GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Over 80 per cent of large earthquakes occur around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, an area known as the ‘Ring of Fire’; this where the Pacific plate is being subducted beneath the surrounding plates. The Ring of Fire is the most seismically and volcanically active zone in the world.

Detailed explanation-2: -About 80% of earthquakes occur where plates are pushed together, called convergent boundaries. Another form of convergent boundary is a collision where two continental plates meet head-on.

Detailed explanation-3: -Tectonic plates move very slowly relative to each other, typically a few centimetres per year, but this still causes a huge amount of deformation at the plate boundaries, which in turn results in earthquakes.

Detailed explanation-4: -A divergent boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other. Along these boundaries, earthquakes are common and magma (molten rock) rises from the Earth’s mantle to the surface, solidifying to create new oceanic crust.

Detailed explanation-5: -Earthquakes at convergent plate boundaries mark the location of the subducting lithosphere. The motion of the lithosphere as it plunges through the mantle causes the quakes. At greater depths, the plate heats up enough to deform plastically.