The term for the place on the Earth's surface above the focus of an earthquake is

• A. Epicenter
• B. Focus
• C. Fault
• D. Earthquake

Answer: (A)

The place on the Earth's surface directly above where an earthquake starts is called the epicenter. The earthquake itself begins at a point inside the Earth called the focus (or hypocenter); the epicenter is simply the surface projection of that point. So the epicenter is where you’d typically feel the strongest shaking in a simplified view, especially if the rupture is near the surface. A fault is the fracture along which movement occurs, and an earthquake is the event that results from that movement. Understanding this helps clarify why the term epicenter uniquely identifies the surface point above the origin of the quake.