An intraplate earthquake is an earthquake that occurs in the interior of a tectonic plate, whereas an interplate earthquake is one that occurs at a plate boundary.
Intraplate earthquakes are very rare. Interplate earthquakes, which occur at plate boundaries, are more common. Nonetheless, very large intraplate earthquakes can inflict heavy damage, particularly because such areas are not accustomed to earthquakes and buildings are usually not seismically retrofitted. Notable examples of damaging intraplate earthquakes are the devastating Gujarat earthquake in 2001, the 1811-1812 earthquakes in New Madrid, Missouri, and the 1886 earthquake in Charleston, South Carolina.
Read more about Intraplate Earthquake: Fault Zones Within Tectonic Plates, Historic Examples, Causes, Prediction
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“Through the din and desultoriness of noon, even in the most Oriental city, is seen the fresh and primitive and savage nature, in which Scythians and Ethiopians and Indians dwell. What is echo, what are light and shade, day and night, ocean and stars, earthquake and eclipse, there? The works of man are everywhere swallowed up in the immensity of nature. The AEgean Sea is but Lake Huron still to the Indian.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)