Talk:Hypocenter

message: Is there any use of "hypocenter" to describe an explosion's ground zero other than the atomic bombings of Japan? This seems to be the only place it is used this way.  (Presumably the hypocenter of a sub-surface detonation would be the detonation point, rather than the ground zero.) 214.4.238.180 (talk) 21:58, 21 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I can't remember the title, but I saw a film (or documentary) about the Manhattan project and the subsequent cold war with its atmospheric nuclear testing - or maybe it was about the increase in the numebr of cancer cases in the town of St. George, Utah.  Anyway, the scientists used the term hypocenter quite a lot in the film/documentary.  Sorry I don't have more detailed information.  Astronaut (talk) 17:16, 26 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  "hypercenter" would work, but "epicenter" is what is usually used instead. Both mean the same thing : epi-, hyper-, and super- all have the same meaning and all derive from the same ancestor word. — al-Shimoni (talk) 04:58, 16 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ground Zero 

message: The article describes two completely separate uses of the word "hypocenter", and the two uses are almost contradictory. in geology, "hypocenter" is the point where the event actually takes place and "epicenter" is the spot on the ground. For nuclear explosions, "hypocenter" is (apparently) the spot on the ground, under an airburst.
This leads to two separate problems. First, we are close to a violation of WP:NAD. Then, even if we agree that one or both uses actually need WP articles, we are in violation of a guideline (that I cannot currently find) that dictates that two separate meanings of an article title should never be stuck in the same article.
Given the above, I intend to separate this article into two articles: Hypocenter (geology) and Hypocenter (nuclear explosion). After separation, I will then fix all the incoming links. After that we can choose to consolidate either or both of the resulting articles with articles in the related fields. -Arch dude (talk) 02:38, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: There's no doubt that we need an article on the seismological usage. It certainly can be expanded to discuss hypocentral depth ranges and how depths are determined. As to the other use it could be handled as a hatnote, directing interested people to ground zero. Mikenorton (talk) 06:32, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: In my opinion, those two meanings are sufficiently close that they can reasonably be covered in one article. The hypocenter is where the initial violent event (earthquake, nuclear explosion, aircraft collision, or anything else) occurred; the epicenter is the point on the earth's surface directly above or below the hypocenter. Maproom (talk) 10:08, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
replies: text:  Sorry, but that is (apparently) not the case for a nuclear airburst, and that is my problem. In an airburst, the violent event is above the earth's surface, but the "hypocenter" is at the earth's surface. "Hypocenter" is constructed from the prefix "hypo", meaning below or under. -Arch dude (talk) 05:01, 24 July 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok – I hadn't realised that. How confusing. Maproom (talk) 17:10, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

text: It is not much of a contradiction. "Hypocenter" being the nearest ground below applies to both geological and air-burst usage. The nearest ground below for an air-burst will be located at the nearest surface (the surface is the nearest ground), while the nearest ground below a rupture, as used in geology, is at the bottom of the rupture (it is useful to pick either a top or bottom for a consistent reference and geology picked the bottom because it is the more useful position, especially since the hypercenter ["above the center", at the top of the rupture] and epicenter ["above the center", at surface level] can intersect). — al-Shimoni (talk) 05:13, 16 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  We need two separate articles (or none) 

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thread_title:  External links modified