Why Earthquakes are Worse Than Moonquakes

you step on the surface of the Moon it's

unusual you definitely feel lighter here

and it's easier to walk you decide to

check out that obsessive idea of yours

jump on Earth's natural satellite and

even despite your bulky spacesuit you

literally fly up into the air

anyway you continue your walk on the

surface of the Moon when you feel

something strange the ground under your

feet is is it shaking it feels as if an

earthquake has just started on the moon

but that's simply impossible or is it

surprisingly your gut feeling hasn't let

you down this time moonquakes do exist

in fact there are four types of

moonquakes that are strong enough to be

detected from a large distance there are

deep Moon Quakes occurring more than 430

miles below the surface then there are

meteoroid impacts thermoques occur when

The Frigid lunar crust expands it

happens when the morning sun illuminates

the satellite after a two week long deep

freeze lunar night and there are also

shallow Moon Quakes they're the only

ones that are similar to earthquakes on

our planet

shallow moonquakes happen 12 to 19 miles

below the surface and they're the most

powerful and dangerous between 1972 and

1977 the Apollo's seismic Network

recorded 28 such Moon Quakes and some of

them measured more than five on the

Richter scale on Earth such an

earthquake is strong enough to crack

glass to remove heavy furniture plus

shallow moonquakes are very long lasting

and compared to earthquakes once they

get going they can continue for up to 10

minutes as for the average earthquake it

typically continues for 10 to 30 seconds

scientists are still not sure what

causes shallow moonquakes and even where

exactly they occur one of the theories

is that moonquakes happen at the rims of

large relatively young craters that

probably slump from time to time

interestingly the Moon and Earth aren't

the only places where earthquakes occur

no scientists have recorded Quakes

Tremors vibrations and shakes in other

regions of our solar system too let's

take Mercury for example a few years ago

scientists discovered that this planet

was shrinking and that's why it seems to

be so tectonically active or Venus this

world is a tectonic puzzle for experts

at the moment Venus has no tectonic

plates and it might have never had them

but its surface has folds and faults and

looks as if it could have tectonic

plates on the other hand these features

might have appeared because of other

processes for example volcanic activity

but even though we haven't observed any

Venus Quakes scientists believe they

could detect them since their vibration

seems to Ripple through the thick

atmosphere of the planet

now Mars we know for sure that this

planet is seismically active NASA's

Lander placed a seismometer on the

surface of the red planet and in 2019 it

managed to measure its first Mars Quake

after that the Lander continued to

record Quakes but they were so weak that

if they happened on our planet they'd be

completely covered by the background

noise of Earth's oceans but a space body

doesn't have to be a full-fledged planet

to have active tectonics let's take

Pluto this dwarf planet is geologically

active at the moment in 2014 NASA's new

horizon spacecraft was flying through

the Pluto system when it recorded

complex geological features on this

dwarf planet scientists concluded that

Pluto might have Quakes or should I call

them Pluto quigs when its liquid water

ocean freezes and thaws beneath the

dwarf planet's icy crust

Jupiter's moons Europa and IO as well as

Saturn's moons Titan and ensettalus are

also geologically active despite their

small size their features range from

volcanoes and water plumes to potential

subsurface oceans now I bet you don't

know these cool facts about earthquakes

that occur on our planet

there's one place on Earth where a

whopping 90 percent of all earthquakes

occur

it's called The Ring of Fire and it

stretches around the Pacific Ocean from

New Zealand all the way to South America

looks to me more like a horseshoe anyway

experts claim that these countless

earthquakes are caused by the abundance

of volcanoes in that region and the

constant movement of the tectonic plates

around half a million earthquakes happen

on Earth every year but many of them

occur very very deep in the Earth's

crust and only special equipment can

detect them we feel around 20 percent of

earthquakes and only 100 of them can

cause damage

the largest recorded earthquake occurred

in Chile in May 1960 it was a magnitude

9.5 on the Richter Scale it was truly

devastating during that earthquake

seismographs detected and recorded

seismic waves that traveled all over the

world they shook the planet for many

days as for the most powerful earthquake

that occurred in the U.S it was 9.2 and

happened in Alaska by the way Alaska

along with California is the most

earthquake prone state in the U.S and

one of the most seismically active

regions in the world a magnitude 7

earthquake occurs there almost every

year a mega earthquake can actually

shorten the length of a day for the

entire planet NASA claims that really

large earthquakes can shift our planet's

axis and thus change the duration of a

day now of course you won't notice it

since this change is measured in

microseconds and when microsecond is one

millionth of a second scientists think

that the 9.1 Sumatra earthquake which

occurred in 2004 shortened the day by

6.8 microseconds

now not even the best Specialists can

predict an earthquake that's mostly

because the mechanisms that trigger

earthquakes are extremely deep

underground but these days people have

learned how to figure out a more precise

time frame of when an earthquake might

occur

earthquakes can be triggered by volcanic

eruptions or let's say meteor impacts

but most of them are caused by the

movements of our planet's tectonic

plates Earth's surface consists of 15 to

20 constantly moving tectonic plates

pressure increases when they shift and

this can make the crust of our planet

break

San Francisco is moving toward Los

Angeles right at this moment the speed

of its movement is about two inches per

year that's as fast as your fingernails

grow it's happening because the two

sides of the San Andreas fault which is

the Continental fault extending 750

miles through California are slipping

past each other so in several million

years Los Angeles and San Francisco will

be neighbors

lakes ponds and canals become slightly

warmer and start to stink before an

earthquake it happens because gases get

released when tectonic plates shift most

animals feel these signs and change

their behavior for example scientists

noted toads completely disappearing

before an earthquake in Italy in 2009

but as soon as the natural disaster was

over they returned

even after an earthquake is over you

might still see water sloshing around in

your swimming pool there's no need to

worry this is a phenomenon called a sage

the water can keep sloshing around for

hours after the earthquake is over for

example the pool at the University of

Arizona lost some water from a sage

caused by an earthquake in Mexico that

occurred 1200 miles away

on February 27 2010 a massive earthquake

started in Chile it measured 8.8 on the

Richter Scale as a result Earth's crust

in that region was ripped so

dramatically that a city called

Concepcion moved 10 feet to the West

another earthquake resulted in the

tallest mountain in the world Everest

shrinking by one inch it happened in

2015 when a magnitude 7.5 earthquake

caused several Himalayan Mountains to

decrease in size

the Japanese used to believe that

earthquakes were caused by namazu a

giant catfish that lived submerged in

the mud under the Japanese Islands the

fish would thrash about causing seismic

activity

as for the ancient Greeks they were sure

that a powerful sea deity Poseidon

produced earthquakes by hitting his

Trident against the earth when he was

angry

according to Hindu mythology eight

elephants hold Earth in place they are

in turn balanced on the back of a

ginormous Turtle standing on the coils

of an even larger snake and every time

any of these animals moves an earthquake

occurs

that's it for today