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So my theory as to how the shattered plains shattered comes from reading Elantris and thinking about similarities between shardworlds and magic systems. We know that at least three shards have been splintered by Odium. Dominion and Devotion on Sel and Honor on Roshar. On both planets that Odium killed a Shardholder there was a devastating earthquake that broke the land. Sel presumably works like a regular planet and therefore has plate tectonics and fault lines so when one of the Shards was splintered it caused the land to break down a fault line leading to the rift in the middle of the southern continent. Roshar has land that is built up over time by crem deposits and worn down over time by the storms and therefore a massive energy burst might radiate out in a cymatic pattern like the shattered plains. It was not Ahairaitiem (I've no idea how to spell it with the Coppermind down) that shattered the land around Stormseat (btw if the storms come from Honor wouldn't Honor's home be at Stormseat) but the splintering of Honor. There were many desolations and there are no other places on Roshar with Cymatic lines nearly as obvious as the Shattered plains although many of the cities have cymatic patterns in their geography. On Sel the massive chasm that opened suddenly that shook an entire continent may have been caused by the splintering of Devotion or Dominion. It is a possible solution and I don't think we have enough information to know for sure but it is a possible explanation that elastically fits the evidence. As for why this didn't happen at the death of Ruin or preservation I have an idea. It's possible that it only happens when a shard is splintered and not when a shardholder dies, although the Scadrial was shaking badly already at the point of Vin's and Ruin's death and when Preservation died he was very weak and had given most of his power away.