Epicenter

The epicenter (from Greek ἐπί epi " on, over " and κέντρον kentron "center ") is the vertically projected from the earthquake source, the hypocenter on the Earth's surface starting point of an earthquake, and describes the geographical location of the earthquake hearth.

The localization (localization) by seismological institutes earthquake epicenters are simplified assumed as point sources. In reality, however, is the fracture surfaces that have different extents depending on the magnitude of the earthquake. Earthquakes with magnitudes have small fracture surfaces on with lengths of a few meters to a few hundred meters, while the fracture surfaces can extend from very strong catastrophic events over several hundred kilometers. The epicenter of an earthquake refers to the projection of the starting point from which the energy release begins.

In general, the damage of an earthquake, the epicenter is most pronounced, as it depends mainly on the distance from the earthquake source. However, influence practice and the focal mechanism and the geology of the region concerned. Sedimentary basins, for example, cause resonance effects that can lead to much stronger amplitudes of the ground motion at the surface. The greatest intensities and thus the heaviest damage occurred therefore not necessarily exactly at the location of the epicenter.