Earthquakes, unlike other natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods, strike without warning. Day or night,

suddenly the ground begins to heave and roll. Objects on shelves tremble and crash to the ground. Buildings collapse. Then suddenly, usually less than a minute later, the shaking stops. Some areas are destroyed, while others seem untouched. Thousands are killed or injured, and thousands more become homeless. In one moment, their world changes forever.

But preparing for earthquakes is tricky at best, and sometimes futile. Most people tend to regard earthquakes as a remote danger that will likely never threaten them. Most people choose to ignore the threat, since it seems so unlikely that the power of a quake will touch their own lives. They will deal with it, they reason, if they are faced with it.

Yet the effects of an earthquake can be fast and deadly, unlike any...