earthstorm

English

Etymology

From earth +‎ storm.

Noun

earthstorm (plural earthstorms)

1. (seismology, weather, fantasy) An extremely powerful earthquake; a storm involving earth or rock blowing through the air.
   • 1931, Charles Fort, “Lo!”, in The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover Publications, published 1974, →ISBN, page 768:

     This earthquake was an earthstorm. Hills were waves, and houses cast adrift were wrecked on them.

   • 2004, China Miéville, Iron Council‎^[1], Del Rey, →ISBN:

     There is an earthstorm, disks of rock careering skyward, buffeting the train.

   • 2010, Philip Reeve, Fever Crumb: A Web of Air‎^[2], Scholastic, →ISBN:

     It had come from the west, the shock wave from some almighty earthstorm in lost America, rolling clear across the Atlantic before breaking over Thursday Island. It had smashed down buildings, and sunk the ships whose dead masts could still be seen jutting sadly from the water in the harbor.

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