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Earthquakes KS2

Teach your KS2 class about earthquakes with this ready-to-teach Geography lesson. Your Year 5 and Year 6 children will find out about plate tectonics and how moving plates cause earthquakes, as well as how areas around fault lines are most likely to be struck by an earthquake. In their independent activities, they place various extreme earthquakes on a world map, or investigate a particular earthquake and its effects on the people and landscape of the area.

 

This Earthquakes KS2 Geography lesson includes:

  • a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities
  • a slideshow for the teaching input
  • a range of printable resources for independent learning activities

This lesson is part of an Extreme Earth Cross-Curricular Topic for Year 5 and Year 6.

Earthquakes KS2 Lesson Pack

£2.99

Scroll through the pictures for a preview of the lesson's resources:

Earthquakes KS2 slideshow example 1
Earthquakes KS2 slideshow example 2
Earthquakes KS2 slideshow example 3
Earthquakes KS2 slideshow example 4
Earthquakes KS2 slideshow example 5
Earthquakes KS2 slideshow example 6
Earthquakes KS2 worksheet example 1
Earthquakes KS2 worksheet example 2
Earthquakes KS2 worksheet example 3
Earthquakes KS2 lesson plan example 1
Seismograph reading

Earthquakes

What is an earthquake?

An earthquake is a shaking of the earth's surface. Earthquakes can be mild and barely felt, or intense and destructive.

What causes earthquakes?

The Earth is made up of several different layers. The crust is the outermost layer of the Earth. It is made up of plates of rock that fit together like a jigsaw. These are called tectonic plates.

The tectonic plates are constantly moving. They move a few centimetres every year. This might not sound like much, but when they meet, they sometimes get jammed together. The forces pushing the rock together then build up until the rocks distort. They judder past each other then fall back to their original shapes. This releases stored energy in seismic waves. It is these waves that cause earthquakes.  

Where do earthquakes occur?

Earthquakes can be felt anywhere in the world, but most earthquakes happen along faults where tectonic plates meet.

 

World map showing where earthquakes are most likely to occur

World map showing where earthquakes are most likely to occur

Which country has the most earthquakes?

Japan experiences the most earthquakes. This is because the country is sat upon four tectonic plates that are constantly moving against one another. Approximately 1,500 earthquakes occur there every year, but the majority are very mild and barely felt.  

How do we measure earthquakes?

Seismographs are instruments used to detect and record the seismic waves during an earthquake. The strength, or magnitude, of an earthquake is measured by a system called the Richter scale.

Across the world, there are several million earthquakes every year. However, only around 500,000 of these are detected, 100,000 can be felt and 100 cause damage. 

A table to explain the effects of different magnitudes of earthquakes according to the Richter scale.

The effects of different magnitudes of earthquakes according to the Richter scale.

 

When should children learn about earthquakes?

 According to the National Curriculum objectives, children learn about earthquakes in KS2. It is assigned as compulsory learning under the 'human and physical geography' strand of learning.

Children should describe and understand key aspects of:

  • physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle

 

This objective, amongst others, is covered in our ready-to-teach KS2 cross-curricular topic, Extreme Earth, which includes Geography, Art, DT, Music and PSHE lessons.