Hi BW:

That sure is a lot of jello!

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A basin of soft sediment beneath the San Gabriel Valley is about 3 miles deep — 1 ˝ times deeper than the previous estimate. That could lead to more surface shaking during a temblor, according to a study appearing in January’s issue of Geology, the journal of the Geological Society of America.
Such basins shake “like big bowls of Jell-O,” said Gary Fuis, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park who was the study’s lead author.
“The potential damage threat is greater because we’ve found that the basin is deeper,” Fuis said.
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This reminds of a show I saw on the Mexico sity earthquake where a person said that the building designs should approximate the design of an ocean liner (i.e. stable in fluid). This is because the whole area would liquify during a big shaker and all the high center of mass buildinds would be more likley to fall than the lower CG buildings.

Based on the report above I would have great misgivings about working in a high rise building in southern california.

.02