Word: california
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When scientists talk about a "big" California quake, they are generally speaking of anything higher than 6.7 on the Richter scale. (The Richter scale is logarithmic, meaning that each number represents a tenfold increase in magnitude.) Although small quakes can create major damage if they occur in a densely populated area - a 1960 earthquake in Morocco registered only 5.75 but destroyed the entire city of Agadir and killed 12,000 people - earthquakes above a 6 are almost guaranteed...
Earthquakes can't be stopped; they are a natural process that occurs when too much stress builds up between convergent tectonic plates under the earth's surface. The plates suddenly slip and the ground rumbles with the release of friction. Geologists have found evidence of earthquakes in California that go back thousands of years, although the first strong, documented earthquake occurred in Los Angeles in 1769. A violent earthquake in the 7.9 range toppled trees and buildings around Fort Tejon - a mountainside Army base - in 1857. As severe as the quake was, the state was so sparsely populated...
...hour and fires raged for three days afterward, destroying 500 city blocks. In photos, 1906 San Francisco resembles a war zone; buildings are left half-standing, the streets are littered with debris, barely anything is recognizable. With an estimated 3,000 deaths, 1906 was the deadliest earthquake in California's history. Economists have even connected the following year's economic crash with the quake; millions of dollars went to rebuild the city, putting a strain on the money supply...
...California's fault zones can match the rest of the world's in terms of earthquake magnitude, but when it comes to human casualties, they barely register a blip. "They're practically nothing," says Richard Allen, an associate professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley. Part of the reason can be attributed to the U.S.'s superior earthquake preparation - California has strict building codes that are designed to prevent structures from collapse, and events like the Nov. 13 ShakeOut teach individuals what to do in an emergency. For the most part, though, the low death...
...closest California has come to an "urban" earthquake in recent decades was the 6.7 magnitude 1994 quake in Northridge, a suburb roughly 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Parking structures collapsed, overpasses fell down, 9,000 people were injured but only 57 people were killed. Again, most of the shaking occurred in the mountains...