Effects of earthquakes

Not all earthquakes are the same. Some earthquakes cause very gentle shaking and do not cause much damage. Other earthquakes are very powerful and cause the ground to shake violently. Powerful earthquakes can affect us in many ways:

• They can damage or destroy buildings, roads, bridges and other things built by people. The picture below shows buildings in Haiti that were damaged by an earthquake in 2010.

_{Photo by Marco Dormino and used under this creative commons license.}

• Earthquakes can loosen soil and rocks on steep slopes, causing landslides.
• Earthquakes can change the landscape. They can cause large cracks to open up in the ground or push up a piece of land to form a cliff. 
• Earthquakes can cause people to lose their lives. For example, people can be killed when buildings collapse.
• Earthquakes that happen under the sea or near it can cause huge waves called tsunamis. These large waves can cause a lot of destruction and loss of life. The photo below shows a tsunami in Thailand.