This gradual accumulation and release of stress and strain is now referred to as the "elastic rebound theory" of earthquakes. Most earthquakes are the result of the sudden elastic rebound of ...

As observed in Lesson 3, at low pressures and temperatures rock is a brittle material that will fail by fracture if the stresses become sufficiently large. When a lateral displacement takes place on a ...

Evidence that a complete stress release may have contributed to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake that broke records. Both sedimentary formations above and below the plate boundary fault lie in the stress ...

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 ...