What is the primary cause of earthquakes?

What is the primary cause of earthquakes?

• A. Weather patterns
• B. Sunspot activity
• C. Movement of tectonic plates along fault lines
• D. Ocean currents

Answer: (C)

Earthquakes come from the movement of the Earth's tectonic plates along faults. The lithosphere is split into plates that float on the partly molten mantle. When these plates interact at fault boundaries—sliding past each other, colliding, or pulling apart—stress builds up due to friction. Once the rocks can no longer hold that stress, they break and snap, releasing energy as seismic waves that shake the ground. Other ideas like weather patterns, sunspot activity, or ocean currents don’t generate that kind of sudden rock rupture and energy release, so they don’t cause earthquakes. The shaking you feel is the result of plate-boundary interactions and the rapid release of built-up elastic energy in the rocks.

Earthquakes come from the movement of the Earth's tectonic plates along faults. The lithosphere is split into plates that float on the partly molten mantle. When these plates interact at fault boundaries—sliding past each other, colliding, or pulling apart—stress builds up due to friction. Once the rocks can no longer hold that stress, they break and snap, releasing energy as seismic waves that shake the ground. Other ideas like weather patterns, sunspot activity, or ocean currents don’t generate that kind of sudden rock rupture and energy release, so they don’t cause earthquakes. The shaking you feel is the result of plate-boundary interactions and the rapid release of built-up elastic energy in the rocks.