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Let\u2019s talk about earthquakes. As we know, the Earth\u2019s crust is made up of tectonic plates \u2013 vast plates of rock that shift around due to convection and the motion of fluid in Earth\u2019s mantle. They, roughly speaking \u201cjoin together\u201d at fault-lines. But in reality, the plates can\u2019t slide past each other frictionlessly; what tends to happen is that they \u201ccatch\u201d on each other, stick for a while \u2013 with pressure building, because whatever predominant force is pushing them along is building up pressure and elastic strain energy. Then, eventually, it all becomes too much, and they slip dramatically, releasing all that built-up energy quickly and causing vibrational waves to propagate, which we feel as Earthquakes. For this reason, they occur predominantly around faultlines, like the San Andreas fault that runs through California, and others in Japan, South America, and the middle east.


But do earthquakes have the power to destroy the world or even wreak major damage on human civilization as a whole? Let's find out.