"A really big earthquake might crack this thing so we could escape!"

But fires, riots and earthquakes crack that illusion of control.

The earthquake had cracked the control-room building in half.

The earthquake of August 1886 threw the lens of the main light out of position and cracked the tower extensively in two places, but not so as to endanger its stability.

"That earthquake must have cracked it all to pieces, sir."

Apparently an earthquake had cracked these apart, making a fissured passage-way without disturbing the sandstone bench.

The coking ovens pretty much exploded, and the furnaces did too after the earthquake cracked them.

The earthquake cracked the runway at the airport in Yogyakarta, forcing it to be closed, but it was not clear how that would affect relief efforts.

As earthquakes can crack the foundation of fragile buildings, widely publicized acts of violence sometimes shatter the psychological stability of people who are lonely, depressed and feel powerless.

This had to be a man of deep faith, with the sort of core convictions that an earthquake couldn't budge or crack.