We all know what earthquakes are.  We all know the potential for destruction and loss of life they have.  What many people do not know is how earthquakes are caused.  Thanks to the science of plate tectonics, light has been shed on different causes of earthquakes.  An earthquake is defined by the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis as “the sudden, sometimes violent movement of the earth's surface from the release of energy in the earth's crust.”1