Utah's Earthquakes Info

This is the completed guided notes, with all the necessary information. It will be updated to contain more and better information at some point.

What is a Tectonic Plate?

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth’s subterranean movements. The theory, which solidified in the 1960s, transformed the earth sciences by explaining many phenomena, including mountain building events, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

In plate tectonics, Earth’s outermost layer, or lithosphere—made up of the crust and upper mantle—is broken into large rocky plates. These plates lie on top of a partially molten layer of rock called the asthenosphere. Due to the convection of the asthenosphere and lithosphere, the plates move relative to each other at different rates, from two to 15 centimeters (one to six inches) per year. This interaction of tectonic plates is responsible for many different geological formations such as the Himalaya Mountain range in Asia, the East African Rift, and the San Andreas Fault in California, United States.

What is a Fault?

A fault is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock. Faults allow the blocks to move relative to each other. This movement may occur rapidly, in the form of an earthquake - or may occur slowly, in the form of creep. Faults may range in length from a few millimeters to thousands of kilometers. Most faults produce repeated displacements over geologic time. During an earthquake, the rock on one side of the fault suddenly slips with respect to the other.

All Plate boundaries are faults. But not all faults are on plate boundaries.

Why does Utah Shake?

We are not on a plate boundary, so why do we have earthquakes?

The Wasatch Fault

Can we predict earthquakes? No

For years, there has been rumors of a pending, catastrophic earthquake. Can we actually predict that? No. Will we have more earthquakes? Yes.