answersLogoWhite

0

Predominantly due to friction. Major earthquakes (the ones you hear about on the news) occur at collision (where two tectonic plates are smashing together) and conservative (where two plates slide side-by-side) boundaries.

Rocks (which obviously make up tectonic plates) can undergo two types of deformation, ductile (or plastic) and brittle. When you put stress on these rocks, which happens when they rub against each other, they will usually undergo ductile deformation providing the stress is constant and fairly low. If you've ever been to a big mountain range like the Himalaya, you'll see folds in the rocks. This is ductile deformation.

Earthquakes occur when the stress reaches a point called the rupture point. When this point is reached, the rocks will not fold and twist, they'll simply break and energy is released, an earthquake. In plate tectonics, this happens in the Wadati-Benioff Zone (in collision boundaries).

The best illustration for this ductile/brittle deformation process is using one of those plastic rulers found in schools around the world (Staedtler type). You can bend the ruler and it will actually bend quite a long way. However, it will reach a critical point where it will stop bending and just snap, releasing energy in the process. This energy is effectively the same as seismic waves in earthquakes (albeit on a much smaller scale) that will cause material around it to vibrate. Big enough vibrations = buildings collapse.

Source: geography teacher and geology graduate.

User Avatar

Wiki User

10y ago

What else can I help you with?

Related Questions

How faults produce earthquakes?

Faults DO NOT produce earthquakes, faults are produced by earthquakes. This means that earthquake loci are centered on and along faults. The energy released by an earthquake is the stress energy built up as a result of plate tectonic forces.


How are tectonic plates involved in causing earthquakes and volcanoes?

the tectonic plates shake under the earth causing earthquakes


What are the two kinds of earthquake and be able to differentiate?

The two main types of earthquakes are tectonic and volcanic. Tectonic earthquakes occur along fault lines when tectonic plates move. Volcanic earthquakes occur near volcanoes due to the movement of magma beneath the surface. Tectonic earthquakes are more common and are caused by the Earth's tectonic plates shifting, while volcanic earthquakes are associated with volcanic activity.


Does Uranus have earthquake?

uranus is a gas giant. Gas giants lack the tectonic plates (rocky plates floating on top of a molten core) necessary to have earthquakes. Only rocky planets which have tectonic plates can have earthquakes.


Which is the most common tectonic or volcanic earthquakes?

Tectonic earthquakes are more common than volcanic earthquakes. Tectonic earthquakes are caused by the shifting and breaking of rocks in the Earth's crust along tectonic plate boundaries, whereas volcanic earthquakes are associated with volcanic activity and occur as magma moves beneath the surface.


Most earthquakes occur at the boundaries of these?

Most earthquakes occur at the boundaries of the tectonic plates. Tectonic plates are always in motion, and when two of them collide with one another it causes earthquakes.


Does Alaska have earthquakes?

Yes. Southern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands border a subduction zone, where one tectonic plate slides under another. This subduction zone has produced some of the most powerful Earthquakes on Earth.


Are there earthquakes on Europa?

well there can be earthquakes anywhere in the world because of the tectonic plates


What are the three types of earhquakes?

The three types of earthquakes are tectonic earthquakes, volcanic earthquakes, and collapse earthquakes. Tectonic earthquakes are the most common and are caused by the movement of earth's plates. Volcanic earthquakes occur in association with volcanic activity, while collapse earthquakes happen in underground mines and caverns.


What records movement of tectonic plates?

Earthquakes


Where in the Earth do Earthquakes come from?

the tectonic plates


Where does movement occur in earthquakes?

Tectonic plates.