Plate Tectonics: What is it and how will it affect us in the future

Plate Tectonics

Large earthquakes are thought to occur more or less regularly in space along major fault systems and , in time , as a result of gradual stress buildup and sudden release by failure . This repetitive cycle of strain accumulation and release , termed the seismic or earthquake cycle , is driven by plate tectonics along the world 's major plate boundaries and fault systems (National Research Council , 55

California has had at least eighty magnitude 6 .0 or larger earthquakes in the past two hundred years or so , since the first European settlements

on the land . A number of these earthquakes , including the 8 .3 magnitude 1906 San Francisco disaster , have occurred along the San Andreas fault , a tectonic plate boundary that is an earthquake threat for both Los Angeles and San Francisco . The San Andreas Fault runs through central and southern California , spanning hundreds of kilometers (Fradkin 4 . We can better understand what the San Andreas fault is and why areas flanking this fault line are forever prone to earthquakes by exploring the fundamental geological dynamics of earthquakes , i .e plate tectonics . The study of plate tectonics helps us have a better notion of how the San Andreas Fault could cause such a huge disaster in the past and can very likely cause an even bigger one in the near future

Plate tectonics is the study of subterranean movements of the planet The interior of the Earth is divided into four distinct layers . In the center of Earth is the spherical...