MULTIMEDIA

A major earthquake somewhere in California is virtually a certainty in the next 30 years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Some of the most hazardous regions of the state are also the most populated, including Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. A major quake in one of these areas is guaranteed to be a disaster that will take many lives.

The United States has already had several deadly earthquakes. Over the past 140 years, major quakes have struck Alaska, Hawaii, California and even South Carolina and killed at least 60, but in some cases hundreds of people. The country's most famous earthquake killed 3,000 or more people in San Francisco in 1906. But geologists estimate the next big one to hit the Bay Area would surely make this list of the 10 deadliest in the country's history.

Left: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake measured a magnitude 7.9 and ruptured 300 miles of the San Andreas Fault, which slipped as much as 20 feet in some places. Historians estimate that more than 3,000 people died in the quake and the ensuing fire, making it the deadliest earthquake in U.S. history. This photo, taken several months after the earthquake, shows the devastation, including the ruins of City Hall.

Photo: Theodore Kytka