How does Earthquake happen? | Earthquake explained using #3D

What is an earthquake? Earthquakes are caused by the release of energy that generates waves which travel in all directions causing the shaking of the earth’s surface. Earth is not just one piece. It is made up of a jigsaw puzzle of around 19 – 20 pieces which are called tectonic plates. These plates are placed on a hot, partially molten layer of earth’s mantle. This is the reason why these pieces are continuously moving.

An earthquake generates under the earth and this releases the energy across. The point at which the earthquake occurs under the earth is called hypocentre and the exact place above it at the surface of the earth is called epicentre. Earthquakes are of 3 types,Convergent boundary, divergent boundary and Transform fault. The most horrifying earthquake recorded till date was of a magnitude of 9.5 out of 10, this happened in Valdivia in Southern Chile in 1960.

Another one that happened in Japan in Tohuku region was of a magnitude of 9.0 which happened on March 11th, 2011. This earthquake caused massive and enormous damage and destruction and took away nearly 16000 people’s life with­­­ him.
Geologists use a device that can sense the waves created by the movement of the tectonic plates. These waves are known as seismic waves and the device is called a seismograph. This records the waves ranging from 0 – 10 where 0 is lowest, where people feel nothing and 10 being the highest that destroy continents. These are measured on the Richter scales.