Earthquakes
Geohazard
How do they happen?
Earthquakes normally happen whenever rock under neath the ground break on a fault line. This causes a sudden release of energy and causes these seismic waves that make the ground shake. California is prone to bad earthquakes because they are located right on the San Andreas fault line. Another area of people that are in a high risk of earthquakes are all the people on the New Madrid fault line. Some of those states are Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
Danger Hazard
Whenever the ground shakes it can cause buildings to shake and when that happens, things can start flying around. So it is very important to drop down low and cover your head and neck. While doing that you should make sure to stay grounded under a table or desk. Earthquakes are measured by a magnitude scale, so depending on how high it is on the scale changes how hard the ground shakes, which causes less damage.
Don't believe me, here's my proof
On May 22, 1960 a 9.5 magnitude hit in Valdivia, chile. Can you imagine that the most powerful earthquake to ever hit only lasted ten minutes. But in that small amount of time it was guessed that around 1,000 to 6,000 people died due to the earthquake and tsunamis that happened due to the earthquake.
On March 27, 1964 a 9.2 magnitude earthquake hit our home land in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Even with it being the second largest earthquake in the history of earthquakes, it thankfully only killed 132 people. Not that any amount of people dieing is good, it is still better than 6,000.