Okeydokey. So you know if you put bits of ice on water, they float? So if you break ice on a frozen lake, you get sheets of ice floating around? Well, amazingly, the surface of the earth is a bit like that (but hot, and with rock). So the continents and everything on the surface of the earth – these things are actually ENORMOUS plates of rock that are floating on molten rock (lava). This field is called Plate Techtonics, and when it was proposed, lots of people said “You’re kidding. We’re not floating! I’m standing on ROCK”. But it’s true.
So the earthquakes happen because these plates are right up against each other and are moving (because of big, big forces in the earth). The edges are rough, not smooth, so pressure builds up over years, and occasionally the forces get too big, overcome the friction between the plates, and things suddenly slip. The plates move a few inches or a few feet suddenly, and that’s an earthquake.
The power is amazing. I was in a small earthquake in california. It’s weird to feel the earth move underneath you. The quakes in New Zealand sound terrifying.
One amazing fact about plates: India is on a plate, and china/asia on another. A long time ago, India crashed into Asia. The crash sent the earth upwards – that’s what the Himalayas are! Those huge mountains are like a crumple zone between two huge plates. And India’s still moving north, so Everest is actually getting taller…
Okeydokey. So you know if you put bits of ice on water, they float? So if you break ice on a frozen lake, you get sheets of ice floating around? Well, amazingly, the surface of the earth is a bit like that (but hot, and with rock). So the continents and everything on the surface of the earth – these things are actually ENORMOUS plates of rock that are floating on molten rock (lava). This field is called Plate Techtonics, and when it was proposed, lots of people said “You’re kidding. We’re not floating! I’m standing on ROCK”. But it’s true.
So the earthquakes happen because these plates are right up against each other and are moving (because of big, big forces in the earth). The edges are rough, not smooth, so pressure builds up over years, and occasionally the forces get too big, overcome the friction between the plates, and things suddenly slip. The plates move a few inches or a few feet suddenly, and that’s an earthquake.
The power is amazing. I was in a small earthquake in california. It’s weird to feel the earth move underneath you. The quakes in New Zealand sound terrifying.
One amazing fact about plates: India is on a plate, and china/asia on another. A long time ago, India crashed into Asia. The crash sent the earth upwards – that’s what the Himalayas are! Those huge mountains are like a crumple zone between two huge plates. And India’s still moving north, so Everest is actually getting taller…
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