San Andreas fault 'locked, loaded and ready to roll' with big earthquake, expert says

[Eugene]

Source: Los Angeles Times

San Andreas fault 'locked, loaded and ready to roll' with big earthquake, expert says

By Rong-Gong Lin II
MAY 4, 2016, 5:40 PM

Southern California’s section of the San Andreas fault is “locked, loaded and ready to roll,” a leading earthquake scientist said Wednesday at the National Earthquake Conference in Long Beach.

The San Andreas fault is one of California’s most dangerous, and is the state’s longest fault. Yet for Southern California, the last big earthquake to strike the southern San Andreas was in 1857, when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake ruptured an astonishing 185 miles between Monterey County and the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles.

It has been quiet since then — too quiet, said Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center.

“The springs on the San Andreas system have been wound very, very tight. And the southern San Andreas fault, in particular, looks like it’s locked, loaded and ready to go,” Jordan said in the opening keynote talk.

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Here’s the problem: Scientists have observed that based on the movement of tectonic plates, with the Pacific plate moving northwest of the North American plate, earthquakes should be relieving about 16 feet of accumulated plate movement every 100 years. Yet the San Andreas has not relieved stress that has been building up for more than a century.

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-andreas-fault-earthquake-20160504-story.html

[AuntPatsy]

1. Perhaps the plate is spreading slowly in both directions barely traceable, scary....

[Flying Squirrel]

2. Here's a crazy idea...

Why not use fracking technology to start a mimi-quake every 10 years to relieve pressure (after the next big one hits)? Bonus: Everyone gets a warning that a quake is about to happen!

[DetlefK]

3. I doubt that fracking-earthquakes go deep enough.

But there was a guy in "Superman I" who had an interesting idea...

[DetlefK]

4. That, plus the massive volcanic eruption that is overdue for the Yellowstone-park.

[BadgerKid]

5. Well, many things are "overdue"

depending on where you look. The next "big one" along the New Madrid fault, the next ice age, a major stock market correction, etc. I would say that hurricane Katrina was one that has come to pass.

[NickB79]

6. "A bad case of geological blue balls" is how I heard it stated on the radio the other day