Extent of slip in the Earth's crust that occurs during an earthquake
In seismology, an earthquake rupture is the extent of slip that occurs during an earthquake in the Earth's crust. Earthquakes occur for many reasons that include: landslides, movement of magma in a volcano, the formation of a new fault, or, most commonly of all, a slip on an existing fault.[1]
^Stephen Marshak, Earth: Portrait of a Planet (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001): 305–6.