Every day, earthquakes strike along the margins and interiors of tectonic plates all around the world. Faults, which are cracks between blocks of rock that allow the blocks to move relative to one another, cause earthquakes. Faults are caused by plate bumping and sliding, and they are more common near the plate edges.
Earthquakes are most likely to occur when two plates collide or slide past each other. Most earthquakes occur around the margins of the Earth's crust (the planet's outer layer), which is made up of many parts called tectonic plates. Oceanic plates are the plates that lie beneath the oceans.
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