When the earth shivers

"The mountains seemed to walk"

That is what a Chinese writer said about a terrible earthquake he saw. During the worst earthquakes, the ground shivers and shakes and rumbles. Whole sections of land get pushed out of place, so that mountains truly seem to "walk".

Earthquakes begin in the earth's rocky crust. Pressure builds up and begins to push. The force of this push actually bends the rocks, just as you bend a stick. And, suddenly, the rocks snap and break, just as the stick would snap if you kept bending it. This sends shivers through the ground making it quiver and quake.

Earthquakes are actually happening all the time. Every few minutes there is one somewhere in the world. Sometimes an earthquake is very powerful and does a lot of damage. But most earthquakes are so slight they don't even rattle a spoon in a teacup.