Geological considerations to identifying physically safe places for human habitation are:
The strength of underlying geology
Faults in earths crust that can potentially cause earthquakes
The steepness of hillsides
What is geology?
It is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time.
Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth sciences, including hydrology and the atmospheric sciences, and so is treated as one major aspect of integrated Earth system science and planetary science.
Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface, and the processes that have shaped that structure.
It also provides tools to determine the relative and absolute ages of rocks found in a given location, and also to describe the histories of those rocks.
Geology provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and the Earth's past climates.
