An earthquake is the sudden movement of the Earth

An earthquake is the sudden movement of the Earth (in capital letters, as we refer to the planet), caused by the sudden release of stored energy for a long time.
        Generally the term isassociated with earthquake earthquakes of considerable size, although rigorously its etymology means "earth movement".
Badges structure: The Earth's crust is made up of a dozen plates about 70 km thick,each with different physical and chemical characteristics. These plates ("Tectonic") are settling in a process that takes millions of years and have been given the shape we know today to the surface ofour planet, causing the continents and geographic reliefs in a process that is far from complete. Usually these movements are slow and imperceptible, but in some cases these plates collide ground likegiant icebergs on an ocean of magma present in the depths of the Earth, preventing their movement. Then a plate begins to move over or under the other causing slow changes in topography. But if themovement is difficult, it begins to build an energy of stress at some time be released and one of the plates move against each other breaking sharply and then releasing a variable amount of energy thatcauses the earthquake.



plates and faults FAULT: The areas where the plates exert this force between them are called faults and are, of course, the points at which most likely originate seismicevents. Only 10% of losterremotos occur far from the boundaries of these plates.



    OTHER CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKES: The underground activity caused by a volcano eruption process can cause a similarphenomenon. It has also been estimated that an extrinsic force, caused by man, could trigger an earthquake, probably in a place where there were a fault. Thus, it is assumed that nuclear experiments, orthe force of millions of tons of water stored in dams or artificial lakes could produce such a phenomenon.
  


Hypocenter (or Focus)
            It is the point where the depth of the Earth from...