Final answer:
Earthquakes cause the most extreme damage along transform fault lines, such as the San Andreas Fault, due to the horizontal sliding motion of tectonic plates. Deep earthquakes occur at subduction zones with increasing depth from coast to inland.
Step-by-step explanation:
An earthquake would most likely cause extreme damage along a transform fault line, such as the San Andreas Fault in California. This type of fault lies at the boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American plate, where the two plates slide past each other horizontally. When stress is released during an earthquake at such a transform boundary, it can cause significant destruction, especially in densely populated areas. Deep earthquakes are typically associated with subduction zones, where one tectonic plate plunges beneath another into the Earth's mantle. The pattern in earthquake depth from the coast to inland at subduction zones shows that as you move from the coastal areas towards inland, the depth of the earthquakes increases because the subducting slab descends deeper into the mantle.