Earthquake where I once lived

I lived in Ridgecrest, California for about 10 years.  It was a pretty neat little town; isolated from most of the troubles of large California cities by large areas of the Mojave desert.  The air was clean by California standards, crime was low, and the schools were pretty good.  People there were kind-hearted and generous.

Geological Cataclysms - The Cascadia Earthquake of 1700

This is another successful and impressive geological detective story.

The largest earthquakes in the world occur at subduction zones.  A subduction zone is where one continental plate is being pushed underneath another.  Only a subduction zone can generate an earthquake greater than magnitude 8.5 (a "great earthquake")