Damage caused in California http://www.fema.gov/library/eq_usa.htm
Valley fever occured in Ventura county following the Northridge earthquake. This was caused by dust generated by
landslides caused by the earthquake. Much destruction in SanFrancisco has been caused by fires and liquification.
The San Andreas fault is one of the most active areas for earthquakes in California and has seen much damage.
The Road to Earthquake Safety
Preparing buildings for earthquakes can be a tedious process. First of all, building components must be secured and a strong and flexible structure must be constructed. Estimating what earthquakes of what size are likely to occur can be done in different ways. Using communities to apply knowledge of building codes, retrofitting programs, hazard hunts, and neighborhood and emergency plans are several ways to do this. Standards are instituted through the establishment of Building Codes, which regulate the design and construction of buildings. Hazard maps (how building codes are drafted) are constructed by examining
the frequency of shaking, the distance from the fault, the earthquake history of the region, and the expected shaking intensity.
Difference in Building Structures: wysiwyg://56/http://www.eas.slu.edu/Peopl...IntroQuakes/Notes/earthquake_effects.html
When the ground shakes, buildings respond to the accelerations transmitted from the ground. The type and frequency of shaking depends on the structure. Tall buildings tend to amplify the motions of longer periods and also tend to shake longer. A rule to measure this is called the period of resonance-it is about equal to 0.1 times the number of stories in the structure.
