By which I mean what is the actual cause of death for most people killed by earthquakes? I was reading a list of the 10 deadliest earthquakes ever and a number happened hundreds or even over a 1,000 years ago. This would be in a time where I presume people would have been less likely to live in large buildings and get buried under rubble. So how exactly were they killed?
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Humans learn something from every failure so every year we get better and better at building safer structures. We also put what we learned from previous failures into building codes which make it so that all new buildings must be built to those standards. There are so many (often imperceptible) differences in how we build now than how we used to that you would be infinitely safer in a modern skyscraper than in an old brick house. Also, fun fact: unreinforced masonry (old timey brick) is *the* most dangerous type of structure you can be in during an earthquake.
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