With its coastal bluffs, roller-coaster hills and soggy weather, Seattle is primed for landslides even when the ground isn’t shaking.
Jolt the city with a major earthquake, and a new study from the University of Washington suggests many more slopes could collapse than previously estimated.
A powerful earthquake on the fault that slices under the city’s heart could trigger more than 30,000 landslides if it strikes when the ground is saturated, the analysis finds.
More than 10,000 buildings, many of them upscale homes with water views, sit in areas at high risk of landslide damage in such a worst-case scenario.
Source: Seattle Times