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At [[Constructive Plate Margin]]s the plates are moving away from each other and this causes cracks in the plates as they move. Tension then builds in these cracks and is eventually released in the form of shock waves that can be felt of the surface of the earth at the [[crust]] as an '''earthquake'''.
Earthquakes come in a variety of strengths therefore there is a scale that shows you how strong each earthquake is and how much damage it is likely to do. This is called the '''moment magnitude scale'''. This scale measures the amount of energy released by an earthquake and is measured [[Logarithmic|logarithmically]]. This means that a magnitude 2 earthquake is ten times stronger than a magnitude 1 earthquake. Earthquakes below magnitude 6 only cause slight damage to buildings and earthquakes magnitude 7 and above can cause high levels of damage and large loss of life.