USA Today
@USATODAY·35.4K videos

The science behind earthquakes and what makes them so dangerous | Just The FAQs

Posted

January 24, 2020

Views

9,133

Likes

99

Comments

8

Engagement

1.17%

Search the Record

Indexed

Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.

Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.

Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line

YouTube Description

as posted by the channel

Every year, there are about 500,000 earthquakes - 100,000 of which can be felt on the Earth's surface. But how do earthquakes work? We explain.

RELATEDRescuers race to save Australia's wildlife

Following a series of earthquakes, the situation in Puerto Rico remains dire, with more than 2,000 people in shelters, nearly 1 million without power and hundreds of thousands without water as of Thursday.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there have been more than 950 earthquakes and aftershocks recorded on Puerto Rico since Dec. 31, though many were weak and could not be felt. More than 500, however, have been of magnitude 2 or higher.

The worst quake – a magnitude 6.4 that struck early Tuesday – killed at least one person, injured at least nine and caused the power outage.

So why have there been so many earthquakes in Puerto Rico over the past few days?

"Puerto Rico has been hit by what scientists call an earthquake swarm, which is a series of earthquakes rather than the usual pattern of one dominant earthquake followed by aftershocks," John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Southern California, told USA TODAY.

"We don’t well understand why the larger earthquakes continue for a while," he said. "It may have to do with slow slip on faults in the area or perhaps the hydrology of the fault system."

» Subscribe to USA TODAY

» Watch more on this and other topics from USA TODAY

» USA TODAY delivers current local and national news, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, and more through award-winning journalism, photos, videos and VR.

#Earthquake #EarthquakeLA #PuertoRicoEarthquake

Guests & Subjects Covered

RELATED RescuersPuerto RicoThursday AccordingUS Geological SurveyJohn VidaleSouthern CaliforniaUSA TODAY WeVR Earthquake EarthquakeLA PuertoRicoEarthquake

Sentinel Indexing in Progress

Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.

All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.

The science behind earthquakes and what makes them so dangerous | Just The FAQs · USA Today · Sentinel