1872 Owens Valley earthquake

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/1872-owens-valley-earthquake

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the location?Owens Valley, California, USA
2. What is the date?March 26, 1872
3. What happened in Owens Valley in 1872?A huge earthquake shook the valley, with a magnitude between 7.4 and 7.9. It caused buildings to collapse and many people were hurt or lost their lives.
4. Why did the ground shake so hard in Owens Valley?The Earth's plates were moving apart, pulling the crust apart. This stretching created big faults that snapped, releasing a lot of energy.

Graben: A down-dropped block of the Earth's crust bounded by parallel faults.
Extensional Tectonics: Geological processes where the Earth's crust is stretched and thinned.
Fault Scarp: A steep slope or cliff formed by a fault rupture, indicating ground displacement.
Paleoseismology: The study of prehistoric earthquakes through geological evidence.