What Are Earthquakes ?

Earthquakes like hurricanes are not only super destructive forces but continue to remain a mystery in terms of how to predict and anticipate them. To understand the level of destruction associated with earthquakes you really need to look at some examples of the past.

If we go back to the 27th July 1976 in Tangshan, China, a huge earthquake racked up an official death toll of 255,000 people. In addition to this an estimated 690,000 were also injured, whole families, industries and areas were wiped out in the blink of a second. The scale of destruction is hard to imagine but earthquakes of all scales continue to happen all the time.

So what exactly are they ? Well the earths outer layer is made up of a thin crust divided into a number of plates. The edges of these plates are referred to as boundaries and it’s at these boundaries that the plates collide, slide and rub against each other. Over time when the pressure at the plate edges gets too much, something has to give which results in the sudden and often violent tremblings we know as earthquakes.

The strength of an earthquake is measured using a machine called a seismograph. It records the trembling of the ground and scientists are able to measure the exact power of the quake via a scale known as the richter scale. The numbers range from 1-10 with 1 being a minor earthquake (happen multiple times per day and in most case we don’t even feel them) and 7-10 being the stronger quakes (happen around once every 10-20 years). There’s a lot to learn about earthquakes so hopefully we’ll release some more cool facts in the coming months.