Earthquakes occur mainly at the borders of the plates, where two plates slide past each other. Most earthquakes occur in the Himalayan region. The actual seismic centre, the ‘hypocenter’, lies deep below the surface of the Earth. The point on the surface of the Earth lying immediately above this is called the ‘epicentre’. Scientists can determine this point. They measure the time it takes the shock waves to reach the seismic stations and draw circles around the epicentre and two other seismic stations. The radius of these circles corresponds to the measured time. The point of intersection is the epicentre. Right below the epicentre, beneath the Earth’s surface, lies the hypocenter.
