At 8:50 a.m. on October 8, 2005, a powerful earthquake rattled northern Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Centered in northern Pakistan, the 7.6 quake flattened nearby cities, causing an estimated 41,000 deaths and leaving millions homeless, according to news reports. The massive quake was followed by dozens of strong aftershocks, most of which were larger than 5.0 on the Richter scale.

Geology in northern Pakistan and India is controlled by the motion of the Indian subcontinent as it is shoved under the Asian continent at a rate of about 40 millimeters (1.6 inches) per year. As the continents collide, they push up the highest mountain ranges on the planet: the Himalaya, the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram, and the Pamir. The friction also breaks the Earth's solid surface into an intricate series of faults. Like the spidery veins that radiate from a crack in glass, the faults are connected, but are sometimes hard to trace. As the piece of the Earth's crust on which India sits moves, tension builds in the faults. Eventually, the faults slip, releasing their tension and giving vent to an earthquake. As the tension is redistributed, the ground shakes along adjoining faults or along other sections of the same fault in a series of aftershocks.

E-seminar for Earthscape Subscribers

How Predictable Are Natural Disasters?

Professor Art Lerner-Lam,
Senior Research Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Educational Resources
Check out Earthscape course content on earthquakes. You will find over a dozen illustrated lectures, as well as videos, interactive resources, image banks, exercises and labs.

Princeton Earth Physics Project - PEPP
PEPP seeks to engage students in the acquisition of seismological data, to help teachers bring the reality of science into the classroom, and to motivate and enable scientists to spread knowledge and activities beyond the boundaries of their departments.

Classroom projects range from activities with detailed step-by-step instructions that introduce the PEPP software programs and focus on basic concepts in seismology, to small-group activities that include data collection, analysis, prediction, and calculations.

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program of Northern California

USGS basic educational information on earthquakes for kids, adults and teachers.

Taking the Earth's Pulse: Understanding Earthquake Hazards around the World

Instructor's Guide to WebSeis
WebSeis is a real-time data interface to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University seismic stations from Delaware to Vermont. These stations are responsible for monitoring earthquakes throughout this region of the country. This is a resource being developed to assist teachers (Jr. high- through college) to use WebSeis in their classrooms.

USGS Earthquake Research
Basic explanations of methods various scientists employ in researching earthquakes (i.e.; crustal deformation and structure, seismology and geology)

PBS Online - Savage Earth
In the last 500 years, nearly 300 million people have perished in earthquakes. Time and again, volcanic eruptions have destroyed cities, regions, even entire countries. Through a riveting combination of unforgettable footage, up-to-the-minute scientific data, and harrowing first-person accounts from survivors, SAVAGE EARTH bears candid witness to our planet's restless nature and the catastrophes it provokes.