Thursday, July 2, 2020

PLATE TECTONICS IN THE NEWS



Mexico is in the worst possible place for earthquakes here's why it keeps getting hit.


Mexico City skyline | Reinier Snijders | Flickr




Mexico is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. Over the past century, the country has seen 19 earthquakes within 155 miles of the epicenter of last year's earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey

The country sits atop three of the Earth's largest tectonic plates — the North American plate, the Cocos Plate, and the Pacific Plate. Whenever these chunks of crust grind or butt up against one another, earthquakes happen. As a former lakebed, Mexico City is also home to soft soil that essentially acts as an amplifier for tremors, often making smaller earthquakes feel much larger.


Why does Mexico have more earthquakes?


Another fact is that "The Cocos Plate: is subducting under the North American Plate at a rate of 67 mm (0.220 ft) per year, while the Pacific and Rivera plates are moving northwest relative to the North American Plate. Southern Mexico also contains numerous faults, which causes that section of the country to have high tectonic activity.


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