Why do Earthquakes occur?
An earthquake is the violent shaking of the ground which is caused by sudden movement in the Earth’s crust. Earthquakes occur because the tension gets released from inside the crust of the earth. Tectonic plates move alongside and past each other but they do not always move smoothly and when they get stuck it causes an earthquake because the pressure builds up then the pressure is finally released (see source 1). This movement from the plates forces waves of energy to come to the surface of the Earth. Plates can also converge into each other, this is when two plates collide and one goes beneath one and creates an earthquake.
How does it occur?
Source 1 Pressure building up under tectonic plates An earthquake occurs when tectonic plates slide against, under, over or past each other. Tectonic plates are plates that are broken up like a jigsaw that are located in the outer layer of the Earth (see source 2). All of the water and land on the Earth sit on tectonic plates. The Earth is made up of eight major plates, Australia is located on the Indo-Australian Plate. These plates are constantly moving beneath us but the movement is too slow for us to notice and feel. The energy from earthquakes are released in seismic waves which spread out from the focus in the crust. The focus is the point that the pressure is released from and the surface on Earth that is the focus is called the epicentre (see source 3).
During an earthquake, the most damage will
In Valdivia, Chile 1960 an earthquake changed the lives of many. An earthquake is the violent shaking of the ground that will destroy homes, buildings, landforms, historical monuments, and lives. Earthquakes begin with the breakage of rock along a fault line. When two tectonic plates rub against each other they create an earthquake. Earthquakes will ride along a fault line which will determine how long the quake will go on. The larger and longer the fault like the bigger the earthquake. Earthquakes send out waves, primary waves or, p waves and secondary waves or, s waves travel along the interior of the earth. These two waves are called body waves. While detecting the waves, the primary waves appear first then the secondary waves. Primary waves travel through solids, liquids, and gasses, which means they are about to travel through the liquid center. Secondary waves are only able to travel through solids which are why scientists have found that there is a loss of these waves once they reach the center.
Earthquakes can be created on any of the plate boundaries. Earthquakes occur when tension is released from inside the crust. Plates do not always move smoothly alongside each other and sometimes get stuck. When this happens pressure builds up. When this pressure is eventually released, an earthquake tends to occur. The point inside the crust where the pressure is released is called the focus. The point on the Earth's surface above the focus is called the epicentre. Earthquake energy is released in seismic waves. These waves spread out from the focus. The waves are felt most strongly at the epicentre, becoming less strong as they travel further away. The most severe damage caused by an earthquake will happen close to the epicentre.
The main idea of the video Bill Nye Earthquakes is that it talks about how earthquakes occur and what makes an earthquake happen. First of all, every year there are thousands of earthquakes all around the world. Earthquakes happen when the Earth’s surface shifts a little. Some earthquakes can go left, right, or up and down. In addition, the Earth’s surface is floating on molten liquid rock, a semi-solid and a semi-liquid. The Earth’s surface is broken down into plates or plate tectonics. Scientists use seismometers to measure earthquakes and when you record that it’s called seismograph. Accordingly, when plates move apart or come together we get volcanoes and when plates move together we can get mountains. When an earthquake happens scientists
The tectonic setting for the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was in the outermost shell of earth consisting of rigid plates that have been moving for hundreds of millions of years. Two of these moving plates meet in western California; the boundary between them is a zone of faults, the principal one being the San Andreas fault. The Pacific Plate (on the west) slides horizontally northwestward relative to the North American Plate (on the east), causing earthquakes along the San Andreas and associated faults. The San Andreas fault is a transform plate boundary, accommodating horizontal relative motions (usgs.gov).
water fractures within the earth. Causing certain areas of the land to have an earthquake effect
Imagine yourself home doing a couple of sets of jumping jacks but then you feel weary so you stop for a water break. You notice that you kept on bouncing but it wasn’t your body moving it was the Earth that was shaking you, an earthquake occured. Earthquakes happen when the underground continental plates move. Earthquakes can affect the Earth, people, and property. To begin with, when an earthquake happens something on Earth is most likely to change.
Earthquakes are caused when two blocks of earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where the two blocks slip is called the fault. The earthquake starts below the earth’s surface at the hypocenter, and the location above the hypocenter is called the epicenter. Earthquakes can have foreshocks which is a smaller earthquake that happens before the larger quake. Earthquake can also
Megathrust earthquakes are defined as interplate earthquakes caused by one tectonic plate being forced under another in a subduction zone. During the lifetime of a subduction zone, two plates are constantly moving towards each other, and due to the great amount of friction, these plates get “stuck” in various areas 2 (fig 1). Due to the build-up of stress in these areas, the plates eventually unlock and release a great amount of energy, resulting in a megathrust earthquake2.
An earthquake would be classified as a sudden ferocious shaking of the ground, typically causing great obliteration because of manoeuvre within the earth’s crust or volcanic action.
The most common cause of earthquakes is movement along faults. Earth’s crust is divided into tectonic plates, which grind past each other at fault boundaries. As tectonic plates move,
Earthquakes are sudden trembling or shaking vibrations. Earthquakes are large spinning spiral winds, that comes together by rocks underground breaks along the fault. There are two types of earthquakes, there is the body waves and the surface waves. Body waves travel at 7/8 km. The body wave is the fastest of the two waves. The surface waves act as a gravity waves that are between two fluids with different density. Unlike hurricanes,
“I felt very at home in California, but the place is prone to earthquakes, and the one in 1944 scared the life out of me. For months afterwards, I felt that every time I sat down, I should have to put on a seatbelt.” Earthquakes are when tectonic plates slip past each other causing a “snap’. The ground shakes violently and can even crack. Though the occurrence of an earthquake is dreadful, familiarizing yourself with the causes and effects can be useful, and in turn make it less scary.
The energy originates from the hypocenter which is usually deep below the earth’s surface. The epicenter is exactly above the hypocenter. There are three types of waves which occur during an earthquake: compressional (P) waves, seismology (S) waves, and surface waves. There are four different types of fault lines which include: normal faulting, reverse faulting, and strike slip, oblique slip. Earthquakes have different consequences on different landscapes. Some earthquakes cause surface faulting which appears as a crack on the ground. It is possible for ground failure to occur which can generate liquefaction, lateral spreads, landslides, etcetera. Depending on the location of the earthquake, it can cause secondary threats such as tsunami, building fires, dam failures and other disastrous
Earthquakes cause ground shaking events caused by rapid movement of falts pushing past each other. Falts, hypocenters, and epicenters are all related due to earthquakes. Falts are breaks in a rock mass that fit together perfectly with massive amounts of pressure on eachother. Most falts are locked except for very brief moments causeing earthquakes. Understanding where the earthquake originated is nessasary in messureing the scale or magnitude of the earth quake. The Hypocenter or focus is where the falts started pushing past or against eachother. The point on earths surface directly above the hypocenters is the epocenter.
An Earthquake is the shaking of the earth's surface caused by rapid movement of the earth's rocky outer layer. The sudden shaking of the ground that occurs when masses of rock change position below the Earth's surface is called an earthquake. The shifting masses send out shock waves that may be powerful enough to alter the surface of the Earth, thrusting up cliffs and opening great cracks in the ground.