I love experiencing earthquakes in SoCal, where I grew up and where many precautions are in place for large magnitude quakes. Out here in Albuquerque along the Rio Grande Rift we get occasional quakes that can be felt. But not with the frequency and magnitude of SoCal.

By and large, as I see it most earthquakes aren’t natural disasters – hear me out – because most deaths are the result of poorly engineered buildings. In SoCal most buildings in the last half century were designed to withstand tremors. Where I grew up in Orange County my family and my friends’ families took extra precautions, like securing tall shelves to the wall. Even highways and freeways are engineered with earthquakes in mind. And huge shopping malls, too, like South Coast Plaza.

The 1994 Northridge Quake was the last deadly quake in SoCal and less than 100 people died in an area with a population (at the time) hovering around 10 million. These deaths are attributed to structure failures, the most spectacular being a flyover interchange onto the Antelope Valley Freeway. A CHP officer fell to his death when that very tall structure failed. The low number of deaths in a huge population is directly resultant of well-engineered buildings.

There are those horrible instances where triggered tsunamis kill sometimes hundreds of thousands of people. That is a natural disaster. Triggered landslides can also kill people and that is also a natural disaster.

But I contend an under-engineered building failing is a man made disaster and not a natural disaster. Like the 1985 and 1986 Mexico City quakes. Poorly designed buildings built on unconsolidated lacustrine (lake) sediments collapsed thousands of buildings resulting in thousands of deaths.

This might be splitting hairs or semantics to some. All I’m doing is setting up the permission structure where I can say “When I lived in SoCal I loved experiencing earthquakes” because without variance someone will call me a monster. How could I love something that kills so many people?

Where I grew up (a few miles from the Pacific Ocean at an elevation of less than 100 feet above sea level), the threat of death from structure collapse or tsunami, or even liquefaction, is historically and statistically negligible. The chances of dying during an earthquake is almost none. So I just got to enjoy the earthquakes and the rumbling ride. Geology in action. Wheeeeeee!!!!!!