Lushan, where the quake struck, is home to 1.5 million people where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau.
Lushan, where the quake struck, lies where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau and sits atop the Longmenshan fault.
That cold current is the reason why Peru's coastal plain is a desert (whose soil can be made fertile when irrigated by the waters of rivers rushing down from the Andes).