Why do earthquakes occur along a fault?

Answer 1

I fault line is there 2 land masses meet each other. Both are pushing against each other. Now image 2 people pushing each other like in a tug of war. Then something give there will be a joult from one person or another. Now with the land masses they are like 10000000000000000 odd times more powerfull because of the weight and the pressure they put of each other. Time to time one of the land masses will break or lose its footing and plus a big joult will happen that will shake the earth.

Answer 2

Most earthquakes occur along the edge of the oceanic and continental plates. The earth's crust (the outer layer of the planet) is made up of several pieces, called plates. The plates under the oceans are called oceanic plates and the rest are continental plates. The plates are moved around by the motion of a deeper part of the earth (the mantle) that lies underneath the crust. These plates are always bumping into each other, pulling away from each other, or past each other. The plates usually move at about the same speed that your fingernails grow. Earthquakes usually occur where two plates are running into each other or sliding past each other.

Earthquakes can also occur far from the edges of plates, along faults. Faults are cracks in the earth where sections of a plate (or two plates) are moving in different directions. Faults are caused by all that bumping and sliding the plates do. They are more common near the edges of the plates.

Types of Faults

Normal faults are the cracks where one block of rock is sliding downward and away from another block of rock. These faults usually occur in areas where a plate is very slowly splitting apart or where two plates are pulling away from each other.

Strike-slip faults are the cracks between two plates that are sliding past each other. You can find these kinds of faults in California. The San Andreas fault is a strike-slip fault. It's the most famous California fault and has caused a lot of powerful earthquakes.

Reverse faults are cracks formed where one plate is pushing into another plate. They also occur where a plate is folding up because it's being compressed by another plate pushing against it. At these faults, one block of rock is sliding underneath another block or one block is being pushed up over the other.

Answer 3

Tectonic plates that are of two separate pieces shift against one another and cause the seismic action.