The earthquake that will destroy Toronto - Part 5

Up the road, the local Hamilton Maffie boss was having a house-warming party.  He had managed to combine every ethnic mafia in the country.  His giant mansion confirmed that, with every style jammed into the place.  He had a nice estate on the drained Hamilton sag pond, and the house was 3 stories.  He put his Italian stone lions on tall pedestals in the living room.  He was especially proud of the very heavy clay tiles for his roof.  That, and the super-monster waterbed on the top floor.  The engineer had complained, so he had him killed.  As the waves reached him, there was a slight tinkling of the champagne glass fountain, and then all Hell broke loose.  **

The fault ruptured for a distance of 30 km up the Hamilton Fault, making it a Magnitude 7.  Those on the firm ground north of the 'magic line', as drawn by the old crank, had ten times less PGV than those to the south.  Toronto was divided into North and South.  The North only had drywall damage.

The fault rupture was so fast, it was over in 10 seconds, unlike California faults which might take 30 seconds or more.  As such, it delivered a clean velocity pulse, but what a pulse it was!  The engineers had only designed for a California sinusoidal rumble, and never imagined what a pulse could do.

South of the line, right at the shore, Luxo Luxury Condos had a magnificent 40 story building, all glass, with glass balconies, and glass walls.  Nobody had curtains, and they never threw stones.  Mr. Luxo had it built by a design-build company.  He said to them.  Push the building codes until they scream, I want something good and to hell with that crazy guy.  They pushed and pushed so that nothing was a blatant violation.  After all, their engineers were money-crazy, and a lot smarter than inspectors.

He wanted an entire shopping mall on the first floor, and parking for thousands of cars.  As well, he had to please the local mayor with an outstanding design.  They put in so many disjointed floors, and curvy offsets that it looked like demented Hula Dancer from an Escher drawing.  As well as a giant transfer slab, on top of thin walls.  Everybody loved it.  Mr. Luxo was on the top floor beside his Olympic-sized pool when the waves hit.  **

--to be continued.  I'm in a manic phase.  I'm stopping now.