How do Earthquakes happen?
Let’ s learn about the Earth’ s structure f irst!
After a lot of pressure has accumulated, the plates can ' t hold the pressure anymore, and they snap!
The Earth’ s crust is a solid rocky area where animals and plants live
The Earth’ s mantle is mainly solid but has areas made up of molten rock!
The Earth’ s core is at the centre. and it is mostly made up of metals such as nickel and Iron
The snap of the plates releases a lot of energy and makes the ground shake. So, Earthquakes happen because the Earth ' s plates are constantly moving!
How do Earthquakes happen?
Imagine the world is made up of giant puzzle pieces called plates, floating on molten mixture of rocks, a bit like crackers on a thick soup!
These plates move very slowly over time because the molten rocks move slowly under the Earth ' s crust since hotter molten rocks move up and colder ones go down in the Mantle.
Fun Facts!
Earthquakes can happen both on land and on water. If they happen under the ocean floor, a tsunami occurs!
The largest Earthquake ever recorded was the Valdivia Earthquake which happened in 1960, which a scale of 9.5! *
* Check the Earthquake
Magnitude scale!
Sometimes the plates can get caught on each other and while they are still trying to move, they keep pushing and pushing on each other. So, the pressure begins to build up, like pulling a rubber band apart but still holding it tight.
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