Earthquake!: Volcanoes, Tsunamis and the Moving Planet Beneath Us: 1

The ground beneath your feet may feel solid and still, but Earth is a restless planet that never stops changing. Deep below the surface, enormous tectonic plates move slowly across the planet. Where they pull apart, new ocean floor is created. Where they collide, mountains rise and volcanoes form. Where they become locked together, stress can build for centuries before being released suddenly as an earthquake. Beneath the sea, one powerful movement of the seabed can send tsunami waves racing across an entire ocean. Earthquake! takes young readers on an extraordinary journey into Earth's hidden interior. Discover how scientists uncovered the theory of plate tectonics, how seismic waves reveal layers no human can visit, why some volcanoes pour out flowing lava while others erupt explosively, and how tsunamis can travel as fast as an aircraft through deep water. Drawing on real events from around the world, the book explains how earthquakes are measured, why similar events can cause very different levels of damage, how volcanoes are monitored and why scientists can forecast some dangers without being able to predict every disaster precisely. Clear, vivid and scientifically accurate, this first volume in the five-book Earth in Action series reveals a planet that is powerful, constantly changing and still being shaped beneath us.