Real faults do not slide smoothly — stress builds along the rock until it snaps forward in a sudden jolt, a process called elastic rebound. A tabletop model shows this mechanism directly. You drag a heavy brick along a wooden track using an elastic cord, pulling at a steady speed. Even so, the brick jerks forward and stops, over and over. A vibration sensor connected to a computer records each burst of shaking on screen. That stop-and-go motion mirrors how fault zones build up stress and release it in the bursts we feel as earthquakes.

Real faults store energy like a stretched rubber band — when stress gets too high, the rock snaps forward and releases that energy as seismic waves, the shaking we feel during an earthquake. You can model this by dragging a heavy brick along a wooden track using an elastic cord, pulling at a steady speed while a vibration sensor connected to a computer records each jolt on screen. The brick doesn’t slide smoothly; it jerks forward and stops over and over. Each recorded jolt represents a burst of energy released by sudden slippage, just like the elastic rebound that drives real fault movement.

Rocks along a fault bend under stress until they snap back to their original shape, releasing energy as an earthquake — and you can watch the same stop-and-go pattern play out on a wooden track. When you drag a heavy brick using an elastic shock cord, the brick jerks forward and stops, over and over, even though you pull at a steady speed. A vibration sensor connected to a computer records each jolt on screen, showing how faults build up stress and release it in bursts we feel as earthquakes.