California, USA: Awaiting the 'Big One'

The results of the study contradicted those of previous researches which claimed that the particular section of the southern San Andreas fault through the Carrizo Plain, will remain dormant for at least 100 years. 

San Francisco's old City Hall was devastated in the 1906 earthquake.
Photo courtesy of the California Historical Society.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: UBAlerts | Natural Disasters
By jhayzee27 | October 14, 2010

LOS ANGELES -- A group of U.S. researchers announced on Sunday that a massive quake, dubbed as the 'Big One,' could hit parts of Southern California anytime.

According to the researchers at the University of California in Irvine and Arizona State University, the 340 mile southern section of the San Andreas fault, which extends from Monterey County to the Salton Sea, is long overdue to produce a major tremor.

The researchers said the fault could slip at anytime and cause a magnitude 8.1 quake.

It would be more powerful and longer than the last major earthquake in 1857.


The results of the study contradicted those of previous researches which claimed that the particular section of the southern San Andreas fault through the Carrizo Plain, will remain dormant for at least 100 years.

Lisa Grant Ludwig of UC Irvine, co-author of the study said that an earthquake in the southern section of the fault is not assured, but it is a possibility that must be considered. U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones stated that it was possible that the whole southern San Andreas fault could rupture.

Meanwhile, Thomas Jordan, the director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, calculated that such scenario could generate a magnitude-8.1 quake.

  -- Posted by jhayzee27


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