I moved to Vancouver Island a few years ago and have only recently found out that we are overdue for a massive earthquake of around a 9 magnitude. I’ve also realized that I have no clue what actually occurs during a massive earthquake. I know the ground shakes with smaller ones, but does it break open with big ones? Do people fall into holes in the ground? I guess I’m really asking what danger will I be in other than buildings collapsing if I’m in them?
Because apparently this earthquake will kill most of my city, but how would the earthquake kill any of us aside from buildings pancaking us?
In: Planetary Science
Other comments have touched on the damages caused by earthquakes, but what actually *causes* an earthquake? The answer is **tectonic plates**. Although the ground beneath us seems solid, our planet is really a core of solid metal surrounded by a ball of magma and a thin layer of rock/soil. If the Earth was a pie, we live on the **crust**! (It’s actually called the crust, believe it or not.) The crust floats on top of the magma pie filling, and we sit on the crust like a dusting of sugar.
But the crust isn’t one solid piece of dough/rock, it’s several smaller pieces of rock called **plates**. They fit together like the smaller pieces of leather form a soccer ball – the places where the rocks meet are called **faults**. When the plates move against each other in various ways ( [check out this link for animations](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-a-fault-and-what-are-different-types) ) that causes an earthquake!
Not all earthquakes are the same, though. Earthquakes caused by faults are called **tectonic quakes**. Two other major types are **volcanic quakes** (caused by volcanoes) and **collapse quakes** (caused by collapse of an underground cave or mine). There are also **explosion quakes**, but those are usually caused by a nuclear bomb, at which point you have more pressing dangers to worry about.
I am not a scientist, please let me know if I made any mistakes and I’ll correct them 😊
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