Earthquakes
Created | Updated Jul 22, 2004
Earthquakes are a general nuiscance and cause great mayhem. They are still discussing how these are created but there is a general theory..... Let's explain this in an orderly fashion....
Earth, mostly we see it as a ball of solid material. This perspective is in fact totally wrong. The earth is more like a ball with water in it, in this case not water but molten rock called lava or magma. When the earth formed it was like a great big ball of very hot gas. Due to gravity this ball of gass started to collect space debris and formed a kind of molten lump of rock. In space anything that is in a liquide state automatically forms a ball. This also happend to the eart.
After a while the earth cooled a bit and formed a shell of rock on the outside. The shell was only very thin, so when changes in pressure in the magma occured the shell was broken and it spilled forth magma. Over a long period of time the earth cooled down even further, but on place with a very thin shell the shell kept breacking up. Only places with relative stability had the possibility to cool down in this way and in these places the shell of the earth is much more thick.
The places where the shell kept breaking up formed thin coverings of solid rock. This way there formed a kind of islands of solid rock with an edge of much thinner rock. These edges are now called rifts in the earths crust. These islands were a very good fit, only on the rifts you saw that it were actually plates shoving and pushing eachother out of the way. As there was no more room some of these edges started to push each other upwards this way they formed mountains. There were also places they pushed eachother down and there the rock became thinner and came closer to the earths core. When pressure builds along these places where the rock is thin these places absorbe the shock of the pressure but the people on top of the ground feel the impact in the ground because it is so thin. This makes Earthquakes
An interesting fact is that San Fransisco is built on one of such a ridge, it is a branche of a much bigger ridge. The ridge also has a name, it is called the San Andreas Vault. When pressure builds here the thin layer of solid rock suddenly gets a shock from the pressure and starts to shake and move very violently in our eyes.
These pressures can build for a few years and then suddenly the ground can't take it and starts to quake. This is when Earthquake happens....
Earth, mostly we see it as a ball of solid material. This perspective is in fact totally wrong. The earth is more like a ball with water in it, in this case not water but molten rock called lava or magma. When the earth formed it was like a great big ball of very hot gas. Due to gravity this ball of gass started to collect space debris and formed a kind of molten lump of rock. In space anything that is in a liquide state automatically forms a ball. This also happend to the eart.
After a while the earth cooled a bit and formed a shell of rock on the outside. The shell was only very thin, so when changes in pressure in the magma occured the shell was broken and it spilled forth magma. Over a long period of time the earth cooled down even further, but on place with a very thin shell the shell kept breacking up. Only places with relative stability had the possibility to cool down in this way and in these places the shell of the earth is much more thick.
The places where the shell kept breaking up formed thin coverings of solid rock. This way there formed a kind of islands of solid rock with an edge of much thinner rock. These edges are now called rifts in the earths crust. These islands were a very good fit, only on the rifts you saw that it were actually plates shoving and pushing eachother out of the way. As there was no more room some of these edges started to push each other upwards this way they formed mountains. There were also places they pushed eachother down and there the rock became thinner and came closer to the earths core. When pressure builds along these places where the rock is thin these places absorbe the shock of the pressure but the people on top of the ground feel the impact in the ground because it is so thin. This makes Earthquakes
An interesting fact is that San Fransisco is built on one of such a ridge, it is a branche of a much bigger ridge. The ridge also has a name, it is called the San Andreas Vault. When pressure builds here the thin layer of solid rock suddenly gets a shock from the pressure and starts to shake and move very violently in our eyes.
These pressures can build for a few years and then suddenly the ground can't take it and starts to quake. This is when Earthquake happens....
