Earthquake Destruction | National Geographic

when we least expected when release
prepared disaster can strike and few
disasters are as unsettling as an
earthquake
my guess is that earthquakes are really
so scary because you don’t have any
warning it’s the only thing besides a
nuclear war that can really one second
you’re living in a big beautiful city in
ten seconds later it’s flat every day
the earth is shaken by hundreds of small
earthquakes most go unnoticed they
usually occur along the boundaries of
the thin plates that cover the earth
like an eggshell driven by the heat deep
within the Earth’s core the plates grind
against each other on long lines called
faults when the plates find their motion
blocked stress builds up finally the
fault gives way the released energy
races through the earth in the form of
seismic waves for much of the world the
movement of plates like these is also an
indispensable creative force we didn’t
have earthquakes if we didn’t have this
great flow of heat from the interior of
the earth the earth would be a cold dead
place if it wasn’t for this great flow
of heat there’d be no continents no
oceans no atmospheres the earth would be
as dead and dry and cold as the moon
it’s really the earthquakes and create
the topography the valleys the mountains
earthquakes have been shaping landscapes
for eons it’s only in the last few
hundred years that civilization has
gotten in the way and when it does
me