A SINGLE earthquake could kill a million people within the next century.
Seismologist Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado at Boulder says 40 big cities, with populations of over 2 million people, lie within 200 kilometres of a plate boundary or major quake zone, including Istanbul, Mexico City and Jakarta.
While the risk of an earthquake is no higher now than in the past, urban sprawl puts more people at risk, he warned last week, particularly in developing countries where shoddily built homes are more likely to collapse. The death toll could reach 30 per cent, he says, citing…
