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Earthquake vs Tornado - What's the difference?

earthquake | tornado |

As nouns the difference between earthquake and tornado

is that earthquake is a shaking of the ground, caused by volcanic activity or movement around geologic faults while tornado is a violent windstorm characterized by a twisting, funnel-shaped cloud.

earthquake

Noun

(en noun)
  • A shaking of the ground, caused by volcanic activity or movement around geologic faults.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.2:
  • Her alablaster brest she soft did kis, / Which all that while shee felt to pant and quake, / As it an Earth-quake were: at last she thus bespake.
  • * 2006 , Declan Walsh, The Guardian , 6 Oct 2006:
  • Last year's earthquake crushed his house, his livelihood and very nearly his leg, he said, pointing to a plastered limb that refuses to heal.

    Synonyms

    * earthdin * quake * seism * temblor * terremote * tremblor * tremor

    Derived terms

    * earthquake-prone

    See also

    * aftershock * earthquake engineering * fault line * Richter scale * seismic * seismograph * seismologist * seismology * tremor * tsunami

    tornado

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (meteorology) A violent windstorm characterized by a twisting, funnel-shaped cloud.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
  • , author=Frank Fish, George Lauder , title=Not Just Going with the Flow , volume=101, issue=2, page=114 , magazine= citation , passage=An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex . The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain, as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.}}
    A tornado is a rotating column of air, pendant from a cumulonimbus cloud, and nearly always observable as a funnel cloud or tuba. Its vortex, meters in diameter, rotates counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, with wind speeds of 160 to more than 480 kilometres per hour.

    Synonyms

    * twister * cyclone

    Derived terms

    * tornado watch, tornado warning (A tornado watch' means that conditions are favorable for producing a tornado. A tornado ' warning means that a tornado has been sighted in the area or has been detected on radar.) * tornado shelter

    See also

    * cyclone * dust devil * hurricane * tsunami * typhoon * waterspout * willy willy

    Anagrams

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