Information Report, Aarmione

EARTHQUAKES

What is an earthquake?

Earthquakes are the shaking, rolling or sudden shock of the earth’s surface. They are the Earth's natural means of releasing stress. More than a million earthquakes rattle the world each year.

The West Coast is most at risk of having an earthquake, but earthquakes can happen in the Midwest and along the East Coast.

Earthquakes can be felt over large areas although they usually last less than one minute.

Earthquakes cannot be predicted - although scientists are working on it!

Earthquakes are so destructive - it can actually take people’s houses, and even their lives.

By Aarmione

Facts on Earthquakes, Sam

Earthquakes 

• Earthquakes happen every day in New Zealand.
• Instruments record the ground shaking from over 14,000 earthquakes in and around the country each year.
• Most are too small to be noticed, but between 150 and 200 are big enough to be felt.
• Earthquakes are most frequent in regions where two moving plates meet and press against each other.
• New Zealand is in such a region – it straddles the boundary between the Pacific Plate, which covers almost a quarter of the earth’s surface, and the Australian Plate.
• Earthquakes usually occur along faults, which are existing fractures in the crust. Sometimes the blocks of rock on either side of a fault abruptly shift to a new position in just a few seconds.
• This sudden release of energy sends out waves, which are felt on the surface as an earthquake.
• The strength of the quake depends on the area of fault that has shifted and the amount of movement.

By Sam