Sudden and Violent Shifting of Tectonic Plates Cause Earthquakes

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 theory of plate tectonics states that Earth’s outer shell is divided into plates. The crust and upper mantle is broken into plates that move around on the mantle, changing in size throughout time. The lithosphere makes up the crust and upper mantle and the asthenosphere a plastic like layer beneath the lithosphere. There are three types of plate boundaries. Divergent boundaries where two plates move away from each other. The ocean widens and new crust forms at the mid-oceanic ridge. Convergent boundaries has three types of converging, moving two plates towards each other. First we have an ocean floor plate that collides with a less dense continental plate. Next an ocean floor plate collides with another ocean floor plate. Finally a continental plate collides with another continental plate. Transform boundaries were two plates slide past one another. The resulting effects of plate tectonics is landforms such as rift valleys,

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake tectonic setting was in the outermost shell of earth known as the crust this is composed 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 horizontal sliding of the Pacific Plate relative to the North American Plate, causes earthquakes along the San Andreas fault and similar plates near the region. The San Andreas fault is a transform plate boundary, accommodating horizontal relative motions (usgs.gov).

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).

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.

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 caused when rock at an underground fault breaks. This release of energy causes seismic waves (Endsley). There are P waves, S waves, and surface waves (Hogan). This is the main cause of earthquakes, though there has been a few, rare occurrences

In general there are three types of boundary activity, the first in divergent this is where two plates are moving away from each other and therefore new land is being formed from the mantle underneath. The second is called subduction this occurs when two tectonic plates are moving towards each other - it is along these types of boundaries where mountain are generally found. The third and final type is called transform, this occurs when two plates are moving side by side and this is where earthquakes are normally

Helens exploded but what is an earthquake? Earthquakes are the earth-shaking vigorously because the earth crust is moving which is caused by the tectonic plates. The lithosphere is made up of the earth crust and the uppermost mantle which is broken into the tectonic plate, that slowly move over a mechanically weaker layer, the asthenosphere, which is part of the upper mantle. These plates have different boundaries in the world, where two different plates meet, all of the boundaries are shown in this map. These plates are pushed together from interior earth, the plate's often collided near the boundaries causing volcanic eruption, earthquakes and tsunamis. There are different types of collision that cause different effects on our earth. Convergent boundaries- when two plates slide up against each other and one may be subducting under another . Divergent boundaries- are two plates pulling away from each other, which can create new

An earthquake by definition is violent vibrations caused by rocks breaking under huge amounts of stress. The underground surface that the rocks break are the edges of a tectonic plate or a fault plane.

Most earthquake happen inside the lithosphere. Because with more deeper it gets, rocks are more softened, or the viscosity increases. The more viscosity the rock gets, the more it absorbs energy and deform smoothly. Base on this viscosity-elasticity nature of the lithosphere, Gunawardana (2017) assumed that the elastic energy accumulated is proportional to the earthquakes released energy.

     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.