Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [April 19, 2024]

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Questions include: ​How rare was the recent New Jersey earthquake? How can we predict future earthquakes? - The Indian Plate is moving very fast. It's increasing the height of Mt. Everest by six centimeters every year. - I wonder if digging for oil and fracking, etc., have any effect on the plates? - How do earthquakes cause tsunamis? - It seems like studying underwater earthquakes vs. those on land might be a good way to investigate the "lubrication effect." - Solitary waves were discovered by the naval architect John Scott Russell in 1834. - Anything particularly interesting or surprising from the solar eclipse? It appeared that leading up to it, between the book and website, it was better understood than any previous solar eclipse before it happened. Now that it has happened, what interesting findings have there been, if any? - What causes Earth to have different biomes? - Why is there only one species of human? What happened to Neanderthals? - How do astronomers determine the composition of planets and stars that are light years away from us?