What are megathrust events?

A megathrust event is when two giant pieces of Earth’s crust push and snap, causing a really big earthquake.

Imagine you have two big slabs of wood, like the floorboards in your room, pressed together tightly. One day, they suddenly slide past each other with a crack! That’s kind of what happens during a megathrust event. These events happen where one piece of Earth's crust is slowly moving under another, like a giant puzzle piece sliding beneath the floor.

Think about stacking blocks on top of each other. If you push them gently, they might not move much. But if you keep pushing for a long time, eventually the blocks will snap and shift, whoosh! That sudden movement is an earthquake.

Megathrust events are like this big block stack, only the blocks are huge plates of Earth's crust, and when they finally slide past each other, it can cause earthquakes strong enough to shake the whole neighborhood!