Science Common Sense

1577 - What is the cause of Taiwan being prone to earthquakes and resulting disasters due to its location on active tectonic plate boundaries?

Taiwan is prone to earthquakes because it's located on the boundary of two big moving plates under the Earth's surface: the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate.

Imagine the Earth's surface is made of big puzzle pieces that fit together but are always moving. When these puzzle pieces, or tectonic plates, meet and move, they create a lot of pressure and stress. This stress is released in the form of an earthquake.

Taiwan is on the boundary of these moving plates, so the pressure builds up and creates many earthquakes. This makes Taiwan one of the places on Earth that experiences a lot of earthquakes and resulting disasters like landslides and tsunamis.