I remember learning about this in elementary school but I’ve since forgotten it.
For instance, how do you get earthquakes like those that happened in New Madrid, Missouri (USA) in 1811-1812 if it’s nowhere near a plate boundary?
With those earthquakes, they called the area the “New Madrid Fault Line” and I don’t even know how it can be a fault line without having plates touching. Are there other types of “faults” (or some other name for a weakness in the plates) that exist within a plate without it actually being a boundary between two plates? And if so, what is actually occurring to cause the earthquakes? Like is it shifting the same way a plate boundary would or doing something entirely different? And can those other types of earthquakes be just as devastating as a plate boundary earthquake? I know at least one of the New Madrid earthquakes was an 8.6 magnitude but I don’t know if that was an anomaly or if the other type(s) of earthquakes are often just as strong but just not as common.
In: Planetary Science
While the plates touching each other is one source of shear force, there are others. The plates can be compressed, causing a load throughout the plate. If there is a void or weak spot in the plate, that load might cause a slip there.
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