4 Northern California Faults Primed For Big Quakes

[Purveyor]

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Three fault segments running beneath Northern California and its roughly 15 million people are overdue for a major earthquake, including one section that lies near the dams and canals that supply much of the state's water, according to a geological study published Monday.

The three fault segments and one other in the region are loaded with enough tension to produce quakes of magnitude 6.8 or greater, according to a geological study published Monday.

They include the little-known Green Valley fault, which lies near key dams and aqueducts northeast of San Francisco. Underestimated by geologists until now, the fault running between the cities of Napa and Fairfield is primed for a magnitude-7.1 quake, according to researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and San Francisco State University.

The water supplies of the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California and the farm-rich Central Valley depend on the man-made water system that links to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, noted James Lienkaemper, the U.S. Geological Survey geologist who was lead author of the study. The Green Valley fault is last believed to have ruptured sometime in the 1600s.

The study shows the state "needs to consider more seriously" the earthquake risk in that area, Lienkaemper said by phone.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_QUAKE_THREAT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-13-17-49-33

[NYC_SKP]

1. Frankly, those water projects were unnatural attacks on the planet.

And nature will eventually reject them like foreign bodies, which is what they are.

We're living on borrowed time.

[Politicalboi]

2. Oct 17th 1989

Last big one in SF. I didn't live there, but watched it on the boob tube. Earthquakes are like climate change. Both ignored till it's too late.

[oldandhappy]

3. I suspect we will care about it after it happens. Sob.

[JayhawkSD]

4. This is not news.

I'm not sure why the media is writing this as if it was some sort of revelation. All of the Northern California faults are at least 100 years "overdue" for a major stress relief, and some of them are 1000 years past due. This has been known for several decades.

[Purveyor]

5. I see nothing wrong with 'bringing it up' again. People get complacent and

need reminders on occasion to 'be prepared'.