The San Andreas fault, California.
|
Faults are created when the crust becomes stressed and slips suddenly.
The movement of tectonic plates is very slow. Over hundreds of years the pressure builds up, and when it becomes stronger than the rocks,
all that energy is released, creating an earthquake.
Earthquakes mostly occur naturally, but they can be brought upon by human activities such as the fill-up of reservoirs,
injection of fluids into deep wells for waste disposal, and underground nuclear test blasts.
|