51.   Iran is situated on several fault lines, and earthquakes are common.

52.   It was a friend calling to inform me that there had been an earthquake in my hometown.

53.   John grew up in Southern California, and he assured me the earthquake was over, that Candlestick Park was not about to fall into the bay.

54.   Mason noted that earthquakes were very rare in the region and that mining explosions were illegal at night.

55.   Minor earthquakes are commonplace, major traffic jams more so.

56.   Most earthquakes are little more than light showers, but some are like raging hurricanes tearing up everything in their paths.

57.   Naysayers and conspiracy theorists insisted that there was no earthquake at all, just a massive cover-up for a gas explosion or an industrial accident or probably something worse.

58.   No matter who wins the intellectual battle, experts agree that deep earthquakes are a general expression of plate tectonics.

59.   No Cypress Freeway collapse or San Francisco Marina district fire has taken place in the Northwest to change the perception that earthquakes are not an imminent hazard.

60.   Outsiders often fear the worst from Japan, and the much-predicted Tokyo earthquake is no exception.