GC: n

S: http://centres.insead.edu/humanitarian-research-group/research-projects/documents/WP2010-47_UsingORtosupporthumanitarianoperationsLearningfromtheHaitiearthquake.pdf (last access: 13 June 2016); https://elsevier.conference-services.net/resources/247/2182/pdf/CPAC2011_0114_paper.pdf (last access: 13 June 2016).

N: 1. seism (n): From Greek seismos.
seismic (adj.): 1858, from seismo- (word-forming element meaning “earthquake,” from comb. form of Greek seismos “a shaking, shock; an earthquake,” from seiein “to shake,” from PIE root *twei- “to agitate, shake, toss”) + -ic.
2. To be consistent with a Greek basis for seismological terminology, some writers have thrown aside the familiar expression ‘earthquake’, and substituted the awkward word ‘seism’.
3. earthquake (Preferred): Any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves through the Earth’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in the Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults, narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one another. The major fault lines of the world are located at the fringes of the huge tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust.
4. Collocations: not usual as “seism” but very common as “earthquake”.

• Adj.: big, great, huge, major, massive, severe | minor, small.
• Earthquake + verb: happen, hit sth, occur, strike (sth) | shake sth | destroy sth, devastate sth, kill sb, leave sb homeless | measure sth an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale.
• Earthquake + noun: zone.
• Prep. in a/the ~ The block of flats was destroyed in an earthquake.
• Phrases: the epicentre of an earthquake, the magnitude of an earthquake.

5. Cultural Interrelation:

• Reality: We can mention the earthquakes of San Francisco in 1906 and 1989.
• Fiction: We can note the movie Earthquake (1974) directed by Mark Robson.

S: 1. MW – http://goo.gl/7V4vQd (last access: 5 September 2014); OED – http://goo.gl/N67bHt (last access: 5 September 2014). 2. IATE (last access: 15 November 2013). 3. EncBrit – http://goo.gl/42y4un (last access: 15 November 2013). 4. OCD – http://goo.gl/1HnArw (last access: 12 June 2015). 5. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/sfeq.htm (last access: 13 June 2016); http://www.history.com/topics/1989-san-francisco-earthquake (last access: 13 June 2016); https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/earthquake/ (last access: 13 June 2016).

SYN: 1. earthquake, earthquake shock, seismic shock. 2. earthquake, quake.

S: 1. GDT (last access: 15 November 2013). 2. IATE (last access: 15 November 2013).

CR: aftershock, erosion, eruption, hypocenter, Richter scale, seismic hazard zone, tidal wave, tsunami.