What is the cause of Earthquakes ?

Question

Earthquakes destroys the life of thousands of people. These bring a great loss to nature and human life. What is the cause of earthquakes ?

Answer 1

Earthquake is known to be a sudden shaking of the surface of earth due to the movement of Litho-Spheric plates. Earthquakes are caused when the energy is released which generates the wave that travel in all the directions and result in the shaking of the earth's surface.

Earth is not a single piece. It is made up by combining the 19-20 pieces which are called as "tectonic plates". These plates are further placed on a hot, partially molten layer of earth's mantle. That's why these plates move continuously.

An earthquake is caused under the earth and this releases the huge amount of energy. The point at which the earthquake occurs under the earth is called hypocenter and the exact place above it at the surface of earth is called epicenter.

Earthquakes are of three types :

1. Convergent boundary

2. Divergent Boundary

3. Transform fault

Do you know which is the most dangerous earthquake recorded ?

The most horrifying earthquake recorded till date was of a magnitude of 9.5 out of 10. This took place in Valdivia in Southern Chile in 1960.