Fault block

Okay, so imagine you have a big toy block. It's like a rectangle that you can stack with other blocks to build a tower. Now, imagine that there's something stuck in the middle of the block that makes it harder for it to stack with other blocks. Maybe it's a big rock or a weird shape. This is kind of what a fault block is, but with the Earth's surface instead of a toy block.

So, you know how the Earth's surface is made up of lots of different plates that move around? Sometimes when two plates move in opposite directions, they can grind against each other and get stuck. This can cause a big crack or fracture in the Earth's surface, called a fault.

Now, if you imagine that the part of the Earth above the fault is like the top of a toy block, you can kind of picture what a fault block is. When the two plates move, sometimes one block of land can get pushed up or down along the fault, while the other block stays put. This creates a sort of step-like pattern, where one block is higher and the other is lower.

Just like how the weird shape in the toy block makes it hard to stack with other blocks, the fault block can create some problems too. Sometimes the different levels of land can make it hard to build things, or cause water to flow in different directions. But scientists also study fault blocks to understand more about how the Earth's surface changes and moves over time.