Earthquake

An earthquake is the name given to a seismic shock wave caused by the movement of tectonic plates in a planet's crust. Earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates suddenly sliding over or past each other, releasing immense stresses which may have been accumulating between the plates for centuries. The size of an earthquake are measured according to the Richter magnitude scale. 

On Earth, in 2047, the Hermosa Earthquake struck the western coastline of the United States causing parts of Los Angeles to sink into the Pacific Ocean. 

In 2153, a group of Denobulan scientists studied a system of caves on the planet Xantoras, seeking to avert seismic disasters on Denobula. 

By the 24th century, seismic regulators were employed on Earth and Risa to control seismic activity in their crusts. In 2373, Pascal Fullerton cited the regulators as being an example of the illusion that Risa was. 

In 2269, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) visited an unstable planet which contained constant earthquakes, gravitic shifts, tidal waves, and high temperatures. 

Sometimes, residents of planets other than Earth will refer to earthquakes as landquakes. In 2366, the people of Bre'el IV feared that many such events would affect their planet if their moon impacted on the surface. 

An earthquake of about 8 or 8.5 on the Richter scale was measured on Penthara IV after pockets of subterranean carbon dioxide were released by drilling holes with a phaser drill. 

In the Julian Bashir, Secret Agent holoprogram, the character Hippocrates Noah uses lasers beneath Earth's surface to create artificial earthquakes. New York City and Vladivostok were among those struck. 

In 2376, the USS Voyager triggered repeated earthquakes while it was trapped in orbit of a high revolution planet. Voyager acted like a third planetary pole, and interfered with the planets natural course of evolution. They used much more iron in their buildings to protect from the earthquakes then you would normally see in a civilization at that stage. Buildings would also have handles throughout them in case of an earthquake. 

Background
During an earthquake is Los Angeles, Armin Shimerman rushed home while in his Ferengi makeup to make sure his wife, Kitty Swink, and family were unharmed. His makeup "scared the shit out of people", as he remarked later.

Apocrypha
The novel A Time for War, A Time for Peace notes a major earthquake struck San Francisco in 2109, suggesting that seismic regulators had not come into use until after that date. An earthquake is also mentioned in an unusual storyline, based within the travels of a young scientist, in the book New Worlds, New Civilizations.