How are earthquakes triggered?

An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter.

Explanation:

Sometimes an earthquake has foreshocks. These are smaller earthquakes that happen in the same place as the larger earthquake that follows. Scientists can’t tell that an earthquake is a foreshock until the larger earthquake happens. The largest, main earthquake is called the mainshock. Mainshocks always have aftershocks that follow. These are smaller earthquakes that occur afterwards in the same place as the mainshock. Depending on the size of the mainshock, aftershocks can continue for weeks, months, and even years after the mainshock.

answer:

convection currents in the magma drive plate tectonics. heat generated from the radioactive decay of elements deep in the interior of the earth creates magma (molten rock) in the aesthenosphere. the aesthenosphere (70 ~ 250 km) is part of the mantle, the middle sphere of the earth that extends to 2900 km.