An interplate earthquake is an earthquake that occurs at the boundary of two tectonic plates. If one plate is trying to move past the other, they will be locked until sufficient stress builds up to cause the plates to slip relative to each other. The slipping process creates an earthquake with land deformations and resulting waves which travel through the earth's surface. If the motion is due to one plate slipping beneath the other plate the resulting earthquake is known as an interplate thrust or megathrust earthquake.

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• Intraplate earthquake