Backwards in thinking is the right idea. Suppose that earthquakes are a necessary and not unpleasant phenomena. It is after all only poor insight that kills not the powerful quakes. The planet does not design mud huts and negligent highrises does it? We need snow in winter and sun in summer.

Perhaps we need these quakes? Perhaps they are intimately connected to the water cycle they are unmistakeably the cause of water courses.

What causes limestone caves and the elabourate systems in out aquifers? Water? Hardly. Water dissolving limestone is limited in ordinary circumstances. However it becomes a good solvent in seismic areas. And the limestone deposition act as seals to aquifers. Left to itself a limestone layer would be impenetrable.

Then there is the land building that takes place with the upheaval caused by massive eruptions. The seas around Pinatubo for instance would have clogged had channels been left to themselves.

We don't seek to control the tides do we? Neither should we fear quakes. We should be bending every sinew to get at a cause and effect programme.

One day such eventsd will be tourist attraction. Not a threat.