What are tectonic earthquakes?
Tectonic earthquakes are earthquakes caused by a tectonic plate shifting onto another plate, which creates a lot of tension and friction, which effectively makes the land around it shake. This is what happens in a tectonic earthquake. They are short, like all other earthquakes (10-30 seconds) but they can cause enough friction to destroy houses and basically rip people apart.
Where do these earthquakes happen?
They happen in places along tectonic plates, like Japan, New Zealand, and the state of California. The plates rub against each other, causing instability.
81 percent of the world's largest earthquakes happen in the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region that encompasses the coast of East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Alaska, and the west coast of North and South America. They happen more there because that is where the world's tectonic plates meet.
But seriously, how do they actually work?
Tectonic earthquakes are explained by the elastic rebound theory, theorised by the American geologist Harry Fielding Reid after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
The elastic rebound theory says that when strains in rock have gotten to unbearable levels and the rocks 'give up', giving way to fracturing. The rapid fracturing will fluctuate in speed, and then vibrations (the earthquake) will occur.
What is the impact of a tectonic earthquake?
It depends on the magnitude and amount of people living in the struck area, like any other earthquake. For example, if a tectonic earthquake of 7.9 hit the islands of Russia, near Alaska, it would probably harm next to nobody. On the other hand, if a 7.9 earthquake hit Tokyo, Japan, it would kill thousands of people.
Credits:
Created with images by Michael R Perry - "Gorman Pass / San Andreas Fault"