Earthquakes: Natural Processes

The earth is made up of lots of large bits of land called tectonic plates which are floating on the earth's mantle. The heat from the earth's centre push these plates around. These plates often bump into each other. They are called spreading zones when they move apart. Transform faults are where the two plates slide past each other. Sometimes plates dive below each other. Sometimes plates dive below each other. This is called supersuction.

When the plates bang into each other they often get stuck. But because they are still being pushed a lot of pressure is built up. They eventually unjam very suddenly. This causes an earthquake. (Mr Abes showed us this with his hands.)

Seismic waves move away from the epicentre and can cause the earth to crack along fault lines. We feel the seismic waves as an earthquake.

The shaking of the land caused by the seismic waves result in fishers or cracks, land movement, landslides, soil liquefaction or even tsunamis.