How one can talk about earthquakes without mentioning plate tectonics [1] is baffling to me. It is a completely coherent theory on how geology works and the las

How one can talk about earthquakes without mentioning plate tectonics [1] is baffling to me. It is a completely coherent theory on how geology works and the last real paradigm shift in the sciences. On the order of Newton with his laws of motion for physics. Or the atomic theory of matter for understanding chemistry. In brief and simplifying: Relative to each other, the Pacific plate is moving to the northeast and the North American plate to the southwest (absolute motion is a bit different) and a fairly constant rate of about 25cm per year. Being solid rock these plates don't slide past each other continuously (except in a few rare places) but build up stress over time near the contact between the two plates (fault). When the stress is high enough, the fault breaks loose at a single location and propagates a distance from there. How far the break propagates and how much the plates move relative to each other determines the size of the earthquake. How plates move on the large scale relative to each other changes on the million year timescale, so on the 10,000 yr timescale, where you will have about 50-100 ~7.5 to 8.0 magnitude earthquakes on the San Andreas under San Francisco, the mean frequency and standard deviation of earthquakes won't change much. Geologist can determine when large past earthquakes occurred by digging trenches through faults and looking at the physical displacement of sediments [2]. How to predict earthquakes by better than 30% chance in the next 30 years (this is the current best estimate for the Hayward fault near where I live) is on-going and with no success so far. Looking at changes in ground conductivity some weeks and days before an earthquake is the most promising path at the moment, but has not yet been proven to work. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics [2] https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/safz-paleo/ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/safz-paleo/