Finally, when the plate has moved far enough, the edges unstick on one of the faults and there is an earthquake.Īn example of a seismic wave with the P wave and S wave labeled. Since the edges of the plates are rough, they get stuck while the rest of the plate keeps moving. The plate boundaries are made up of many faults, and most of the earthquakes around the world occur on these faults. We call these puzzle pieces tectonic plates, and the edges of the plates are called the plate boundaries.
OCEAN WAVES PICTURES CARTOON SKIN
The earth has four major layers: the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust. The crust and the top of the mantle make up a thin skin on the surface of our planet.īut this skin is not all in one piece – it is made up of many pieces like a puzzle covering the surface of the earth. Not only that, but these puzzle pieces keep slowly moving around, sliding past one another and bumping into each other. Depending on the size of the mainshock, aftershocks can continue for weeks, months, and even years after the mainshock! What causes earthquakes and where do they happen?Ī simplified cartoon of the crust (brown), mantle (orange), and core (liquid in light gray, solid in dark gray) of the earth. These are smaller earthquakes that occur afterwards in the same place as the mainshock. Mainshocks always have aftershocks that follow. The largest, main earthquake is called the mainshock. Scientists can’t tell that an earthquake is a foreshock until the larger earthquake happens. These are smaller earthquakes that happen in the same place as the larger earthquake that follows. The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. So where does the water go? It ripples out from the earthquake in waves.A normal (dip-slip) fault is an inclined fracture where the rock mass above an inclined fault moves down (Public domain.)Īn earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. The movement of a large chunk of Earth displaces the water above it, meaning it takes up the space where the water used to be. If an earthquake happens in the ocean, a large piece of Earth's crust can be thrust upward or slip from side to side. When Earth's plates push against each other, they can move a lot. If you push against each other harder and harder, one or both of you will fall over. An earthquake happens when these plates push against each other so hard that one of them slips or breaks. For example, an earthquake or a volcano in the ocean could cause a tsunami.Įarth's crust is made up of pieces called tectonic plates. Tsunami is a Japanese word that means "harbor wave." It is a large wave caused by movements in Earth's outer layer, or crust, which move ocean water. If you live near the ocean, you may have seen tsunami warning signs like this one in British Columbia, Canada.
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