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The far-reaching movement of seismic waves extends the impact
of earthquakes well beyond
their epicenters. After the ocean Cocos plate slipped under the North
American plate in September 1985, seismic waves raced toward Mexico City,
220 miles east. Those waves were amplified by the soft sediments of an
ancient lake bed on which the city is built. With its base wiggling like
Jell-O, parts of the city toppled. The official death toll was 5,500,
but many observers believe that more than 10,000 died.
Deadliest
in the U.S., the 1906 quake that rocked San Francisco killed
some 3,000 people. When interplate stresses caused three massive temblors
beneath frontier Missouri in 1811-12, their power was felt from Quebec
to Louisiana, and one briefly backed up the Mississippi River. Submarine
quakes can send tsunamis thousands
of miles. Towering sea waves from a 1960 Chilean quake–at magnitude
9.5 the strongest ever recorded–killed 61 people in Hawaii and hundreds
more on the Pacific Rim.
Tsunami
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Illustrations
courtesy of The National Geographical Society –
illustrations created by Rob Woods of Woods Ronsaville Harlin, Inc.
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