Mar 3
2020
3/3 Notes on Lesson 5
V. Lesson 5: Forecasting Where Natural Events Will Occur
A. How are earthquakes caused?
- Earthquakes are caused when rocks slide past each other on either side of a fault or plate boundary.
- As tectonic plates shift around Earth’s surface, stress builds up within rocks. Like stretching a rubber band, the stress builds potential energy inside the rock.
- Most earthquakes happen along or near plate boundaries because there is more movement along them than other places on Earth.
- Tectonic plates move in 3 ways relative to each other:
– away from each other (divergent)
– towards each other (convergent)
– sliding past each other (transform)