What does seismology mean?
Word: Seismology
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Seismology means the scientific study of earthquakes and of the waves that travel through the Earth.
Word origin: Comes from two Greek words, one meaning earthquake and one meaning study.
How do you spell seismology?
Syllables: seis - mol - o - gy
Tricky part: It opens with s-e-i: e before i, which breaks the usual pattern. The start sounds like size, so students write siesmology.
Watch out for: siesmology, seismollogy, seasmology
Memory tip: Seismic Events Interest Scientists: the first letters, S-E-I-S, spell the start of seismology.
Seismology in a sentence
Example 1: She wants to study seismology so she can help warn cities about earthquakes.
Example 2: The seismology lab recorded a small tremor near the coast last night.
Example 3: Seismology helps engineers design buildings that can stand up to strong quakes.
Fun Fact
Long before seismology had a name, the Chinese scholar Zhang Heng built a bronze instrument in the year 132 that dropped a ball from a dragon's mouth to show the direction of a distant earthquake.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) geology
b) seismolojy
c) meteorology
d) astronomy
Show answer
b) seismolojy. Like geology and meteorology, the word ends in logy with a g.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
gomsoyeisl
a) sociology
b) seismograph
c) cosmology
d) seismology
Show answer
d) seismology. With no c in the jumble, sociology and cosmology are out, and seismograph would need four more letters.
Word Cookie
Fill in the missing letters to complete the word:
seism_l_gy
a) a, o
b) o, o
c) o, a
d) e, o
Show answer
b) o, o. Say seis-mol-o-gy: an o in mol and another before the gy, as in biology.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which job would most need someone trained in seismology?
a) checking a dam for earthquake risk
b) forecasting next week's rain
c) testing river water for germs
d) tracking a comet across the sky
Show answer
a) checking a dam for earthquake risk
2. Seismologists measure the strength of an earthquake on a ____.
a) Celsius scale
b) Beaufort scale
c) magnitude scale
d) pH scale
Show answer
c) magnitude scale
