Hi, DoughtyOne,
Yes, you are correct on all counts. If you follow some of those links to some of the accounts of the time, well, suffice it to say that until very recently, some of those accounts were regarded as too fantastic to be true, but modern research has proven that in fact many were quite accurate.
One thing not well known is that these were a series of heavy earthquakes over a 2 month period - one paper* postulates 6-9 events of 7.0 or more, with one at 7.9, another @ 8.0, and another @ 8.1. At least 18 quakes were felt all the way to Washington, DC, or on the eastern seaboard. Many of these were long duration quakes, and they were in winter, to make it worse for the local inhabitants. I would speculate that only the best modern earthquake resistant buildings would survive such extended trauma without significant damage.
A good prayer would be that such a scenario does not occur in China — maybe someone more familiiar with the seismology of the affected area in China could weigh in on that?
*Link to the article: http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/compendium/enigma.pdf
Thanks for another good link Paul. I appreciate it.
If you get a chance, look at a space shot of the New Madrid fault region. You’ll note the plains there are very smooth, surrounded by Ozark Mountain. IMO, it’s a liquifaction ripe area.
Someone the other day linked me some photos of (I believe it was) limestone, sand or salt deposit blow holes. They were rings with blow holes at the center. That area is problematic, where it doesn’t have a solid base under it.