What are geological hazards?

Geological hazards are big events that happen underground or on Earth’s surface and can cause big changes to our world.

Imagine you're playing with blocks. You stack them high, but they’re not very strong, suddenly ka-blam! the whole tower falls down. That's kind of like what happens with earthquakes. The ground shakes because parts of Earth are moving around under our feet, just like how your block tower collapsed when it couldn’t hold up anymore.

Sometimes, after an earthquake, the ground can even crack open, and volcanoes might erupt, sending out lava like hot soup from a broken pot. This is what happens in places like Hawaii or Iceland, where the ground feels extra wiggly.

Other times, big chunks of land can slide down hillsides, like when you’re on a slippery slide at the park, that’s called a landslide.

These are all kinds of geological hazards: things that come from inside Earth and can change our world in exciting (or sometimes scary) ways.