NORFOLK, Va. — Fault lines are fractures or breaks in the Earth's crust where tectonic plates move past each other, often resulting in earthquakes. These geological features are classified into three ...

Russell McLendon is a science writer with expertise in the natural environment, humans, and wildlife. He holds degrees in journalism and environmental anthropology. Within minutes of any major ...

The graphic on the top shows how a high-angle normal fault cuts between two of the earth's plates. The block on the right shifts down as the fault moves. The graphic on the bottom shows a low-angle ...

Over the last several weeks, earthquakes have rocked parts of the United States from Alaska to Wednesday morning's quake in Tennessee. The most recent quake registered as a magnitude 4.4, just ...

While it is often said that mountains don’t move, in reality, the Colorado Rocky Mountains are the result of a slow dance that has been occurring beneath the earth’s surface for hundreds of millions ...

On September 19, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico, with fatalities estimated in the hundreds—the largest, most serious earthquake of at least 19 that the U.S. Geological Survey ...

“The rocks themselves are telling us this is an important process,” Stanford geophysicist Eric Dunham said in a 2020 interview, speaking of the mysterious precursors faults emit before they slip. Over ...

We all have our faults, and that includes planet Earth. Earthquakes, big and small, rattle the globe every day, most recently making news this week with temblors in northern California. The latest ...