![]() ![]() County, and the majority move 1 millimeter or less annually, Shaw said.Īs faults slip, that energy is stored over time, Shaw said, adding that the accumulating strain is waiting to rupture and eventually is unleashed in the form of earthquakes.Ĭalifornia How earthquakes happen: The science of a shakeīefore we can prepare for the Big One, we have to know what “one” is. More than 50 active faults run under L.A. The study, published by the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, also found the Palos Verdes fault slips at a much faster rate than most active fracture zones in Los Angeles County, moving 1 to 6 millimeters a year. and Long Beach and along the Los Angeles and Orange county coasts. The new study, however, suggests the system is connected, stretching 68 miles and running under southwestern Los Angeles County and the ports of L.A. “This seemed like a structure that wasn’t going to rupture in one big earthquake.” “Historically, this fault has been seen as a segmented fault - lots of little pieces,” Shaw said. Oil studies can be helpful to earthquake scientists because they offer insights into how the Earth looks below the surface, where earthquake faults lie. ![]() Wolfe and Andreas Plesch pieced together previous studies as well as information from petroleum companies’ drilling and ground sensors, which Shaw and his colleagues used to create a new model of the fault zone. Scientists had previously been able to study only portions of the Palos Verdes fault system, which runs mostly underwater. James Dolan, an Earth sciences professor at USC who reviewed the Harvard report, said the study is “by far the most detailed look we’ve had of the internal structure and connectivity of the Palos Verdes fault system.” ![]() Earlier estimates said the fault zone could generate up to a magnitude 7.4 earthquake, but the new study shows it could produce a quake as strong as 7.8. Scientists found the fault could produce a quake of a magnitude comparable to one from the San Andreas fault. The analysis determined the fault system, which runs beneath numerous neighborhoods as well as the ports of Long Beach and L.A., has a much larger surface area that could rupture in the same seismic event, making it capable of a far more powerful quake than was previously known. It previously was thought to be a segmented network of smaller faults, but a closer look by scientists at Harvard University suggests it’s a system of interconnected, closely spaced planar fractures stretching from the Santa Monica Bay to the waters off Dana Point. Known as the Palos Verdes fault zone, the system runs deep beneath the Palos Verdes Peninsula. A fault system running nearly 70 miles along the coast of Los Angeles and Orange counties has the potential to trigger a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, according to a new study that is the latest to highlight the seismic threats facing Southern California. ![]()
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