Part of a series on
Earthquakes
Types Mainshock Foreshock Aftershock Blind thrust Doublet Interplate Intraplate Megathrust Remotely triggered Slow Submarine Supershear Tsunami Earthquake swarm
Causes Fault movement Volcanism Induced seismicity
Characteristics Epicenter Epicentral distance Hypocenter Shadow zone Seismic waves P wave S wave
Measurement Seismometer Seismic magnitude scales Seismic intensity scales
Prediction Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction Forecasting
Other topics Shear wave splitting Adams–Williamson equation Flinn–Engdahl regions Earthquake engineering Seismite Seismology
Earth Sciences Portal Category Related topics
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This is a list of different types of earthquake.

A

• Aftershock, a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large earthquake, in the same area of the main shock.^[1][2]

B

• Blind thrust earthquake, an earthquake which occurs along a thrust fault that does not show signs on the Earth's surface.^[3]

C

• Cryoseism, a seismic event that may be caused by a sudden cracking action in frozen soil or rock saturated with water or ice.^[4]

D

• Deep-focus earthquake, also called a plutonic earthquake, an earthquake with a depth exceeding 70 kilometres (43 mi).^[5]
• Doublet earthquake, an earthquake that consists of at least two or more mainshocks of nearly identical magnitude, separated by a period of time.^[6]

E

• Earthquake swarm, events where a local area experiences sequences of many earthquakes striking in a relatively short period of time.^[7]

F

• Foreshock, an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic event (the mainshock) and is related to it in both time and space.^[8]

H

• Harmonic tremor, a sustained release of seismic and infrasonic energy typically associated with the underground movement of magma, the venting of volcanic gases from magma, or both.^[9]

I

• Induced seismicity, typically minor earthquakes and tremors that are caused by human activity that alters the stresses and strains on the Earth's crust.^[10]
• Interplate earthquake, an earthquake that occurs at the boundary between tectonic plates.^[11]
• Intraplate earthquake, an earthquake that occurs within the interior of a tectonic plate.^[12][13]

M

• Megathrust earthquake, an earthquake occurring at subduction zones at destructive convergent plate boundaries, where one tectonic plate is forced underneath another.^[14]

R

• Remotely triggered earthquakes, a result of the effects of other earthquakes at considerable distance, outside of the immediate aftershock zones.^[15]

S

• Slow earthquake, a discontinuous, earthquake-like event that releases energy over a period of hours to months, rather than the seconds to minutes characteristic of a typical earthquake.^[16]
• Submarine earthquake, an earthquake that occurs underwater at the bottom of a body of water, especially an ocean.^[17]
• Supershear earthquake, an earthquake in which the propagation of the rupture along the fault surface occurs at speeds in excess of the seismic shear wave (S-wave) velocity, causing an effect analogous to a sonic boom.^[18]
• Strike-slip earthquake, an earthquake where two pieces of crust slide horizontally past each other.^[19]

T

• Tsunami earthquake, an earthquake that triggers a tsunami of a magnitude that is very much larger than the magnitude of the earthquake as measured by shorter-period seismic waves.^[20]

V

• Volcano tectonic earthquake, an earthquake induced by the movement (injection or withdrawal) of magma.^[21]