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Nature Geoscience 1, 295–296 (1 May 2008) | doi:10.1038/ngeo196

Seismology: Do faults shimmy before they shake?

Michael R. Brudzinski

Just like us humans, the Earth has many ways to release its stress, ranging from the equivalent of a yell in the form of a destructive earthquake to the gentle whisper of a tremor. Along plate boundary faults, two tectonic plates move in relation to each other in response to external stresses, but these faults sometimes get locked together because of friction.