The ground beneath your feet is moving, slowly but relentlessly. Ten questions on the planet's most powerful forces, each with the reason behind it.
The ground feels solid, but it is riding on plates that grind, pull apart, and dive beneath one another, and volcanoes and earthquakes are the planet's way of showing it. This quiz covers how they happen, where they cluster, and the events that reshaped landscapes and history. The explanations connect each fact to the restless geology underneath, so the answers make sense as part of one system rather than as isolated disasters. It is a look at the powerful, ordinary forces that built the mountains, the islands, and much of the world map.
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
Play it insteadAnswer: D. Tectonic plates
Why: The outer shell is divided into tectonic plates that slowly move, and most volcanoes and earthquakes occur where their edges meet.
Answer: C. Magma
Why: Underground molten rock is magma; once it erupts onto the surface, the same material is called lava.
Answer: B. The Ring of Fire
Why: The Ring of Fire rims the Pacific Ocean and is home to about three-quarters of the world's active volcanoes and most large earthquakes.
Answer: A. A seismograph
Why: A seismograph detects and records ground motion as seismic waves from an earthquake pass through the Earth.
Answer: D. The epicentre
Why: An earthquake starts underground at the focus, and the point on the surface directly above it is called the epicentre.
Answer: C. A stratovolcano
Why: Stratovolcanoes are the classic steep, cone-shaped volcanoes built from alternating layers of lava and ash; Fuji and Vesuvius are examples.
Answer: B. A tsunami
Why: A tsunami is a series of huge waves set off when an undersea earthquake, landslide or eruption suddenly displaces a large volume of water.
Answer: A. Pompeii
Why: The eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 buried Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum under ash, preserving them in remarkable detail.
Answer: D. About ten times as great
Why: Magnitude scales are logarithmic: each step up represents about ten times greater shaking and roughly 32 times more energy released.
Answer: C. The asthenosphere
Why: The rigid plates, the lithosphere, sit on the hotter, partly molten asthenosphere beneath, which flows slowly and lets them move.
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