The Science of Earthquakes

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Last Updated08/02/2023

More than 4000 people died and several hundred were injured after a major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 hit south-central Turkey and Northwest Syria.

An intense shaking of the ground caused by movement under the earth’s surface.
It happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another.
This releases stored-up ‘elastic strain’ energy in the form of seismic waves, which spreads through the earth and cause the shaking of the ground.

As we know, the earth’s outermost surface, crust, is fragmented into tectonic plates.
The edges of the plates are called plate boundaries, which are made up of faults.
The tectonic plates constantly move at a slow pace, sliding past one another and bumping into each other.
As the edges of the plates are quite rough, they get stuck with one another while the rest of the plate keeps moving.
Earthquake occurs when the plate has moved far enough and the edges unstick on one of the faults.
The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicentre.

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An accurate prediction of an earthquake requires some sort of a precursory signal from within the earth that indicates a big quake is on the way.
Moreover, the signal must occur only before large earthquakes so that it doesn’t indicate every small movement within the earth’s surface.
Currently, there is no equipment to find such precursors, even if they exist.

India is among the 45 countries, which have so far offered assistance to Turkey.
It’s sending search and rescue teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and medical teams along with relief material to the West Asian nation.