Active or Inactive Faults | Animation

What are Active and Inactive Faults?

For our discussion continuation about the series of Cracks on the Earth’s Surface, after learning the different types of faults, we will distinguish today if these faults are Active or Inactive faults.

Did you know that history showed that 90 % of the world’s largest earthquakes happen in the Pacific Ring of Fire? Yes, you heard it right. This is the world’s greatest earthquake zone found along the rim of the pacific ocean’s continental plate. This zone extends from Chile to South America’s coast, then through Central America to Mexico, plus the west coast of the US, then southern Alaska, and then through Japan, the Philippines, New Guinea, and New Zealand.

These earthquakes occur in the Pacific Ring of fire because of the active movement of faults around it. The plates in this region are constantly moving by the compressing, expanding, and sliding forces which resulted in the creation of numerous land formations like trenches, volcanoes, and mountains. This region has 75 percent of the world’s volcanoes which is more than 450 volcanoes.
These are just the products of active faults in a bigger picture. Yet, how are we going to identify whether a fault is an active fault or an inactive fault?

Simply, Active faults are faults that recently created a movement of the Earth’s crust over the historical period of 10,000 years. If a fault is classified as an active fault, it means that it could still potentially create minor or major earthquakes over the period of time.

Enjoy this video about Active and Inactive Faults.

#ActiveInactiveFaults #EarthPen #EducationalVideo

CONTACT US

[kasumi]

What are the 5 inactive fault in the Philippines?