A while back there was another article here on HN that discussed the San Andreas Fault and one of the pictures showed how far a building can shift when the earth moves. I think it said the building moved something like 30 feet laterally from where it originally was. I thought that was crazy.
I didn't even think about the possibility of the earth suddenly sinking several feet below the ocean in a moments notice. That would be catastrophic!
pulvinar · 8h ago
The 1964 Alaska earthquake was probably just a preview.
My impression was that any such quake would also cause a massive tsunami. Which would (temporarily) immerse far more land than a mere 6' drop in elevation could. While converting any human-made stuff on that low-elevation land into widely-scattered rubble.
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/education/geologicmaps/liquefact...
https://pnsn.org/outreach/hazard-maps-and-scenarios/eq-hazar...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake