Plate-tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes / Тектоника плит, вулканы и землетрясения

Humans live on unsteady ground. This fact was made abruptly apparent on January 12, 2010, when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. Because many buildings in thisimpoverished country were poorly constructed, they could not withstand the shaking and collapsed en masse, particularly in the capital city of Portau-Prince, 15 miles from the quake’s epicenter. Rescue workers desperately combed through rubble, hunting for survivors. By early February, Haiti’s prime minister estimated that more than 200,000 people had been killed by the earthquake’s effects. This type of earthquake, caused by two separate sections, or plates, of the Earth’s crust sliding against each other is known as a strike-slip earthquake. It is just one example of the restlessness of Earth’s surface. <...>