Thromas By Zeta Stevens Why Do Earthquakes Occur?

Report on Earthquakes by Zeta Stevens

Why Do Earthquakes Occur?

The earth is split into four layers, inner and outer core, the mantle and crust. The top of the mantle and crust make up what is like the skin of our earth (see source 2). The skin is split up like a puzzle and we call these puzzle pieces’ tectonic plates (see source 1). These plates are constantly moving and the plate boundaries (edges of the plates) move and slide past one another. Sometimes as the plates move the plate boundaries become stuck. Pressure builds up in the stuck area over time and eventually breaks. This is why earthquakes occur due to the sudden movement of the plate sliding and breaking creating a fault line to go off. The fault line is the line on which the

Source 4. A map of the Earth’s fault lines and plates with the direction of their movement.

Although there is no way of knowing exactly when an earthquake is going to occur. Scientists have been able to predict an earthquakes range for them to occur. For example, if a fault hasn’t gone off for around 20 years, then this fault is likely to go off in the next five years. This is as close as scientists can get to exactly knowing when an earthquake will occur, although this can still help people to be prepared to some extent. We know that an earthquake will occur with the tectonic plates movements and with them either colliding, sliding or doing both against each other. An earthquake will occur with the force of these movements, but depending on the strength of the movements depends how strong the earthquake is on the Richter Scale (see source 5) or on a Seismograph (see source 6).

Earthquakes are frequent but most of the time aren’t very big on the Richter Scale. Statistics and research show that there are earthquakes happening constantly, but most of the time are impossible to feel unless they are above a 3 on the Richter Scale (see source7).

Source 6. A diagram of how a seismograph works and the measurements Source 7. Statistics on the Earth’s earthquakes

This is one of the most commonly asked questions around the world. Earthquakes are very common because the Earth’s tectonic plates are constantly moving, because they are constantly moving earthquakes are happening quite often across the globe. Statistics show that over 1 million occur each year worldwide (see source 9), but earthquakes don’t have to be felt for them to have occurred. Statistics prove that 1 100 000 earthquakes happen per year worldwide that can’t be felt by humans. Statistics show that about 11 670 earthquakes occur that can be felt in the area of occurrence and sometimes even further