If an earthquake opens up underneath you how deep into the Earth will you fall?

Question

I've heard it's rare for an earthquake to open underneath you but how deep would you fall if it does happen?

Answer 1

Openings develop when the earth quake occurs on a graben fault, where a large block drops downward, or a normal fault where two plates pull apart from each other. In a graben fault, you would drop the same distance as the block that sunk - usually less than a few meters. In a normal fault, it depends on how far the plates move from each other, and whether the fault is deep or hear the surface. You can only fall into a crack when a fault is near the surface, or when deep faults move a huge distance - which only occurs at earthquake magnitudes around 9 or greater. The depth of the cracks where they are big enough for a person to fall into are generally not very deep, but they can be on the order of 10 meters or more.

One of the biggest cracks in recent history occurred in Alaska in 1964. Some pictures are at this link:

Answer 2

Completely depends on how deep the fracture is to begin with. Some are deep, some just offset the land a little.

Answer 3

deep enough for you to die , not deep enough for you to reach the magma

Answer 4

Does it matter how fall you go down, your probably dead anyway.

Answer 5

down the core