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So, I've been thinking this over for some time, and looking at the feats of Pokémon and the Earthquake Power Chart, I believe that earthquakes in the verse should have to do with seismic energy, not radiated waves.
Reason one why I think that is the nature of the moves Earthquake and Magnitude. They do more damage if the opponent is underground, signifying that they're closer to the initial impact of the attack. Radiated waves are the things that shake the surface of the earth, so that's not going to be why. Reason two comes from Dugtrio. Dugtrio triggers huge earthquakes via digging 60 miles underground, which is relatively close to where the tectonic plates are. It's safe to say that the surface has nothing to do with that. The move Earthquake is said to trigger and Earthquake and the animation for the move nowadays is more than just shaking the surface, as it creates fault lines and whatnot and you can see what appears to be lava underneath (though that orange light from underground can be a number of things). What's more, Earthquake and Fissure (the move where the ground opens up deep) seem to have a correlation, as Pokémon Contests have them linked. Whiscash gained the ability to predict earthquakes that are explicitly stated to be real earthquakes, and it gained that ability through its own earthquake causing, showing their relation.
Why does this matter? A handful of Pokémon (like the infamous Tyranitar and the aforementioned Dugtrio) have feats of causing crazy earthquakes. Seismic energy for them would be crazy.
Reason one why I think that is the nature of the moves Earthquake and Magnitude. They do more damage if the opponent is underground, signifying that they're closer to the initial impact of the attack. Radiated waves are the things that shake the surface of the earth, so that's not going to be why. Reason two comes from Dugtrio. Dugtrio triggers huge earthquakes via digging 60 miles underground, which is relatively close to where the tectonic plates are. It's safe to say that the surface has nothing to do with that. The move Earthquake is said to trigger and Earthquake and the animation for the move nowadays is more than just shaking the surface, as it creates fault lines and whatnot and you can see what appears to be lava underneath (though that orange light from underground can be a number of things). What's more, Earthquake and Fissure (the move where the ground opens up deep) seem to have a correlation, as Pokémon Contests have them linked. Whiscash gained the ability to predict earthquakes that are explicitly stated to be real earthquakes, and it gained that ability through its own earthquake causing, showing their relation.
Why does this matter? A handful of Pokémon (like the infamous Tyranitar and the aforementioned Dugtrio) have feats of causing crazy earthquakes. Seismic energy for them would be crazy.
