Personal anecdote: I grew up in Seattle, and I was terrified of earthquakes for my whole childhood. Every time my apartment building would sway at night it wou

Personal anecdote: I grew up in Seattle, and I was terrified of earthquakes for my whole childhood. Every time my apartment building would sway at night it would jolt me out of my sleep in a cold sweat. I did a few semesters at a design school on the waterfront that was built on top of a landfill which is predicted to liquify during a large earthquake and swallow the first 1-2 floors of the structures there. One day, while walking to class, I stopped to talk to a construction crew fixing cracks in the viaduct and they told me the entire waterfront sinks approximately 1 inch every year and requires constant repair to the infrastructure there. I've since moved to the atlantic coast and plan to avoid the pacific rim for the rest of my life. :)