elastic rebound

British

noun

geology a theory of earthquakes that envisages gradual deformation of the fault zone without fault slippage until friction is overcome, when the fault suddenly slips to produce the earthquake

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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elastic rebound

The release of seismic energy is explained by the elastic rebound theory.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017

The deformed unbroken rocks snap back toward their original shape in a process called elastic rebound.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017

Seismic waves are the physical expression of energy released by the elastic rebound of rock within displaced fault blocks and are felt as an earthquake.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017

Earthquakes, or seismic activity, are caused by sudden brittle deformation accompanied by elastic rebound.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017

At each fresh spring, he came up with elastic rebound, while his flanks heaved with the conscious possession of power.

From The War Trail The Hunt of the Wild Horse by Mayne Reid

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023