How Are Earthquakes Affected By Plate Tectonics

What are earthquakes? Earthquakes are the sudden, rapid shaking of the earth, caused by the breaking and shifting of rock as it releases pressure that has accumulated over a long time. So pretty much shaking movement of the earth’s surface. All earthquakes aren’t the same, they vary in size, magnitude and intensity. The magnitude and intensity of an earthquake is determined by the Richter Scale and the Mercalli Scale. Earthquakes are caused by the plate tectonics crashing into one another. Without the plate tectonics, there would be no continents, no large mountain ranges and Earth would be submerged to a depth several thousand feet. Most of the world’s sea creatures would be fine, but many humans cannot survive this. Tectonic plates produce

Eschool Today states that these horrific disasters are formed when a vast amount of energy and pressure has built up from the tectonic plates. The movement from the tectonic plates causes immense tension in the plates and there is massive pressure on the fault lines. This intense pressure resulting from energy build up causes the fault lines to give away. Then plates move against, apart or over one another. Now there is an earthquake. Earthquakes sizes can be determined by a seismograph. A seismograph can detect strong earthquakes from anywhere in the world. An earthquake can also be measured by the Richter Scale, but it is hardly used anymore. The Richter scale has been replaced by the Moment Magnitude Scale, which is more accurate. There are seven major plate tectonics and each of them are under a continent or ocean. The different plates are called the African Plate, the Antarctic Plate, the Australian Plate, the Eurasian Plate, the North American Plate, the Pacific Plate and the South American Plate. Next, in the article, Why Earthquakes Are Shaking North Texas: Scientists Investigate Links to Disposal Wells, Sheyda Aboii and Terrence Henry state that more earthquakes are happening in my location (Texas) because of disposal wells being built. Before these wells were built, Texas hardly had any earthquakes, but as more wells are being built, more earthquakes are happening