What causes earthquakes?

Year 4 really enjoyed learning about what causes earthquakes. We discovered that earthquakes happen when tectonic plates move and press against each other. These plates are always shifting, but when they get stuck, slide past each other, or push together suddenly, the ground shakes and an earthquake occurs.

To put our learning into action, we built ‘houses’ out of spaghetti and marshmallows and tested which structures were the strongest. The children loved experimenting and seeing whose building could survive the longest during our earthquake test!