An earthquake is the shaking and trembling that results from the movement of rock beneath Earth's surface. Earthquakes most commonly occur near tectonic plate boundaries. Why is this most likely the case? In subduction zones, dense pieces of oceanic crust are pulled downward toward the mantle. What is the result of this?

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Explanation:

Solution:-

Earthquakes happen when rock below the Earth's surface moves abruptly. Usually, the rock is moving along large cracks in Earth's crust called faults. Most earthquakes happen at or near the boundaries between Earth's tectonic plates because that's where there is usually a large concentration of faults. Some faults crack through the Earth because of the stress and strain of the moving plates. Other, large faults are the boundary between plates, such as the San Andreas Fault on the North American west coast.

Since earthquakes happen along faults and most faults are near plate boundaries, the yellow dots in the animation are found mostly at the boundaries between Earth's tectonic plates.

A subduction zone is the biggest crash scene on Earth. These boundaries mark the collision between two of the planet's tectonic plates. The plates are pieces of crust that slowly move across the planet's surface over millions of years.

Where two tectonic plates meet at a subduction zone, one bends and slides underneath the other, curving down into the mantle. (The mantle is the hotter layer under the crust.)

Tectonic plates can transport both continental crust and oceanic crust, or they may be made of only one kind of crust. Oceanic crust is denser than continental crust. At a subduction zone, the oceanic crust usually sinks into the mantle beneath lighter continental crust. (Sometimes, oceanic crust may grow so old and that dense that it collapses and spontaneously forms a subduction zone, scientists think.)