By Cole L., Thomas D., Jhonathon B., and Ethan Victor H. III
Eddie is skipping home because his mom got him the puppy he always wanted. All of a sudden the ground starts to shake violently. Eddie is confused because he does not know what is happening.
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He starts to run with fear. But suddenly, he falls down into a deep, dark crevice. Luckily, his hood is just over his shoulder, so it catches on a corner of the broken sidewalk. Eddie takes his phone out of his pocket and calls the police.
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When the police arrive, they grab his hands and pull him out of the crack. He goes home and asks his mom what that shaking was. She tells him that the shaking was an earthquake and if he wants to learn more facts about an earthquake, then he should go to the library.
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Eddie sees all the damage that was caused by the earthquake while he was walking to the library. He walks into the library, looking for the Natural Disasters section. Just then, he feels another little shaking in the ground. All of a sudden, a book falls off the shelf.
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It lands on the floor with a thud and is open to a page that catches his attention. He picks up the book and puts it on the table. Eddie takes his reading glasses out of his pocket and puts them on and begins to study the page.
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Asia
North AMerica
Europe
Africa
Australia
South America
Tectonic Plate Boundary Map
Eddie starts to read. The Earth’s crust is made up of rock that has been broken into 22 plates, which are pieces of land covering the Earth. If you were to stand still for 700 million years, you would be far away from where you started. That’s because the Earth’s crust moves 10 inches each year. That’s about how fast your finger nails grow. As he finishes the page, he remembers that he has a school project due on natural disasters tomorrow. Eddie starts reading as fast as he can.
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Fault plane
epicenter
Hypocenter
An earthquake happens when two plates collide. The plates push against each other over many years and build up pressure. When the plates break from the pressure, they send violent shock waves through the ground. These shock waves are what cause the ground to shake.
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Convergence
There are many different outcomes depending on how the edges of the plates meet. Convergence is a type of movement of plates that pushes together and forces up and creates a mountain. A transform boundary is when two plates slide against each other and can create an earthquake. If the earthquake is under water, it can create a tsunami.
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Transform boundary
Transform boundary
Subduction is when one plate slides under the other and can create a volcano. Divergence is when two plates slide apart from each other and creates a rift valley.
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Eddie turns the page that tells him how earthquakes happen. The book says, “Have you ever felt an earthquake before? If you haven’t, then here’s how it happens. First, two plates make contact with each other, build up pressure over years, and finally break.” Eddie starts to take notes. He starts to read a part where the plates make a crack in the ground and create shockwaves. The shockwaves cause the ground to shake. Where the earthquake happens is called the fault line. When a smaller earthquake happens after the big one, it is called an aftershock.
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The next chapter of the book tells him that seismologists are scientists who study how and why earthquakes happen. You are probably in so many earthquakes a day, but most of them are too small for you to feel. Eddy found out that a Richter scale is used to measure the intensity of an earthquake. A single number is used to measure the strength of an earthquake. Scientists can’t predict when an earthquake will happen even with special tools. If we did not have seismologists, we would not know to build stronger buildings and structures. Their skills have helped save many lives.
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Eddie’s project is due in less than a day, but he is not worried. He has learned a lot about earthquakes at the library. Eddie gets out his favorite pen and opens his notebook. Then he starts to write.
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Bibliography Drohan, Michele Ingber. Earthquakes. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 1999. Print. Natural Disasters. Gosman, Gillian. What Do You Know About Plate Tectonics. New York: Power Kids Press, 2014. Print. 20 Questions: Earth Science. Simon, Seymour. Earthquakes. 1995 ed. New York: Mulberry, 1991. Print. Vogt, Gregory L. Earth's Core and Mantle. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2007. Print.
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