What causes an earthquake? Plate movement causes pressure to build up along faults, or breaks, in the earth's crust. When the rocks cannot take any more pressure, the rock layers shift and an earthquake occurs. 

Millions of times each year, an average of once every thirty seconds, somewhere around the world the ground shakes and sways. This is called an earthquake. Most are either too small to do any damage, they occur in remote areas, or under the sea. 

Earthquakes take place where there are cracks called faults in the earth's crust. 

An earthquake occurs when the elastic limit or strength of the rocks are reached. Rocks can bend and stretch to a point when stress is applied.

An earthquake is the shaking or trembling of the earth caused by the sudden movement of rock when the elastic limit of the rock is surpassed. The breaking of the rock produces vibrations which we call an earthquake.

Rocks break and move along surfaces called faults. The rocks on either side of the fault line can move in different direction. Fault lines usually follow the line of plate boundaries. Rocks do not slide past each other easily because they are rough and jagged. The stress in the rocks along the plate boundaries will build until the strain on the rocks is too great. This energy is released as an earthquake.

Different forms of stress can build up at the three different plate boundaries. Divergent- tensional force, Convergent- compressional, and Transform- shearing.

The National Earthquake Information Center has an up-to-date page of all earthquakes happening in the world. This page shows current earthquake maps.  The "Near Real Time Earthquake List" keeps an ongoing list of the last 21 earthquakes worldwide. Look at these maps to see the earthquake activity in your area.

See some "Cool" earthquake facts.