ngoại tâm
Definition
- Noun:
- Epicenter: In geology and seismology, the point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus (hypocenter) of an earthquake, where the seismic waves are typically felt most strongly.
Usage Examples
- Noun:
- Các nhà địa chấn học nhanh chóng xác định ngoại tâm của trận động đất. (Seismologists quickly located the epicenter of the earthquake.)
- Thành phố nằm rất gần ngoại tâm, vì vậy thiệt hại rất lớn. (The city was very close to the epicenter, so the damage was severe.)
Advanced Usage
- The term is used almost exclusively in scientific and technical contexts related to geology, seismology, and disaster reporting.
Variants and Related Words
- Tâm chấn / Chấn tâm (n): This is a more common synonym for "epicenter" in modern Vietnamese, though ngoại tâm remains the precise technical term.
- Tiêu điểm (n): In a broader sense, can mean "focus" or "focal point," but in seismology, it specifically translates to the hypocenter or focus (the point the Earth where the earthquake originates), which is different from the epicenter.
Synonyms
- Epicentre (British English spelling)
- Epicenter (American English spelling)
Notes on Usage
- Ngoại tâm is a specialized scientific term. In everyday news reports about earthquakes, the word tâm chấn is more frequently used to refer to the epicenter.
- It is a compound noun formed from ngoại (meaning "external" or "outer") and tâm (meaning "center" or "heart"), literally translating to "external center."