10. What Is An Earthquake? Summary and Analysis

Earthquakes can be a very frightening event in a person's life, so it is no surprise that they are a common source of legend and myth. A large portion of the settled world is vulnerable to severe earthquakes, and they commonly feature in news around the world. This turns out to have always been the case, for just as the origin of man and animals has many different myths associated with it, so do earthquakes. Earthquakes are a result of plate techtonics. Continents across the Earth actually move very slowly. Millions of years ago the continents were in very different places. North America and Europe were pushed up against one another, and below them South America and Africa shared a physical land border. These continents move very slowly apart from one another, or towards one...