Maurice Bray, age 10, of Hearst, Ontario, for his question:
Where are the worst earthquake regions?
An earthquake might, just might, strike the Ottawa region of eastern Canada. But this is not at all likely to happen. However, long ago, this region was shaken by one shuddering earthquake after another. This was more than two billion years ago, when the ancient Laurentian mountains were young.
Earthquakes can happen anywhere in the world, on the land or under the sea, but most places do not feel them for hundreds and often thousands of years. Certain other places are not so lucky. Slight quakes may tremble the ground every few days or weeks.~.and every few years the region is struck by a major earthquake. Three of these earthquake regions can be charted in long sprawling belts on a world map.
One wide belt centers around the high Himalayas of northern India. Another is under the Atlantic Ocean and the third follows the shore lines around the Pacific Ocean. The Himalaya earthquake belt reaches eastward through the Mediterranean and the Alps of Central Europe. The Atlantic belt curves down the mid ocean from the north to the south polar seas. From time to time it shakes the seabed and causes underwater seaquakes.
The most restless earthquake belt follows the edges of the Pacific Ocean. It is the longest and the worst of the three. The restless region reaches from the tip of South America, all along the western coastline up to Alaska. It turns westward with the Aleutians. keeping these bleak islands in a constant upheaval. It follows the shores of Asia through Japan and China and reaches out to shake many chains of Pacific islands. Then it forms a big loop way out beyond New Zealand.
This huge, restless region is called the Circum Pacific earthquake belt. It is also a region where other upheavals are going on in the rocky crust of the earth. There are dozens of volcanoes along its path. Some of them are active and ready to erupt at any time. Some are quietly dormant either asleep forever or just:~waiting to burst forth again. This is why the Circum Pacific belt is called the Ring of Fire. The restless path through the earth's crust follows the Andes, the Rockies and other long chains of high mountains.
The earthquake belt in Asia and Europe also passes through high mountainous regions. The underwater earthquake belt follows along a huge chain of underwater mountains called the Mid Atlantic Ridge. All of these earthquake ranges are young and still growing. As they grow, they heave and heft great slabs of rock, causing cracks and weak regions in the earth's crust. When they stop growing, the restless regions of earthquakes and volcanoes will settle down and become calm.
The life of a mountain range spans ages of time. It takes millions of years to grow to its full height and more millions of years to wear down and grow old. Then new chains of mountains begin to grow and cause restless regions in other parts of the world. Some 200 million years ago, the growing Appalachians caused shuddering earthquakes and fiery volcanoes in New England. And 2000 million years ago, the growing Laurentians erupted with fire and eastern Canada trembled with earthquakes.