Gebaeudemanagement

Eintrag vom: 24.03.2013.

Most earthquakes occur at fault zones where tectonic plates ?giant rock slabs that make up Earth?s upper layer?collide or slide against each other. These impacts are usually gradual and ...

 

What is an earthquake and what causes them to happen? An earthquake is caused by a sudden slip on a fault. The tectonic plates are always slowly moving but they get stuck at their edges due to friction.

 

Earthquakes can occur naturally or be induced by human activities such as mining fracking and nuclear weapons testing. The initial point of rupture is called the hypocenter or focus while the ground level directly above it is the epicenter.

 

Earthquakes take place due to movements within the Earth's crust resulting in shaking shifting or cracking of its surface. These ?quakes? are caused by the passage of seismic waves through the Earth causing the earth to shift buckle or wave.

 

Earthquakes are caused by the sudden release of energy within some limited region of the rocks of the Earth. The energy can be released by elastic strain gravity chemical reactions or even the motion of massive bodies.