EARTHQUAKE The first person to try and scientifically explain earthquakes was aristotel who believed that winds

in the earth's interior occasionally shook the ground. Fundamental breakthroughs in seismology were made by three Europeans:Robert Mallet,Alexis Perrey and Luigi Palmieri. Tectinic plates collide and the majoriy of earthquakes take place at the boundaries where the plates meet. There are three types of plate boundaries: spreading zone,transform faults and subduction zone. Faults can be divided into three main groups:normal,thrust(reverse) and strike-slip Earthquakes can be described as a release,sometimes very violent,of built up stress in the litosphere. The region where an earthquake's energy originates is called the focus and the epicentar of an earthquake is the point on the Earth's surface located above the focus. Earthquakes produce two types of vibrations:body waves and the surface waves The streinght of an earthquake can be expressed by the magnitude,which is usually expressed by the Richter scale. The intensity is expressed by a Mercalli scale,a subjective measure which describes how strong a shock was felt at any particular location. VOLCANOES The word Volcano is through to derive from Vulcan,the name of a god of fire in Roman mythology. Volcanoes are generally found where two to three tectonic plates diverge or converge. Volcanic activity can also occur from mantle plum the so-called hotspots,which occur at locations far from plate boundaries;hotspot volcanoes are also found elsewhere in the solar system . Shield volcanoes extrude huge quantities of balsatic lava that gradually build a wide mountain with a shield-like profile and their lava flows are generally very hot and very fluid. Stratovolcanoes are tall conical mountains composed of lava flows and other ejecta in alternate layers,the strata that give rise to the name. Super volcano is the popular term for large vocanoes that usually have large caldera and can potencially produce devastation on an enormus,sometimes continental scale. Submarine volcanoes are common features on the ocean floor,some are active and in shallow water,disclose their presence by blasting steam and rocky debris high above the surface of the sea. Volcanoes can be classified by the composition of lava into four different compositions:felsic lava,andesitic lava,mafic lava and ultramafic lava.

Magmatic volcanoes can bee classify by their frequecy of eruption,with those that erupt regularly called active,those that have erupted in historical time but are now quiet called dormant and those that hav not erupted in historical time called extinct.