, and was centered at 2° south latitude and 74° east longitude. The pair ofMagellan images shows a region inAphrodite Terra, within a steeply sloping valley that is cut by many fractures (faults).[12]
A sunquake is a quake that occurs on theSun.
Seismic waves produced by sunquakes occur in thephotosphere and can travel at velocities of 35,000 kilometres per hour (22,000 mph) for distances up to 400,000 kilometres (250,000 mi) before fading away.[13]
On July 9, 1996, a sunquake was produced by an X2.6 classsolar flare and its correspondingcoronal mass ejection. According to researchers who reported the event inNature, this sunquake was comparable to an earthquake of a magnitude 11.3 on theRichter scale. That represents a release of energy approximately 40,000 times greater than that of the devastating1906 San Francisco earthquake, and far greater than that of any earthquake ever recorded. Such an event contains the energy of 100–110 billion tons of TNT or 2 million modest sized nuclear bombs. It is unclear how such a relatively modest flare could have liberated sufficient energy to generate such powerful seismic waves.[13][14]
TheESA and NASA spacecraftSOHO records sunquakes as part of its mission to study the Sun.
A starquake is anastrophysical phenomenon that occurs when the crust of aneutron star undergoes a sudden adjustment, analogous to an earthquake on Earth.[15] Starquakes are thought to result from two different mechanisms. One is the huge stresses exerted on the surface of the neutron star produced by twists in the ultra-strong interiormagnetic fields. A second cause is a result ofspindown. As the neutron star loses linear velocity due toframe-dragging and by the bleeding off of energy due to it being a rotating magnetic dipole, the crust develops an enormous amount of stress. Once that exceeds a certain level, it adjusts itself to a shape closer to non-rotating equilibrium: a perfect sphere. The actual change is believed to be on the order of micrometers or less, and occurs in less than a millionth of a second.
The largest recorded starquake was detected on December 27, 2004 from theultracompact stellar corpseSGR 1806-20.[16] The quake, which occurred 50,000 light years from Earth, released gamma rays equivalent to 1037 kW. Had it occurred within a distance of 10 light years from Earth, the quake could have triggered a mass extinction.[17]
A mercuryquake is a quake that occurs onMercury.In 2016 it has been suggested that quakes might happen on Mercury due to the planet's contraction as the interior cools, impact vibrations or from heat or possibly magma rising from the core and mantle. It has not been measured or proven yet due to the fact that no probes have landed on its surface.
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