For someone who has lived through a massive earthquake (as I did in Taiwan in 1989), the disturbing thing, even for someone who has lived in earthquake zones for years, is the aftershocks. They build up to a doubt about whether the earth can ever be counted on to lie still. Now after more than a decade of living somewhere where earthquakes are unknown, I largely am back to counting on the earth beneath my feet to lie still. (The danger here, and it is a considerable danger, is slipping and falling on ice. That paralyzed my dad for the last six years of his life.) The earthquake news from Japan brings back a lot of memories from the Ring of Fire. Many people there will be wondering over the next few weeks if the term "solid ground" has any meaning at all.
I've felt a distant earthquake once, in <i>Michigan</i> (not exactly an earthquake zone) - it was deeply unnerving, particularly in an office on the fifth floor of an old factory building. I can't imagine being trapped amidst suddenly collapsing buildings, or knowing that it could potentially happen any time. I hope the worst is over and people have reconnecting with their families by now.<p>Also, I don't want to trivialize what the Japanese are going through, but why does Japan move in metric while the Earth moves in imperial units? Sheesh.
somewhere in Japan, someone has hardcoded GPS locations into their autonomous dishwashing robot, and is now wondering why it can't find the sink...<p>(btw, another version of the story with citations, attributed quotes is here: <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthq...</a>)
The power of the northridge earthquake was indescribable. To think that this quake in Japan was more powerful blows me away. During the northridge quake, it literally felt like the entire world was coming to an end.
The U.S. military is planning an excursion and training exercise later this year on the Madrid Fault. My company is planning on demoing some new tech there. <a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2003/fs017-03/images/madrid.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2003/fs017-03/images/madrid.jpg</a>.<p>Last time it hit, the bells range in Massachusetts around 1890. If one were to hit today expected loss of life is in the 1000's. They would expect a total loss of infrastructure for stuff that has been built over 100 years ago. They have no earthquake building codes so imagine something that would destroy buildings just like the one did in Japan. Happily only several hundred were lost compared to what is expect of the Madrid fault.
I live in Florida, and I'll take the risk of hurricanes and tornadoes any day over earthquakes. Just the sudden and unavoidable nature of earthquakes makes them seem orders of magnitude worse to me.