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What causes earthquakes to occur in some places and not in others?
Some places have more earthquakes than others because they sit on the edges of tectonic plates.
Do earthquakes occur as a result of plates moving away from each other?
A divergent boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other. Along these boundaries, earthquakes are common and magma (molten rock) rises from the Earth’s mantle to the surface, solidifying to create new oceanic crust. Two plates sliding past each other forms a transform plate boundary.
Why are some locations more at risk from tectonic hazards?
People in low income countries (LICs) are more vulnerable to the threat of tectonic hazards because of poor health services, lack of emergency services and poorly built houses and structures.
Do plates shifting cause earthquakes?
Tectonic plates move very slowly relative to each other, typically a few centimetres per year, but this still causes a huge amount of deformation at the plate boundaries, which in turn results in earthquakes.
Why earthquakes occur at plate boundaries?
Earthquakes happen when rock below the Earth’s surface moves abruptly. Most earthquakes happen at or near the boundaries between Earth’s tectonic plates because that’s where there is usually a large concentration of faults. Some faults crack through the Earth because of the stress and strain of the moving plates.
How do earthquakes occur not on plate boundaries?
Fault zones within tectonic plates The large plates move very slowly, owing to convection currents within the mantle below the crust. By definition, intraplate earthquakes do not occur near plate boundaries, but along faults in the normally stable interior of plates.
Why do earthquakes occur?
The tectonic plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the earth’s crust and cause the shaking that we feel.
Why do earthquakes occur at plate boundaries?
Why are the effects of earthquakes different?
The effects of an earthquake can vary depending on: The size of the earthquake on the Richter scale – the higher it is on the scale, the more destruction it can cause. Distance from epicentre – the effects of an earthquake are more severe at its centre.
Why do tectonic plates move?
The plates can be thought of like pieces of a cracked shell that rest on the hot, molten rock of Earth’s mantle and fit snugly against one another. The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other.
What causes earthquakes tectonic plates?
Why do earthquakes occur in certain places?
Earthquakes usually occur where two plates are running into each other or sliding past each other. An image of the world’s major plates and their boundaries. Notice that many plate boundaries do not coincide with coastlines.