On Friday, around 11:11 p.m. local time, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake exploded through the High Atlas mountains in Morocco, not far from the populous city of Marrakesh. People as far away as Spain and Portugal felt a strange vibration ripple beneath their feet. But millions in Morocco felt the planet shake and splinter, jolt and disintegrate, before thousands of the most unfortunate were greeted by tectonic rage. At least 2,100 people are dead, and that number is expected to rise. According to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center, an NGO, several aftershocks convulsed through the area earlier today. Every tragedy leaves behind its own idiosyncratic scars, both physical and psychological. But there is something uniquely nightmarish about major earthquakes that strike under or close to villages, towns, and cities. They are murderous ambushes operating on gargantuan scales, beginning and ending with unforgiving and unparalleled efficiency—characteristics that make the terror they incite arguably unmatched by any other geologically or environmentally triggered disaster. Tragedies born of geologic forces can be simultaneously extreme and swift. Volcanic eruptions can produce rivers …