The Earth's surface lithosphere. Earthquakes are caused by the rapid rupture of rock layers of the Earth's crust after a force has been applied, causing vibrations or damage to the surface.

Earthquakes caused by geological activity are called tectonic earthquakes.

Earthquakes caused by volcanic activity are called volcanic earthquakes.

An earthquake caused by the collapse of a solid rock formation (especially limestone) is called a collapse earthquake.

However, due to the complexity of the earth's crustal structure and the unintuitive nature of the source area, there is still no complete answer to the question of how earthquakes, especially tectonic earthquakes, are conceived and occur, and what their causes and mechanisms are.

As the Earth rotates and revolves endlessly, its internal materials are constantly diverging, so the crust, or lithosphere, around the Earth's surface is constantly generating, evolving and moving, which contributes to the global crustal tectonic movement. Scientists have been observing, describing and analyzing the crustal tectonics and land-sea transformations for a long time, and have developed different hypotheses, ideas and theories.

The theory of plate tectonics, also known as the neo-global tectonics, is a theory of crustal tectonic movements that was formed later (in the 1960s) and has been accepted by the majority of geologists.

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