What causes earthquakes?

Earthquakes are primarily caused by a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere or crust that creates seismic waves. While most commonly triggered by geological faults and tectonic movements, they can also result from volcanism, landslides, meteor impacts, and human activities like fracking. Similar seismic events, such as marsquakes and moonquakes, even occur on other celestial bodies.

What we know

• Earthquakes are primarily caused by geological faults, as well as volcanism, landslides, and other seismic events. [2]
• Earthquakes are caused by movements within the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle. [4]
• Earthquakes can also be induced by human activities such as mining, fracking, and nuclear weapons testing. [2]
• Seismic events can additionally be manifested from waves generated by large landslides, volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, and explosions. [2]

Still open

• The exact causes of earthquakes in the UK remain unclear, though they may involve regional tectonic compression and uplift from ancient ice sheet melting.

Where to go next

• what caused itHow do tectonic plates create faults?
• what followedWhat hazards do earthquakes create?
• how it workedHow does the elastic-rebound theory work?
• compared withWhat are marsquakes and moonquakes?
• an unexpected connectionWhat is the Namazu myth in Japan?

Sources

• [1]earthquake (Wikidata Q7944) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Earthquake · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Namazu · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Lists of earthquakes · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]List of earthquakes in the British Isles · CC BY-SA 4.0