Earthquake and Plate Tectonics Explorer
Explore convergent, divergent and transform plate boundaries, how stress builds and releases as earthquakes, and how each step in magnitude releases about 32 times more energy.
Before you try
What if plates moved ten times faster? Would earthquakes be bigger, more frequent, or both?
Try it out
Interactive activity
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What happened?
Move a control to see what changes and why.
Plate movement is sped up enormously and the rock is treated as the same everywhere. Real plates creep a few centimetres a year through rock that varies from place to place.
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Try these ideas
- Let stress build to the maximum before releasing. How big is the quake?
- Compare the energy of magnitude 5 and magnitude 7.
- Switch boundary types and watch how the land changes.
Why it works
Earth’s outer shell is cracked into giant plates that creep a few centimetres a year. Where plates collide (convergent) mountains and volcanoes rise; where they pull apart (divergent) new crust forms; where they slide past (transform) they stick and jolt.
Stress builds up at a stuck boundary until the rock suddenly slips: an earthquake. The magnitude scale is logarithmic: a magnitude 7 quake shakes ten times harder and releases about 32 times more energy than a magnitude 6. In this simulator you choose the boundary and speed, watch stress build, and release it.
Check your understanding
Question 1 of 3
At which boundary do plates slide past each other sideways?
A magnitude 7 earthquake releases about how much more energy than a magnitude 6?
Where does new crust form?
Explain it in your own words
What changed? Why did it happen? Where might you notice this in everyday life?
For parents & teachers
- Find the Himalayas on a map. Which two plates are colliding there?
- Ask: why do earthquake-safe buildings sway instead of staying stiff?
- Discuss what to do during an earthquake: drop, cover, hold on.