How do Earthquakes Affect Ecosystems?

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What are earthquakes?

The effect in land ecosystems The effect in marine ecosystems How earthquakes change ecosystems What happens during an earthquake Studying earthquakes Types of earthquakes Conclusion Bibliography

What are earthquakes?

Earthquakes are gigantic shock waves that can uproot trees and damage buildings. Earthquakes start when tectonic plates grind into each other, and the rocks will stretch to absorb a certain amount of pressure. But when that pressure becomes too great, the rocks will break and shatter, releasing gigantic shock waves that shake the land. And that is how an earthquake happens.

The effect in land ecosystems

Earthquakes can change land ecosystems in many different ways. Earthquakes can also create long-lost species of plants to bloom. Let’s say that the epicenter of an earthquake is near a forest. The earthquake can knock down those trees, and that allows the sunlight to penetrate the canopy. When the land shakes, seeds buried deep underground can get shaken above ground. Those seeds can grow to be new undiscovered species, and the plant would grow faster because the canopy is down and sunlight will shine on the ground. There is also a place where earthquakes happen the most, called “The Ring of Fire”. The Ring of Fire is near Japan, the Philippines, New Zealand, and the western coastline of North and South America all lie in this major earthquake zone.

Japan after 2011 earthquake

The effect in marine ecosystems When an earthquake happens in a marine ecosystem, it can affect the food chain on both land and ocean ecosystems. Aquatic earthquakes can cause gigantic tsunamis that would flood the land and destroy trees and buildings. But the land environment is not the only problem. The tsunamis would mix the water around, splashing, and that would also mix some fish around. And when that happens, the fish from different habitats would meet each other. For example, it would be really awkward for a dwarf lantern shark, who lives in South America, to meet a Japanese anchovy.

How earthquakes change ecosystems

Earthquakes can also change land ecosystems in a different way. Before, India was not as warm as now, because India was a subcontinent far away from Asia a very long time ago. But earthquakes caused the Indian subcontinent to slam into the Asian continent, introducing a generation of new species. Asian species had to compete with the Indian species, and the dominant species were on top of the food chain, and the weaker ones in the bottom. It can also change the type of ecosystems and the climate. Let’s say India got torn apart from Asia and it went somewhere much colder than Asia. Then the rich, warm land of India would turn into cold tundra. Earthquakes can also spread disease by moving land, and on that piece of land, there are bacteria and germs. So when the land slams into another continent, the germs and disease would spread from that land to the continent.

What happens during an earthquake

When an earthquake happens many things break because of the shock waves. But that’s not all that happens. Earthquakes can also cause landslides to happen.

Those landslides can break containers filled with dirty water, and that dirty water can pollute the ecosystem. And when the landslide breaks a clean container of water, the water would be good for the plants, but water is an important resource and wasting that would be no good. Also, earthquakes can shape land. For example, in the Triassic Period in the Mesozoic Era, land was just one supercontinent called Pangaea, until the supercontinent got split in two in the Jurassic Period. The two continents were called Laurasia, to the north, and Gondwana, to the south.

Supercontinent Pangaea

Earthquake in Haiti

Earth in the Jurassic Period

Studying earthquakes

The study of earthquakes is called seismology. In seismology, you study types of earthquakes and their effects. There is also a machine that can measure and predict earthquakes. It is called the seismometer. The seismometer was invented by Scottish physicist James David Forbes in the 19th century.

Types of earthquakes There are about 13 types of earthquakes. The names are foreshock, aftershock, blind thrust, doublet, interplate, intraplate, megathrust, remotely triggered, slow, submarine, supershear, tsunami, earthquake swarm. Those earthquakes have different effects and different movements. Foreshock and Aftershock are natural earthquakes and they are related to each other. Foreshock is a pretty large earthquake before the mainshock(the main largest earthquakes), and aftershock is a minor earthquake after a larger earthquake.

There are also two earthquakes that relate to each other. One is the interplate earthquake and the other is the intraplate earthquake. The interplate happens at the boundary of two tectonic plates, while an intraplate earthquake occurs in the interior of a tectonic plate.

Underwater earthquakes are called submarine earthquakes because “sub” means under and “marine” means water. Submarine earthquakes happen because of tectonic plates. The earth’s surface comprises tectonic plates that are about 50 miles thick. Those tectonic plates move little by little every year, until the plates meet and the plates grind because the plates are still moving constantly. When the pressured spots can’t take that pressure, the spots shatter, causing the submarine earthquake to happen.

Conclusion

Earthquakes can affect the ecosystem in different ways. They mostly damage a lot of things on ground, but can cause massive tsunamis in sea. Earthquakes can also move land around and change the ecosystem, and carry diseases to other places.

But earthquakes aren’t always a bad thing. On the bright side, earthquakes can shake land and make undiscovered seeds grow on the land.

Devastating earthquake in Nepal

Glossary 
 Cretaceous Period- A period from 145 million years ago to 66 million years ago. This time was like the golden age of the dinosaurs and their destruction.

Dominant- Most important and powerful Jurassic Period- A period from 201 million years ago to 145 million years ago.

In this period, varieties of dinosaurs started to grow and reptiles roamed the land.

Landslide- The sliding down of giant chunks of dirt and rocks from a mountain Mesozoic Era- A period that covers from 252 million years ago to 66 million years ago and is divided into three periods, the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous. The Mesozoic Era covers 186 million years.

Penetrate- Succeeding in forcing something through another thing, for example, the bullet penetrated the man’s chest Tectonic plates- A massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rock that vary in size Triassic Period- A period from 252 million years ago to 201 million years ago.

In this period, dinosaurs were first created.

Sources Earthquake. (2016). Wikipedia. Retrieved 10 March 2016, from https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake EARTHQUAKES. (2016). Factmonster.com. Retrieved 10 March 2016, from http://www.factmonster.com/dk/encyclopedia/earthquakes.html How do earthquakes affect the environment?. (2016). Ask. Retrieved 10 March 2016, from http://www.ask.com/science/earthquakes-affectenvironment-7f30b7d0a8216edf?ad=dirN&o=0