What Is An Earthquake?

What Is An Earthquake?

The surface of the Earth is like jigsaw puzzle. It’s not a single piece of land but approximately 20 pieces of a puzzle that constantly move, but don’t you feel it because they move quite slowly. Each one of those puzzle pieces are called ‘Tectonic Plates’. So whenever these plates hit, bump or slide past another plate, an earthquake is caused! The surface where these plates slip is called the Fault or the Fault plane.

So when do you think it happens? It happens all the time! Most of the time, we don’t feel the quakes as they are too small to reach us. But sometimes, they are so strong they can be felt over 1000 miles away.
The place where the earthquake originates is known the Hypocentre and the place where it occurs on the Earth’s surface is called the Epicentre.

There are three types of Earthquakes.
• Convergent Boundary, here one plate is forced over another during an earthquake, which causes a Thrust Fault. Many hills and mountains have been formed due to the Convergent Boundary.

• Divergent Boundary, here plates are drifted apart from each other, forming a Rift Zone. This kind gives birth to new ocean floors.

• Transform Fault, here the plates slip by each other and this is also known as Strike-Slip.

So earthquakes are nothing but the shaking, rolling or a sudden shock of the Earth’s surface.

Did you know, the instrument used by the scientists to measure the intensity of the Earthquake is known as a Seismograph? A Tsunami is caused when Earthquake occur under water.