For the fact the Earth is not one solid mass, it made up of several huge tectonic plates that are constantly pushing against one another. The earth is always on the move, from millions of years ago when the world was just one land mass to the many continents we have today.
Earthquakes happen when tectonic plates slip after years of stress and pressure have kept them locked; the resulting shockwaves are the earthquake. The pressure between tectonic plates becomes so great that some of them move, violently shifting their position.

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Often earthquake proceeded by foreshocks and followed by numerous aftershocks. The 1989 Lom Prieta quake in San Francisco had more than 30,000 aftershocks and moved the entire San Francisco Bay area by more than 3 feet northwards.
Earthquake can be caused by:
• The main cause is the natural process of moving tectonic plates that often changes the elevation of the land and its morphology. These are usually the most devastating of all quakes.
• The result of volcanic activity, such as the quakes that shook Washington state weeks before Mount Saint Helens’ volcano erupted in 1980. Earthquakes may happen in an area before, during, and after a volcanic eruption, and are the result of active forces connected with the eruption, but are not the cause of the volcanic activity itself.
• Earthquake can be induced by man. For example deep-sea drilling. Such activity deep into the earth can sometimes increase pressure on the plates, making a tense situation much worse.

Predicting and Measuring ‘Quakes
Quakes are measured on the Richter Scale, which is an exponential scale developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter. A 6.0 earthquake is not twice as strong as a 3.0; its actually more like 30 times stronger. Actually earthquake prediction has not been as successful as hoped. Scientists have never predicted a major earthquake. For example, the fault that slipped in 1989 had a 90% chance of a 7.0 quake in the next thirty years. In that case the scientists were right; but the 1994 Northridge quake came as a complete surprise.
Can animals predict earthquakes? Changes in animal behavior before earthquakes have been observed and documented in different parts of the world, most recently in the northern California earthquake of October 17, 1989. It has been recorded that a fish in a high school biology lab in California would flip on its side before some earthquakes. Dogs, cats, snakes, and horses have also been known to behave strangely before earthquakes.
But it’s possible the change in animal behavior may be caused by other events. Also, the behavior is not consistent; sometimes earthquakes occur with no previous behavioral change. Can some people sense that an earthquake is about to happen? There is currently no scientific explanation for the symptoms some people claim to have preceding an earthquake. However, often there is no recorded earthquake following the apparent symptoms of these individuals.

Filed under: 2012 • Earthquake • Survival Guide

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