Which of the following statements relating to earthquakes is/are correct? 1. The point of origin of an earthquake is called the epicenter. 2. The lines joining the places which were affected by earthquake at the same point of time are called homoseismal lines. Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Statement 1 is incorrect because the point of origin of an earthquake within the Earth's interior is called the focus or hypocentre [3]. The epicentre is specifically the point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus [5]. Statement 2 is correct; homoseismal (or coseismal) lines are defined as lines drawn through points on the Earth's surface where the earthquake waves or shocks are recorded at the same time. These are distinct from isoseismal lines, which connect points experiencing the same intensity of shaking [1]. Therefore, while the epicentre is the first surface point to experience the waves, the lines joining places affected simultaneously are termed homoseismal lines. Since only the second statement is accurate, the correct option is 2.

Sources

1. [1] Physical Geography by PMF IAS, Manjunath Thamminidi, PMF IAS (1st ed.) > Chapter 14: Earthquakes > Focus and Epicentre > p. 177
2. [2] Geography of India ,Majid Husain, (McGrawHill 9th ed.) > Chapter 17: Contemporary Issues > Earthquakes > p. 8
3. [3] Environment and Ecology, Majid Hussain (Access publishing 3rd ed.) > Chapter 8: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management > earthquake Disasters > p. 15
4. [5] https://ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/esp04/chapter/04-earthquakes/