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It's not the earthquake that kills you, unless you're at the epicentre, but even then you might not get killed. Overall though, it's the collapsing buildings that would kill you. This is wher earthquake-resistant buildings come in handy. They use special metal gurders or other techniques which hold the buildings in place. The buildings can still sway, but they won't completely topple over. For example, the Transamerica Pyramid Building in San francisco (see above), swayed over a foot to either side during the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake.
But making a building earthquake-proof costs a lot of money, roughly £500,000 per cubid foot. So if i were you, think before you spend.
