Tectonics follows the movement and deformation of Earth’s crust. Discover how plates, faults, earthquakes, mountain building, and continental movement arise from forces operating across boundaries and within shifting sections of the lithosphere.
Before dawn on February 6, 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake began beneath southern Turkey near the Syrian border. Within seconds, rupture spread through a complicated network of faults, producing catastrophic shaking across a vast region. Roughly nine hours later, another major earthquake, measured...
During the twentieth century, a remarkable sequence of large earthquakes unfolded across northern Türkiye. Beginning with the destructive 1939 Erzincan earthquake in the east, major ruptures repeatedly occurred farther west along the North Anatolian Fault. By 1999, devastating earthquakes had...
New Zealand’s Alpine Fault last produced a major earthquake in 1717. More than three centuries have passed since then, while geological records show that large ruptures have repeatedly struck the fault at intervals averaging roughly 300 years. That comparison naturally raises a question: is the...
At 1:12 p.m. local time on November 3, 2002, a magnitude-7.9 earthquake began beneath the eastern Alaska Range. In roughly 90 seconds, rupture traveled eastward across about 341 kilometers of ground. It did not remain on one fault or preserve one style of motion. The break began with thrusting,...
The Hayward Fault does not remain in an undeveloped valley or disappear safely beneath San Francisco Bay. Its active trace follows the western foot of the East Bay hills through a nearly continuous urban corridor. Streets, campuses, transit routes, neighborhoods, and utility networks occupy ground...
Near Parkfield in central California, the San Andreas Fault changes character. To the northwest, much of the fault slips gradually without producing large earthquakes. To the southeast, it is predominantly locked and stores elastic strain. The short transitional reach between those regimes does...