Try this!! Put your hand against the hand of a friend and push hard. Now push even harder. The area between your hands is like a fault zone. Your hands are like the big plates of the Earth that often push and grind away at each other. Sooner or later, as you push even harder, your hands will slide to one side. That's kind of what happens in a fault zone. When the pressure becomes too intense on a fault, it moves, making an earthquake.
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Ready to rock? You'd better be. Idaho's going to have earthquakes someday. There are big cracks under the Earth's surface, or what a geologist might call a zone of weakness. They're also called "faults." Faults also occur when two huge plates of the Earth are pushing against or alongside each other. When pressure builds up inside the Earth, it's released along faults. You can tell when it happens because the ground shakes - an earthquake! 
Very cool fact, if you like to shake, rattle and roll: The more fault zones, the more likely an earthquake. And Idaho has plenty of fault zones. The area near Horseshoe Bend Hill is one big fault zone. Not close enough? Okay, look at the Boise Foothills. Check out right at the top of the mountain ridge, where treeline begins. Guess what you're looking at? You got it. A fault zone.
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