What is an earthquake | Why does it occur | What to do during an earthquake

What is an earthquake and why does it occur?

Earthquakes may be what you have ever felt. It is dangerous and in many countries earthquakes have caused too much destruction. Well in some places they take place, people get horrified but they don’t cause any destruction.

Whenever an earthquake takes place, people try to go to a safe place to save their and their family’s lives. There are safety instructions which we all should know whenever an earthquake occurs.

So in this post we’ll learn what an earthquake is, how it takes place and why? And what should we do when an earthquake occurs?

What is an Earthquake?

In the simplest words, an earthquake is the shaking of the earth’s surface. It has some other names too like Earth tremor, quake, shock etc. 

Well earthquakes have different types too like there can be foreshocks, foreshocks are earthquakes that occur before the larger earthquake. Then there is a mainshock that is the main earthquake and then there can be aftershocks. These are the earthquakes that occur after the mainshocks and they can last up to days, months and even years.

Why do earthquakes occur?

Well it includes the tectonic plates. The four major layers of earth are inner and outer core, mantle and crust, these are the 4 layers.

Sometimes there is a sudden movement underground, it can be with the plates or the breaking of underground rocks and the fault causes an earthquake in the simplest words.

There are tectonic plates underground like as an example we can take California, there are 2 tectonic plates under it.

Have you ever wondered "how earthquakes are recorded?"

So to record earthquakes they use instruments called “seismographs”. And the recording is called seismogram. The seismograph has a base that is set in the ground with a weight that hangs. When the ground shakes due to the earth quake, it causes the base of the instrument to move too but the weight hanging doesn’t move. Then it absorbs all the movements.

The thing which is recorded is the difference of position between the part that is shaking the seismograph and the part which is motionless.

Now if we have learned this much let’s learn an important thing “what should we do when an earthquake comes”?

First of all don’t run or rush, stay calm, because when everything is shaking there’s a high chance of falling and hurting yourself or can be hit by anything. And also don’t try to run downstairs, as told before don’t run and when it comes to running downstairs it’s more dangerous. If you’re indoors so get under a table or a desk to be safe, it can reduce the danger of anything falling on you. If you’re inside, move into hallways or move against the inside doors. Stay away from windows, heavy furniture, fireplaces and another important thing is to get out of the kitchen. There are a lot of things there which can fall on you, it’s better to get away from the kitchen.

For the people who are Outside move into open places, stay away from buildings, chimneys and anything else which can fall on you.

While driving: well if you’re driving, make sure not to panic, stop the car but use the brakes carefully, don’t rush, move into open fields, move out of traffic places and make sure not go under bridges, trees, signs, light posts. Stay inside your car, until the shaking stops. When you resume driving, carefully use brakes, watch for any fallen objects and stay careful from objects and the aftershocks that may come after mainshock.

In Mountainous areas be safe from falling rocks, landslides  and trees etc.