Question

Explain what causes earthquakes to occur.

Answer 1

what the world???

Answer 2

The short answer is that earthquakes are caused by faulting, a sudden lateral or vertical movement of rock along a rupture (break) surface.

Answer 3

Plate tectonics. Continental plates push against each other at the edges. A lot of static friction builds up and when it passes a certain point the plates shift. Kinetic friction is less than static friction, so once they start sliding they keep doing so until all that force is released. Hence an earthquake.

Answer 4

When two tectonic plates do that: