Sammo Tahsin

What is the Cause of an Earthquake?

The Earth's Moving Plates: Plates Moving Around the Earth The lithosphere, the Earth's outermost layer, is broken up into numerous, substantial pieces known as tectonic plates. These plates move all the time and slowly move across the surface of the Earth. Most of the time, we don't notice this movement. However, at the edges where these plates meet, a lot of pressure can build up. Lines of Pressure and Fault When two tectonic plates grind against each other, they can become locked together due to friction. Over time, as the plates continue to try to move, stress builds up in the rocks at the plate boundaries. The pressure eventually becomes too much, and the rocks suddenly break or slip along a fault line, which is a crack in the Earth's crust. The Release of Energy