why does pressure increase as you go deeper below the crust?
96231
The answer above mine is close, but does not fully address subsurface pressures. There are more than one type of pressure.\n\nOne type of pressure below the earth's crust is called 'lithostatic pressure'. It results from the force of overlying rock layers and is proportional to their assumed average density. The deeper you go, the more rock above you and so lithostatic pressure increases.\n\nSecond is hydrostatic pressure, which is just the pressure of fluids below the surface. This is usually close to lithostatic pressure but can even be higher depending on boundary conditions of the fluid in the rock.\n\nA third type, pore pressure, can actually decrease as you go deeper, but this is rarely the case. The pore pressure usually deepens on the porosity of the rock and the density of matter within those pores.
431938
As the tectonic plates move, their boundaries crush against each other and create pressure.  Eventually, the pressure will build up to a point where it overcomes the friction holding two sections of rock together.  The sections will slip. relieving the pressure and creating an earthquake as the energy that was held in the two sections is transferred into seismic waves, also known as an earthquake.
139400
the air gets thinner as you rise in elevation.  the thin mountain air doesn't trap the heat as well as the thick air near sea level does.
988748
heat technically speaking, does not rise. heat energy travels from area of high energy to an area of low energy (think about how heatsinks work). it's just convient to say it rises.\n\nThe reason why it's colder the higher you go is beacuse the pressure is less and the heat energy is more spread out. therefore the tempreture goes down.\n\nboth are covered by two of the three law of thermodynamics, not sure which ones exactly. it's been a while.
819002
When two plates collide, they BOTH begin to go under a bit.  However, when a continental, and an oceanic plate collide, the oceanic plate ends up going under more.  Why?\n\nFor one thing, the continental plate is up higher than the oceanic plate to begin with.  After all, continental plates are always above sea level, and oceanic plates are always below sea level.  With the advantage of heighth, the continental plate usually pushes the oceanic plate below.\n\nFor another thing, the continental plate is thicker than the oceanic plate, and therefore is going to be harder to crumple, squish, or flatten.\n\nAlso, the oceanic plate is already under an enormous downward pressure from all of the ocean on top of it.\n\nAdditionally, continental plates are lighter.  They were formed by materials on the primordial earth that had floated to the surface, while oceanic plates are formed out of the magma from the center of the earth, which was below the continental plates because it was heavier at the time the plates were forming.\n\nAnd finally, wet rocks are a great deal softer than drier rocks, so the continental plate is harder to bend or break than the oceanic plate, which is soaked all the way through.
802914
Your puzzle is explained in part by the thermodynamic behavior of air.  \n\nWhen a 'pocket' of air is heated, its density decreases relative to the surrounding atmosphere, and so it begins to float upward.  As the hot air rises through the troposphere, the pressure around it drops, because there is less air and more available space to fill.  The volume of the hot air expands as a result, but this expansion progressively drains the heat from the air, through a process called 'adiabatic cooling.'  In the end, the air pocket is dispersed, its temperature dropping far below the air temperature at the Earth's surface.  This process happens constantly, all over the atmosphere, and is one factor contributing to the overall 'lapse rate' of the atmosphere (the rate of temperature decline as altitude increases).
775141
Proportionate. Increase in temperature results in increased pressure.
509040
The Earth is not Hollow. Below the 60 Km crust is the semi-liquid Mantle. The core at the center is Solid.
37068
The air gets less dense, not lighter as elevation increases because there is less air on top to push down on the air beneath it you as you go up.  It would be like diving to the bottom of a swimming pool.  Whenever you go so deep, your ears start to hurt because the pressure of the water on you.  It's like that, but we're used to the pressure of the air.  \n\nTall people don't breathe easier, there isn't that much of a difference in pressure.  But actually, the higher you go, the harder it is to breathe.  There is less oxygen as you go up (that's why mountain climbers have to wear oxygen masks when climbing tall mountains like Everest!)
317634
Pressure will increase if temperature increases, assuming that the container remains at a constant volume. Because the molecules are moving faster, they collide more often with the walls of the container, so the pressure goes up.\n\nThis is demonstrated by Gay-Lussac's Law, which states that that for a fixed amount of gas (fixed number of moles) at a fixed volume, the pressure is proportional to the temperature, so:  P/T = constant.\n\nIn case you need to know this for a test, and easy mnemonic  is "Pete and Tom are Gay" (Pressure and Temperature are proportional according to Gay-Lussac).
486747
There are basically two things happening in regards to atmospheric pressure, both caused by the same thing.\n\n1.Pull from below-Gravity is pulling on all of the molecules so the heavier a molecule is, the closer to the surface of the earth it wants to be as a result of gravity.\n\n2. Push from above-Because gravity is pulling on all of the atmosphere's molecules, all of them "want" to be at the earth's surface. If you were to remove all of the most dense air at the surface, all of the less dense molecules above would simply be pulled down to take the place of the removed ones. This results in the molecules above pushing down on those below, adding to the force that gravity is exerting on them. (more pressure)\n\n\nThe atmosphere is basically arranged most dense (closest to the earth's surface) to least dense (outermost region of the atmosphere) according to the atomic weight of the molecules.\n\nSo the further you go upward into the atmosphere, the less molecules there are that "want" to be at the earth's surface, and therefore the less atmospheric pressure there is.\n\nHope this helps
634175
It´s not quite clear to me what you are looking for, but here goes....\n\nThe air pressure goes down with the height in the atmosphere. In a gas mixture the molecules are free to roam where they can but under the influence of gravity they stick mainly close to the earth. The pressure drops by about 10% over the first kilometer and is about a third of that at groundlevel at the top of the Mount Everest. The decrease is exponential and the gradient depends on the average velocity of the molecules (a few hundred meters per second).\n\nIn the ocean pressure increases linearly with depth approx. 1 atmosphere each 10 meters. The reason is that the weight of the upper layers presses on the lower layers of a liquid.   \n\nJess knows somewhat more.
654890
The greater the pressure difference, the stronger the pressure gradient, hence the stronger the pressure gradient force.\n\nPressure gradient force is responsible for triggering the initial movement of air, which in turn leads to the development of wind. It is directed from higher to lower pressure at right angles to the equal pressure surfaces, isobars. The closely spaced isobars in a weather chart indicate steep pressure gradients, strong forces, and high winds, while widely spaced isobars indicate gentle pressure gradients, weak forces, and light winds.\n\nBernoulli's Principle............
1182741
This is due to two reasons:\n\nAt high altitude, the atmospheric pressure is much less than sea level, because gravity causes most of the atmosphere to settle towards the Earth.  In fact, over 50% of the atmosphere resides under the five mile mark above the Earth.  As a result, the air is less dense the higher you go.  \n\nNow it is true that the sun heats this air, but since there is less pressure, it expands as it rises much more easily than the air does near the Earth.  As a result of this expansion, the air cools.
797755
It happens in the brittle part of the crust, which is not usually deeper than 20 km.\n\nHere's the jist:\n\nIt all comes down to stress and strain. It is not 'the plates rubbing together' as many people say; or at least that's a very simplistic view.\n\nPlate tectonics causes stress on the continents and oceans, all over the surface of the earth. In some places, the stress is very small (usually within the plates). Elsewhere, the stress is high, usually where the plates meet each other. Since each plate moves, when two come in contact, the stress each other. They can push on each other and cause compressional stress, they can pull with extensional stress, and they can slide past or shear each other with tensional stress.\n\nFaulting, causing earthquakes, comes from the fact that this stress is building up all the time, but rocks and continents are strong materials. Just like hitting a rock with a small hammer, you do put stress on it, but a small amount. It would take a sledgehammer to put enough strain (effects and accumulation of stress) to build up and cause breakage. In the earth, the area around an active fault builds up strain from the stress of plate tectonics. Most faults become locked, because of this strength, and thus can not release their strain. Away from the fault, the stress produces very small and slow movement of the rock masses as a whole. Eventually, the strain is too much and the rest of the plate has moved too far and the fault releases the strain build-up all at once in a big stress release called an earthquake. This is called the elastic rebound theory, and it explains most (but not all) movements.\n\nThis is why an earthquake's size is relative to the fault size. The bigger the fault, the bigger the strain build up, and the bigger the release in an earthquake. Subduction zones and collision zones, where large portions of plates actually can rub together as a whole, have the really big earthquakes, like the 2004 Sumatra earthquake. In other plate boundaries, the entire plate boundary does not act together, so the faults become spread out and many faults take up the strain from the tectonic stress, like with the San Andreas Fault in California (it only takes up ~3/4 of the stress between the plates).\n\nEarthquakes are really tricky things; there is still so much we need to learn. As of now, there is no way to predict them, but we can say where the danger is highest and about how long between events.
333606
It's a worthwhile idea, and many scientists are working on it now. One of the technical challenges is that as you get closer to the heat, the earth material becomes more unstable, plus the pressures due to the weight of rock become immense.
885539
Temperature increases as pressure increases due to increased molecular collisions.  The Earth generates an incredible amount of gravity, meaning that everything is pulled towards the center of the Earth.  So at the center of the Earth is an incredible amount of pressure due to the incredibly high density of molecules moving around there, and thus the temperature is incredibly high!