Earthquake fault lines are a series of lines that mark all known earthquakes in a given region or area.  The map below shows past (and projected future) quake locations.  Further down the page is shown general world fault lines for major earthquakes resulting in major destruction and death.

Known Earthquake Epicenters - Worldwide

Simply defined, the term plate tectonics refers to how the Earth’s surface is made up of plates. In geology, a plate is a large slab of rock, while tectonics is a word of Greek origin meaning “to build.”

The theory of plate tectonics became widely accepted by scientists in the 1960s and 1970s. It revolutionized our understanding of the Earth and unified the Earth sciences, from the study of fossils (paleontology) to the study of earthquakes (seismology).

According to this theory, the Earth’s crust is made up of about a dozen plates on which the continents and oceans rest. These plates are continually shifting because the surface beneath them - the hot, soft mantle - is moving slowly like a conveyor belt, driven by heat and other forces at work in the Earth’s core. The plates are moving about a centimeter (0.5 in) to 15 centimeters (6 in) per year in different directions.