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: -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-3: -Convergent plate boundaries A convergent plate boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary, usually involves an oceanic plate and a continental plate. The plates move towards one another and this movement can cause earthquakes. As the plates collide, the oceanic plate is forced beneath the continental plate.

Detailed explanation-4: -Convergent boundaries or subduction zones are where two plates collide with each other. Because matter cannot be destroyed, it forces one of the plates into the mantle underneath. Convergent boundaries have some of the most violent catastrophes and geology on Earth.

Detailed explanation-5: -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.