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The 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, stunned the world. It killed over 230,000 people, and caused damage as far away as Africa. Less than a year later, an earthquake in Pakistan killed 80,000 people. Earthquakes are sudden movements in the earth's crust that occur along faults (planes of weakness), where one rock mass slides past another one. When movement along faults occurs gradually and relatively smoothly, it is called creep or seismic slip and may be undetectable to the casual observer. When friction prevents rocks from slipping easily, stress builds up until it is finally released with a sudden jerk. The point on a fault at which the first movement occurs during an earth-quake is called the epicenter.

Earthquakes have always seemed mysterious, sudden, and violent, coming without warning and leaving ruined cities and dislocated landscapes in their wake. Cities such as Kobe, Japan or Mexico City, parts of which are built on soft landfill or poorly consolidated soil, usually suffer the greatest damage from earthquakes. Water-saturated soil can liquify when shaken. Buildings sometimes sink out of sight or fall down like a row of dominoes under these conditions.