Earthquakes, volcanoes and meteorites reshape the surface
Most earthquakes happen at plate boundaries. Rocks slowly build up stress as the plates push, then break, and the stored energy is released as shaking. Effects include cracked ground, landslides, coasts that rise or sink, and tsunamis from undersea quakes. Buildings, roads, water, power and gas lines can be damaged. A volcano is a vent where molten rock (magma, called lava on the surface), gas and ash reach the surface, mostly along plate boundaries. Lava builds volcanic mountains, lava plains and new islands, but volcanoes also give out toxic gases and ash. Earthquakes and volcanoes follow the plate boundaries, but one does not cause the other in general, and no one can predict an earthquake. Meteorites are rocks from space that reach the ground: an asteroid is in space, a meteor is the streak in the sky, a meteorite is on the ground. They make craters, such as one in Arizona and a small one at Gebel Kamil in Egypt’s Western Desert. In 2022 NASA’s DART spacecraft hit one small asteroid once, as a test, and slightly changed its orbit. In an earthquake: drop, cover and hold on, and tell an adult.
Shake and think, with a grown-up. Stack some books on a tray, push the tray slowly sideways and then suddenly stop it. Describe how the books behave. Now practise “drop, cover and hold on” once calmly under a strong table. Write three ways to be safe at school. Do not write any story about disasters, and do not try to predict earthquakes.