80 Earthquakes And Plate Tectonics Trivia Questions with Answers
80 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
What type of plate boundary formed the Himalayas when the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate?
Answer
Convergent boundary
Which fault is the best-known transform boundary between the Pacific and North American plates?
Answer
San Andreas Fault
Which scientist proposed the continental drift theory in 1912?
Answer
Alfred Wegener
Which 1950 earthquake in Assam and Tibet is among the strongest continental earthquakes ever recorded?
Answer
1950 Assam–Tibet earthquake
What type of fault moves when the hanging wall rises relative to the footwall?
Answer
Reverse fault
Which earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in Japan on 1 January 2024?
Answer
2024 Noto earthquake
Which 2008 earthquake devastated Sichuan Province and killed nearly 70,000 people?
Answer
2008 Sichuan earthquake
What is the name of the deepest earthquake zone created by a sinking tectonic plate?
Answer
Wadati–Benioff zone
Which 1965 earthquake in Alaska was one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded?
Answer
Rat Islands earthquake
What term describes the elastic rebound mechanism that releases strain during many earthquakes?
Answer
Elastic rebound theory
What is the name of the earthquake zone where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another?
Answer
Subduction zone
Which earthquake struck northern California on 17 October 1989?
Answer
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
What term describes the smaller earthquakes that follow a main earthquake?
Answer
Aftershocks
Which earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on 22 February 2011?
Answer
2011 Christchurch earthquake
Which fault type forms when Earth’s crust is pulled apart?
Answer
Normal fault
What is the term for a cluster of earthquakes with no single mainshock?
Answer
Earthquake swarm
Which 2011 earthquake caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan?
Answer
2011 Tōhoku earthquake
Which earthquake struck L’Aquila, Italy, on 6 April 2009?
Answer
2009 L’Aquila earthquake
Which fault system caused the 1992 Landers earthquake in southern California?
Answer
Eastern California Shear Zone
Which earthquake produced the 1960 Valdivia tsunami in Chile?
Answer
1960 Valdivia earthquake
Which plate boundary created the East African Rift?
Answer
Divergent boundary
What is the name of the seismic scale that estimates earthquake energy from fault rupture?
Answer
Moment magnitude scale
Which 2016 earthquake severely damaged Kaikōura and affected New Zealand’s South Island?
Answer
2016 Kaikōura earthquake
Which 1985 earthquake caused catastrophic damage in Mexico City?
Answer
1985 Mexico City earthquake
Which 1976 earthquake destroyed much of Tangshan, China?
Answer
Tangshan earthquake
Which 1923 earthquake devastated Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan?
Answer
Great Kantō earthquake
Which 1963 earthquake in Skopje, then Yugoslavia, killed over 1,000 people?
Answer
1963 Skopje earthquake
Which scale classifies earthquake effects from I, not felt, to XII, total destruction?
Answer
Modified Mercalli intensity scale
Which earthquake sequence began with the 1811 and 1812 shocks near New Madrid, Missouri?
Answer
New Madrid earthquakes
Which 1755 earthquake destroyed much of Lisbon, Portugal, and generated a tsunami?
Answer
1755 Lisbon earthquake
Which seismic wave produces a rolling motion at Earth’s surface?
Answer
Rayleigh wave
Which 1960 earthquake in Chile is the strongest ever recorded by instruments?
Answer
1960 Valdivia earthquake
Which earthquake devastated southern Italy and Sicily on 28 December 1908?
Answer
1908 Messina earthquake
Which fault caused the 1999 İzmit earthquake in Turkey?
Answer
North Anatolian Fault
What process creates new oceanic crust as tectonic plates separate?
Answer
Seafloor spreading
What type of tectonic plate boundary forms where two plates move apart?
Answer
Divergent boundary
Which earthquake is generally considered the deadliest in recorded history?
Answer
1556 Shaanxi earthquake
What measurement describes how much an earthquake shakes a particular place?
Answer
Earthquake intensity
What is the name of the 1906 earthquake that devastated Valparaíso and Santiago?
Answer
Valparaíso earthquake
Which 1964 earthquake caused a huge tsunami across Alaska and the Pacific?
Answer
Great Alaska earthquake
What is the name of the boundary between Earth’s mantle and liquid outer core?
Answer
Gutenberg discontinuity
What weaker layer lets Earth’s lithospheric plates move above the deeper mantle?
Answer
Asthenosphere