Earthquakes are tremors or vibrations caused by the movement beneath the earth surface or by the movement of tectonic plates beneath the earth's surface. The tectonic waves can jolt upon each other, sending a shock of waves.The majority of tectonic earthquakes originate at the ring of fire in depths not exceeding tens of kilometers.

The earthquakes can cause great destruction.The point from the earth where the vibrations originate is called the seismic focus. The term epicenter refers to the point at ground level directly above the seismic focus.The intensity of the earthquake is maximum near the the epicenter.


Although earthquake occurs anywhere, they are more frequent in earthquake zones.The earthquake can cause landslides and volcanic eruptions. A earthquake can trigger tsunami and disturbs the ground water level. It can also change the course of the river causing floods.

The intensity of a earthquake is measured with a instrument called seismograph on the Richter scale. it has a range of 1 to 10. A major earthquake is usually followed by a number of after shocks. Attempts at predicting when and where earthquakes will occur have met with some success in recent years.