Dictionary

planetquake en · NOUN

Etymology

From planet + quake, after the pattern of earthquake.

Meanings

1. A seismic event occurring on a planet (especially one other than Earth).
   • Recurrent planetquakes would have made mining too hazardous, which could account for the Romulans' departure, but so could many things on this inhospitable world. 1990, Carolyn Clowes, The Pandora Principle, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 10:
   • But why should Jupiter and Saturn exercise such a particular influence on the earth when they attain these longitudes? M. Delauney answers that when in those longitudes the planets encounter meteor swarms, and just as earthquakes are rather numerous in November, when the earth passes through a meteor stream, so they reach a maximum when either of the planets undergoes the same experience. By strict parity of reasoning, it is planet-quakes that ought to ensue upon these conditions, not earthquakes; but to a bold theorist like M. Delauney that is a trifle. 1887 June, John A. Westwood Oliver, “Earthquake Warnings”, in Murray's Magazine, page 817:
   • There are devices that can determine the distribution of radioactivity over another planet from orbit; that can feel from the surface the faint rumble of a distant planetquake deep below; […] 1979, Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science, Ballantine, published 1980, →ISBN, page 243:

Forms

Hyponyms

earthquake · moonquake · marsquake · venusquake

Translations (2)

ru планетотрясение (Translations) · pl trzęsienie planety (Translations)