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Science · Earth & Space Science
Volcanoes & Earthquakes
When Earth's plates push and grind, the ground can shake and burst open. Faults snap into earthquakes, and magma blasts up to build volcanoes.
🌋Two Ways the Ground Goes Wild
🌋VOLCANO
Magma (melted rock underground) collects in a chamber, pushes up the vent, and bursts out as lava, ash & gas.
〰️EARTHQUAKE
Stress builds along a fault until rock slips. Energy zooms out as seismic waves from the focus, shaking the ground.
🔗Why It Snaps: Build-Up & Release
🗺️Where It Happens: The Ring of Fire
⭕ The Ring of Fire
Most of Earth's volcanoes & earthquakes line up where plates meet — the Pacific's Ring of Fire.
At a subduction zone, one plate sinks; the melted rock feeds new volcanoes.
A hot spot (like Hawaii) can also punch magma straight up through the crust.
🔑Key Terms
〰️Earthquake The shaking caused by rock moving beneath Earth's surface.
🪨Fault A break in the crust where masses of rock slip past each other.
📍Epicenter The point on the surface right above an earthquake's focus.
📈Seismograph A device that records the ground movements of seismic waves.
🔥Magma / Lava Melted rock — magma underground, lava once it reaches the surface.
💨Pyroclastic Flow A fast, scorching cloud of ash, gas & rock from an eruption.
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Remember: earthquakes and volcanoes are both Earth releasing built-up energy — and they happen mostly where tectonic plates meet.