How many people would die if a 8 magnitude EQ hit los angeles?
 

Seems to me that the 10,000 now suspected dead in china is just a sign of cheap housing/building standards in that country.

How many would you expect to die if a earthquake hit just outside of the LA area in the 8 magnitude?

Maybe the Olympics should have a new rule.....like only taking place in countries who's infrastructure is up to par with 1970's safety regulations. :2 cents:

it depends where the epicenter is. i watched a show on discovery about this very subject and the death toll if centered in the wrong place could be astronomical.

depends if it knocks the whole island off into the ocean...the only survivors of that would be th 12 people wearing life jackets at that exact time

Depends on where and what time it hits. The quakes that we've been through were in the early mornings.

hopefully a lot of webmasters would die

more traffic for me ;]

exactly 203

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Hopefully everyone.

I was thinking the same thing.. Then I thought. look at 9/11.. What was it about 3 thousand people died there and look how long they had to get people out.

Think if a Earth quake hit and knocked over a few skyscrapers or condo's.. Could easily go up into the 10k range in the right situation. However it's very unlikely for that to happen here.

It's that exact reason why you always hear of 10's of thousands of people dying in natural disasters in third world countries. Simply because they tend to be over populated and have poor building standards.

Hell even with Katrina it was only 1,800 or so dead and that was a total fluke here in the US even given the areas affected were largely poor.

In short it's almost expected that 10's of thousands die in these kinds of events in 3rd world countries. It's their own govt's fault too. Granted China's economic boom has happened in a short time frame but still to this day they have crappy building standards.

Everything is all about doing it cheap for them.

I think it would be hard to estimate. Pretty sure in China the area it hit was older. Cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and HK would not have the same problems although they are very densely populated so who knows.

Beijing is definitely up to spec as far as building standards is concerned.

72 died in Northridge
67 died in Loma Prieta earthquake
Maybe 800 died in the 1906 quake in San Francisco, but a lot of them were shot as looters.